The Impact of Culture, Structure, and Design on Organizational Performance

This essay explores the impact of culture, structure, and design on the performance of organizations, using Marks and Spencer as a case study. It discusses different organizational structures and cultural models, such as Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model and Handy's culture theory.

Introducing the Modern
Workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Structure and Culture of Marks and Spencer-..............................................................................1
Analyse how culture, structure and design are contributing the the organisational performance
......................................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Organizational Structure refers to the hierarchy which is followed in the organizations of
the different types of positions (Král and Králová, 2016). Organizational Culture means the way
people behave in a particular organization and the different factors which influence their
behaviour. Organizational Performance refers to the evaluation of performance of a firm with the
use of appropriate techniques and methods. For this essay, Marks and Spencer has been
considered. It is a British Company which deals in clothing and other customer products. In this
essay, focus will be made on structure and culture of the organization, analysis of the impact of
these factors on performance. Additionally, relevant theories and models of organizational
design and culture will also be discussed as a part of this project.
MAIN BODY
Structure and Culture of Marks and Spencer-
Organizational structure is a network of hierarchical positions within an organization
which ensures that the flow of communication takes place in an appropriate manner. In business
environment, different organisation are following different structure which can help to follow the
orders and manage the all activities of organisation so workings can be done on right time and
attain the business goals. Different structures are matrix, flat, functional, divisional and network
structure. In hierarchical structure employees are grouped with every employee and having one
clear supervisor, in matrix structure people with similar skills are pooled for work assignment
where it is required to report more than one manager, in horizontal structure many level is
middle management are eliminated and in network structure relationship between top
management and managers can be created that can help to operate the business and increase the
organisational productivity (Peters and et. al., 2019). Marks and Spencer makes the use of a flat
organizational structure. There are different departments in the organization which can be
segregated effectively on the basis of this structure. These departments are Finance, HR,
Marketing, Sales etc. Thus in this way the organization is able to make sure that it is able to
create various types of hierarchical roles within the company. Therefore in this way the company
ensures that a proper way of communication is followed in an effective manner. This ensures that
the team members in the organization follow a proper chain of communication to communicate
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with each other. Thus it ensures that the problems and issues reach the top-level management
through proper route and the rectifying actions are taken as quickly as possible.
In the organizational structure of Marks and Spencer, the company ensures that flow of
information takes place appropriately. Thus the managers are able to derive a higher-level of
productivity, efficiency and effectiveness with the use of flat organizational structure.
Specialization is possible in this structure because there are specific roles which are given to the
people within the organization. Tasks are allocated according to the capability of a particular
person which ensures the deriving of optimum performance (Sharma, ed., 2019).
Organizational Culture refers to the way people in an organization behave depending
upon the diverse type of situations and circumstances (Elsbach and Stigliani, 2018).
Organizational culture of Marks and Spencer is positive in nature and encourages the employees
to stay motivated, dedicated and committed towards their particular goals and objectives. The
culture allows the workers to put forward their creative and innovative ideas and the managers
allow them to be a part of the decision-making process. The focus in the company is to provide
the products and services which can add value for the customers for the price which they pay for
them. Thus the managers of the organization are dedicated and committed towards providing
value to the customers by adopting specific approaches which helps them to achieve the
organizational objectives. For understanding about organisational culture and design Hofstede's
Cultural Dimensions Model has been used that covers six dimensions to analysing and
selecting the best organisational culture. Power Distance deals with the fact that all individual in
societies are not equal. This also define extent to which the less powerful members of institution
in a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally. In UK, a society believes that
inequalities between people should be minimised. Individualism is second culture that is the
degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members. In this society, people look
themselves firstly and their direct family only (Vollero and et. al., 2020). Where as in
collectivism societies people are belonging to a group that take care of them in exchange for
loyalty. The third culture is Masculinity that states that society is driven by achievement,
competition and success . In this, Feminine society is one where quality of life is the sign of
success and standing out from crowd is not admirable. The another culture is uncertainty
avoidance which is the way where society deals with the fact that the future can never be known.
In this society is able to avoid the future uncertainty that can help to reach near by goals and
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objectives. Long term and short term orientation describes how every society is required to
maintain the link with their own past while dealing with changes of present and future. This can
help to maintain the good relations with employees and employees so all workings can be done
and increase the organisational capabilities. The last dimension of Hofstede's Cultural model is
Indulgence that consider humanity which is the degree to which small children are socialised. In
this, people of organisation try to control their desires and impulses. If there is weak control then
called indulgence and having strong control is called Restraint (DeBode, Haggard and Haggard,
2019). From the above power distance and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimension model is
uses to run the business and maintain effective business design and culture for the purpose of
attaining the business goals. The focus in Marks and Spencer is to increase the expenditure of
R&D and Innovation. This allows the managers to identify the ways through which new goods
can be brought into the market. Therefore the company follows an innovation-driven approach
and expects its employees to be driven towards achieving creativity and innovation as well.
Handy's culture theory is another cultural theory that is covering role, power, person
and task culture for the purpose of running business accordingly and complete the work in
certain period of time. The Role culture is uses by top management in order to define the roles
and responsibilities of employees for performing a specific task. In this, manager is responsible
to identify skills and talent of employees who are working and then give the responsibilities to
work. The person culture is ineffective culture where person understand as owner of organization
and work accordingly. This type of people are not contributing in organisational activities and
focuses on themselves. The another culture is power culture that means in organisation only few
people have power and authority to analyse work and attain the business goals. As power is
given to management for completing task and attain the business goals in changing environment.
On the other side, task is very effective culture that should be use by organisation in order to
complete the task which are assigned by superiors and helps to maintain the good performance.
This can help to increase the working and improve the skills and working capabilities of
employees who are working in organisation. From these culture, Mark and Spencer is making the
use of Role culture which helps to increase the working and build good relations. In this,
managers of chosen organisation analyses the skills and abilities of working staff then assign the
role and responsibilities within organisation so all workings can be done and maintain the high
productivity. For instance, for increasing the sale it assign the role of marketing and sale to those
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employees who have good knowledge about market and convincing power that can be use to
influence people and increases the sales. Moreover, for reducing cost and increasing profitability
managers assign finance role which can help to involves all income and expenses that can be
reduce and high level of income can be generated effectively. Therefore, goals and objectives of
Mark and Spencer can be attained in certain period of time and maintain the high profitability
(Nasaireh, Abdullah and Obeidat, 2019).
Analyse how culture, structure and design are contributing the the organisational performance
In the past years it has been defined that organisation were not focusing on their structure,
culture and design as they worked with traditional method which has given less production and
profitability. As environment has been changed, technology and skills of people are also
changing where organisation wants to work in modern workplaces that can help them to improve
their performance and profitability in changing business environment. Now, companies wants to
expand their business by using the modern workplace and structure which is highly important to
run a business and increase the activities. Mark and Spencer has started its organisation from
small enterprises where it has adopted hierarchical structure and person culture which is good for
small organisation. In this organisation, employees are skilled and technical person who are well
updated from new technology and culture that can be help to improve their performance.
Therefore, management of such organisation played an important role who analysis the market
and improve their structure, culture and design for the purpose of becoming leading organisation
and attaining the business goals. With the modern time, the selected organisation is make the
uses network organisational structure and role culture which is relevant and effective for
business. In Role culture, management analysis the skills and characteristics of employees which
help to allocate the roles and responsibilities of employees in organisation and complete the task
in certain period of time. This also helps to improve the skills and experience of workers so they
can minimise the risk and perform well. By following the network structure, management
become able to build good relationships with employees so they can share their views and
business related information which can help to improve the organisational performance (Schein
and Schein, 2019). Moreover, by using new technology and design of organisation selling
activities and brand image of company has been improved which helped to get the competitive
advantages and objectives effectively. Therefore, it has concluded that culture structure and
design of organization are important element of organisation which are contributing towards
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organizational performance and productivity. Once goals are decided by superior authority then
role are allocated between employees so they can can work effectively and manage the good
performance by completing task in certain period of time and maintain high profitability (Howitt,
2019).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that for running a business and managing
modern workplace culture, structure and design are important for organization as it helps to
define what changes are needed to bring in organization and how it can be improve their
performance. Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model and Handy's culture theory used to defined
the culture and relation with societies in an enterprises which can help to perform their task and
manage the all activities effectively. The structure are matrix, flat, network, functional and other
are uses to run the business by creating good relation between employer and employees. This can
help to improve the business performance and profitability effectively.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Elsbach, K. D. and Stigliani, I., 2018. Design thinking and organizational culture: A review and
framework for future research. Journal of Management. 44(6). pp.2274-2306.
Král, P. and Králová, V., 2016. Approaches to changing organizational structure: The effect of
drivers and communication. Journal of Business Research. 69(11). pp.5169-5174.
Peters, H., and et. al., 2019. Introducing an assessment tool based on a full set of end-of-training
EPAs to capture the workplace performance of final-year medical students. BMC
medical education. 19(1). p.207.
Sharma, N. ed., 2019. Analyzing Workplace Deviance in Modern Organizations. IGI Global.
Howitt, D., 2019. Introduction to qualitative research methods in psychology: Putting theory
into practice. Pearson UK.
Vollero, A., and et. al., 2020. Hoftsede's cultural dimensions and corporate social responsibility
in online communication: Are they independent constructs?. Corporate Social
Responsibility and Environmental Management. 27(1). pp.53-64.
DeBode, J. D., Haggard, D. L. and Haggard, K. S., 2019. Economic freedom and Hofstede’s
cultural dimensions. International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior.
Schein, E. H. and Schein, P. A., 2019. The corporate culture survival guide. John Wiley & Sons.
Nasaireh, M. A., Abdullah, A. H. and Obeidat, K. A., 2019. The Relationship Between Cultural
Types According to Handy’s Model and Organizational Structure in Jordanian Public
Universities. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN BUSINESS
AND SOCIAL SCIENCES. 9(1). pp.973-985.
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