Importance of Organizational Structure and Culture: A Case Study of Tesco

Essay

The essay explains about the organization structure and the importance of these
structures. Also it will give a brief idea about different types of organization structures and the
advantages and disadvantages of the structures. This essay shed lights on the similarities and the
difference of these structures. There are different functions in the organizations that are very
important for any organization for their proper functioning. Also the essay provides a brief idea
about the culture within the organization and it impacts company positively. Tesco is a retail
company their main function is to sell and purchase and they deal with consumer goods ( About
Us, 2021).
There are many types of organizational structures such as hierarchical, functional and horizontal
or flat organizational structure.
Hierarchical organizational structure, these are those structures in which there is chain of
commands that flows through higher authorities to each employee and supervisors. Most of the
companies have these structures, the organizations such as Unilever is using these structure. The
advantage of this structure is that it transparently defines level of authority and responsibility.
This structure motivates employees with clear career paths and chances for promotions (Chen,
Chung and Chen, 2019). It gives clarity to each person to whom they would report and with
whom they will talk about specific project. The disadvantages of this organization structure is
that It can slow down the innovation and increases the bureaucracy. It can cause the staff to act
in interest of department instead of the organization. It can make the lower level employees to
feel inferior.
Functional organizational structure are similar to a hierarchical. In this employees are
organized according to their skills and their corresponding duty or function. The company like
Amazon is using this type of structure. The advantages of this structure are that it allows the
employees to focus only on their role (Understanding Organizational Structures, 2021). It
encourages specialization. This structure is easily scalable in any sized company. The
disadvantages of this structure are, it can create a gap within the organization (Krishnan and
et.al., 2021). It restricts the inter department communication. The strategies remain unclear to the
employees.

Flat organizational structure are useful for the company that have few levels between
management and staff. The start up business like Zego is using such structure. The advantages of
this structure gives employees more responsibilities. It enables more open communication. This
also improves the speed and coordination and speed of implementing new ideas (Stephenson,
2018). This type of structure also have some disadvantages as it so not have clear monitoring and
this can create confusion. It also restricts the knowledge growth of the employees. From such
structure, it creates difficulties in maintaining the task when company grows from start-up stage.
Comparison of organization Structure
Hierarchical and functional and flat structures are centralized structures. In which there is one
manger that is commanding to the lower levels in the company. In all these levels the
communication is very effective. In both hierarchical and functional structures, there is a
manager and employees the flow of information is through this chain only (Cagle, Yılmaz, and
Doğru, 2020). Both hierarchical and flat organizational structures help the employees to gain the
knowledge of different areas.
The flat and hierarchical organization structure connects employees directly or indirectly with
each other. The employees and whole staff is directly and horizontally connected in flat
organization structure and in hierarchical the employees are connected in both directly and
indirectly with each other.
Hierarchical organizational structures and functional structures have many layers. Due to which
there is a high involvement of managers and each employee does not have direct connection
higher authorities.
Contrast of organization Structure
Flat organization structure is different from the hierarchical and functional structure as flat
structure is one end of the spectrum in which the employees operate on the same level. Also like
in hierarchy and fictional structures, the employees are not assigned with the titles and job roles.