Skip to content

WA7. Organizational Structure and Change

Statement

Chapter 7 of the text discusses several kinds of organizational structure, including matrix, boundaryless, and learning. In a 400-500 word paper, answer the following questions:

  • What is one challenge of reporting to more than one manager in a matrix organization? What would be a benefit?
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of being employed by a boundaryless organization?
  • What is the main challenge of maintaining a learning organization environment? What is the greatest benefit?
  • Which kind of organization would you like to work for and why?

Answer

Introduction

Organizational structure is the way an organization arranges individual and team duties and work and coordinates them to achieve its goals. There are several types of organizational structures, including matrix, boundaryless, and learning organizations. Each structure has its advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of structure depends on the organization’s goals and culture (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010).

This text will answer each of the questions in the prompt by first defining the structure that the question refers to, and then answering the question.

What is one challenge of reporting to more than one manager in a matrix organization? What would be a benefit?

Matrix organizations mix the traditional functional structure (employees are grouped by their specialty, e.g., marketing, finance) with a project-based structure (employees are grouped by the project they are working on, e.g. Product 1 which includes all specializations that it needs); thus, each employee belongs to a functional (department) and a project team at the same time, and reports to both department and project managers (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010).

The challenge of reporting to more than one manager depends on the perspective. From an Employee’s perspective, this challenges the definition of who is boss, which may lead to confusion in loyalty and communications. From a manager’s perspective, this may create power conflicts, schedule conflicts, or simply miscommunication. From the organization’s perspective, this may require more collaboration between managers, that is, more time spent on coordination and communication (WPDesigns, 2023).

The benefits of reporting to one manager may include increased communication and cooperation between managers and employees as they belong to both functional and project teams. This may also provide quick responses to technical problems and customer demands as the focus is on the product or service provided (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010).

What are the advantages and disadvantages of being employed by a boundaryless organization?

Boundaryless organizations are organizations that are not limited by traditional boundaries, such as geographic, functional, or hierarchical; thus, they remove barriers between departments and between the organization and the external environment. Modular organizations (outsourcing non-essential parts to third-party suppliers), and strategic alliances (partnerships with other organizations -including competitors- to achieve common goals) are examples of boundaryless organizations (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010).

The advantages of boundaryless organizations on the employee may include increasing autonomy and engagement, and usually higher job satisfaction. On the organization, the advantages may include increased flexibility and responsiveness to changes in the environment, and the ability to leverage the expertise of external partners, suppliers, and customers to improve products and services (AIHR, n.d.).

The disadvantages of boundaryless organizations on the employee may include uncertainty and ambiguity of roles and responsibilities, increased complexity and difficulty in communications, and it challenges the traditional views of some employees about less freedom and formalized procedures. On the organization, the disadvantages may include increased overhead to bring external and internal procedures together, and some industries have strict regulations that may limit the ability to outsource some procedures (AIHR, n.d.).

What is the main challenge of maintaining a learning organization environment? What is the greatest benefit?

Learning organizations are organizations that continuously learn and adapt to changes in the environment. The experimenting, learning, and reflecting on what is learned is deeply intertwined with the organization’s culture and its employees. Adapting to experiences learned is the main character of these organizations (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010).

The main challenge of maintaining a learning organization is that results are not always successful; this makes it harder to take out wrong information once it spread out in the organization; also, it is easy for employees to lose focus on the main goals, and get lost in the endless possibilities that emerge from experimenting (Birt, 2023).

The greatest benefit of maintaining a learning organization is that it increases the organization’s agility and adaptability to changes in the environment. This is because the efforts invested in experimenting and exploring may lead to innovative solutions that put the organization ahead of the competition, or a smarter response to market disruptions (Birt, 2023).

Conclusion: Which kind of organization would you like to work for and why?

The text has explored all three types of organizational structure and their advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I would like to work for a learning organization. This is because I like searching for innovative solutions to problems and doing research-like work; I believe that constant learning on individual and organizational levels is important for solving problems; I also believe that working in a learning organization is a good boost for career development and personal growth. Nonetheless, all three structures have great benefits and some drawbacks, and the choice of structure should be based on research and extensive analysis and any change should occur according to rigorous planning and execution.

References

‌ ‌