Organizational Structure (Essay Sample)

Student’s Name  Professor’s Name   Course Number  Date     Organizational Structure  The structure of an organization determines its mode of operation and how administrative processes would be carried out. While there are several advantages and downsides attached to every structure of an organization, choosing what type of structure to be in place in an organization is not a one-size-fits-all approach. As a result, the need to critically observe and study what structure best works for a particular business as well as its workforce is therefore imperative. This paper examines the pros and cons of matrix and boundary-less organizational structure, and the cost to maintain a learning organization. In a matrix organization, the major challenge of reporting to more than one manager includes a high tendency of ambiguity and confusion among employees as they could find it difficult to apply diverse instructions emanating from different managers to solve the same problem (Indeed Editorial Team). However, as regards the benefit, more attention and focus is placed on specific products and each product or project manager are able to thrive productively in providing maximum excellent service delivery for each of the product they manage. In addition, the matrix organization structure also improves informal and formal communication and collaboration among various departments and managers within the firm.    However, the boundary-less organization—coined by the CEO of GE, Inc., Jack Welch—could pose certain advantages to employees in the following ways. First, because it involves the elimination of traditional barriers and bureaucracy, employees could make decisions on their own which could give room for creativity and boost productivity (Borad). Second, the absence of several barriers may improve time response to customer-related issues as employees can easily solve issues based on their discretion. On the other, a boundary-less organization may lead to inconsistency in the mode of operation of the firm as jobs would be handled differently based on individual personality. Additionally, since employees can make decisions on their own, hence, they might end up making some decisions that might be against the company’s growth in order to suit their individual personal interest, therefore leading to organizational retrogression.         Meanwhile, according to MBA Knowledge Base, organizational learning involves learning from a set of acquired knowledge, hence, the cost of maintaining its environment may include investing in human resource management, that is, empowering employees with needed skills, and giving them room for experimentation and testing. Whereas, its greatest benefit is that it allows the firm to thrive in terms of innovation and creativity, and also to learn from past experience giving the firm the scope ...