Understanding Contemporary Organizations: Ambrosia Case Study

This essay discusses Ambrosia organization’s overall design and its operation. It throws light on various theories explaining about the dimensions of the organizational structure and people management. It also talks about the marketing and financial practices of the company.

Running head: UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS
Understanding Contemporary Organizations
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1UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS
Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Ambrosia’s Contemporary Organizational Structure.................................................................2
Current Operations.................................................................................................................3
Contemporary people management practices............................................................................4
Marketing Practices....................................................................................................................4
Financial practices......................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

2UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS
Part 1
Introduction
Ambrosia is a highly successful national health company which manufactures as well
as distributes quality range of minerals, vitamins, body care products and nutritional
supplements. The company has its own head office as well as manufacturing units. It also
leases all other premises. In addition to this, the company has strong commitment to the
social and environmental responsibilities. The company has certified documents regarding
the usage of high quality organic products in the most ethical manner. However, the product
pricing strategy of the company is not aimed at being the cheapest; rather the high value
reliable products are fairly priced. The purpose of this essay is to discuss about Ambrosia
organization’s overall design and its operation. In addition to this, the essay throws light on
various theories explaining about the dimensions of the organizational structure and people
management.
Ambrosia’s Contemporary Organizational Structure
On discussing about organizational structures, it is important to mention about the
different type of designs. The organizational designs typically fall into two different
categories; the traditional design and the contemporary one. The traditional design is most
likely to include; functional structure, divisional structure and more simple structure. On the
other hand, the contemporary organizational structure includes; project structure, team
structure, matrix structure, learning organizational structure and the boundary less
organization. However, the Ambrosia Company is having an organizational structure, which
is contemporary in nature. This is because the contemporary organizational structure consists
of several team structures which are designed to make up organizational teams and groups.

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Each and every team member is instructed to work towards a common organizational goal
and objective (Wright and Kehoe 2011).
(Figure: Contemporary Organizational Design
Source: Armstrong, Brown and Reilly 2011)
Current Operations
The Ambrosia organization has different levels of organizational structure, where
more than one thousand staff members work by maintaining peace and harmony. Moreover,
half of the employees are women in all the levels of organization, which gives an idea that the
company believes in giving more opportunities to women rather than men. In addition to this,
the teams are led in the most effective and efficient way by their team leaders. The team
members get to learn various things while working within the organization. The company
motivates and encourages its staff members as well as employees by offering them with a
huge range of benefits (Grant 2016). The benefits typically include; higher than average
salaries, flexible time in order to accommodate a proper work life and personal life balance,
job shares and others. The remuneration of the employees also includes a share of the profit

4UNDERSTANDING CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONS
scheme as well as professional development. Therefore, it can be said that the organization
has no such boundaries and is more flexible towards its employees (Bolman and Deal 2017).
Contemporary people management practices
Moreover, managing the employees is the most crucial activity in almost all
managerial jobs. In any contemporary organizational structure, managing the people at
workplace is considered to be the most important element as there are a number of changes in
the external environment. However, Ambrosia organization has different lines of managers in
all organizational levels. The organizational leaders lead their teams in order to develop as
well as apply people management skills (Franco-Santos, Lucianetti and Bourne 2012). The
company has over one thousand diversified staff members, who are directed to achieve the
organizational goals and objectives.
In addition to this, the company also provides its employees and staff members with a
huge range of benefits and facilities. The company’s human resource management policies
and procedures are highly commendable and admirable (Bratton and Gold 2012). The
company has managed to provide its employees with a well balanced professional and
personal life. Moreover, Ambrosia Company provides its employees with a higher range of
salaries, flexible work time and job shares. Furthermore, the employees are also provided
with various facilities and bonuses, in order to manage and retain them in the contemporary
organizational structure (Grant 2016). These facilities include; employee remuneration,
incentives, profit share schemes, professional development and study assistance.
Marketing Practices
However, in any market setting, there exists tough competition. Competition is very
crucial for the overall improvement of the products as well as services. It is evident from the

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case study that the company spends huge on employee managing and retention procedure. It
also invests huge on the strong research and development group for ensuring safety and
security (Koh 2015). On the contrary, the company does not spend on marketing and
promotional activities. Ambrosia Company does not advertise their products directly through
television or print, radio or the social media. The information of the company and its products
are only available on Ambrosia’s official website.
It can be said that a promotional mix is very crucial and the company needs to
undertake several strategies of marketing as well as promoting its products and services. If
the consumers are not even aware of the company’s policies and products, they may end up
not purchasing their items (Felzensztein and Deans 2013). With the advent of digital media,
advertising and promoting any products or services have become very easy. The company
can easily adapt this strategy of promoting their products online to cater to the maximum
number of consumers (Fineman, Gabriel and Sims 2010). In addition to this, the company
can also post new things and update the consumers regarding their products and services.
Moreover, social media can also be used for promoting the company’s website. In this way,
Ambrosia will be able to get a number of followers, which in turn will prove beneficial for
their overall business (Hislop 2013).
Financial practices
Additionally, the financial practices of Ambrosia Company typically includes the
investments made on strong research and development groups, employee retention measures,
education groups, website updates, trainers and online advices of the products and services.
The company has a strong research and development team which has partnered with some
selected universities and research bodies (Bovee & Thill 2017). The organization also works
closely with the government bodies and licensed laboratories. In addition to this, the

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company is having an education group and invests a lot in training the health care
professionals, medical practitioners as well as pharmacy staff members. It also offers advices
related to healthcare, online and over the phone to its consumers and health care
professionals.
However, the company needs to start investing on marketing and promotional
activities as well, in order to lead the international markets. Only having an official website
will not help. Promotional activities must be carried out on a monthly basis. In addition to
this, the company can use the social media and update about their products and services.
Moreover, the company is also facing a pressure in the export business. However, this
pressure can be reduced if the company undertakes policies of expanding their business and
increase sales to support the staff members (Harper 2015).
Conclusion
It can be concluded that Ambrosia Company is one of the most successful health
companies which not only distributes high quality products, but also manufactures them. The
company sells high quality vitamins, nutritional supplements, body care products and
minerals. Ambrosia Company has over one thousand employees and staff members, where
majority of them are women. The employees work in all levels of organizations by
maintaining peace and harmony. The company has sound human resource management
policies and procedures which help in managing and retaining the maximum number of
employees. However, the company needs to focus more on its advertising and promotional
activities, in order to lead the international markets.

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References
Armstrong, M., Brown, D. and Reilly, P., 2011. Increasing the effectiveness of reward
management: an evidence-based approach. Employee Relations, 33(2), pp.106-120.
Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and
leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Bovee, C & Thill, J 2017, Business in action, Pearson Prentice-Hall, New York
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Felzensztein, C. and Deans, K.R., 2013. Marketing practices in wine clusters: insights from
Chile. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 28(4), pp.357-367.
Fineman, S., Gabriel, Y. and Sims, D., 2010. Organizing & organizations. Sage.
Franco-Santos, M., Lucianetti, L. and Bourne, M., 2012. Contemporary performance
measurement systems: A review of their consequences and a framework for
research. Management accounting research, 23(2), pp.79-119.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley &
Sons.
Harper, C., 2015. Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes. Routledge.
Hislop, D., 2013. Knowledge management in organizations: A critical introduction. Oxford
University Press.

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Koh, A.C., 2015. An Evaluation of the Current Export Marketing Practices of United States
Firms. In Proceedings of the 1989 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference (pp. 198-202). Springer, Cham.
Wright, P.M. and Kehoe, R.R., 2011. Human resource practices and organizational
commitment: A deeper examination. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 46(1), pp.6-
20.