Management and Organizations - Case Study on King Digital Entertainment Ltd

This report discusses the management and organizational structure of King Digital Entertainment Ltd, a video gaming company that offers various games for mobile devices. It also analyzes the impact of organizational culture and suggests modern management approaches for improving functionality. The report concludes with an analysis of two innovative strategic management objectives using a SWOT framework.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS
Management and Organizations
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
About the Organization:..................................................................................................................2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................3
Organizational Structure and Its Impact On Company’s Functionality:.........................................3
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................5
Modern Management Approach for Improving Functionality:.......................................................5
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................6
Analysis of Organizational Culture Based on Handy’s Cultural Framework:................................6
Task 5...............................................................................................................................................7
Analysis of Two Innovative Strategic Management Objectives:....................................................7
SWOT Analysis...............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
References:....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
The report is a discussion on management and organization in reference to King Digital
Entertainment Ltd commonly known as King (king.com 2018). The company designs close to
over 200 titles and franchises for games like Farm Heroes, Pet Rescue, Candy Crush and Bubble
Witch. The report commences with a brief introduction of the company and goes on to describe
how the organizational structure has impact on its functionality. There is also discussion about
modern management approach that King uses for improving its functionality. The report also
puts forward the cultural framework of Handy and the relevance it has on the organizational
culture. The report also portrays two strategic management objectives its analysis via the SWOT
framework.
Task 1
About the Organization:
King Digital Entertainment Ltd is a part of the video gaming industry that offers various
games for the mobile devices. The popular among them is the Candy Crush Saga. The other
games offered by the company include Pet Rescue, Farm Heroes and Bubble Witch (king.com
2018). The company designs games with a broader appeal that allows the people in playing for
the moment and then moving on and picking the games later on. Thus, games designed by the
company remains synchronized across the platforms thereby allowing the players in seamlessly
switching between the platforms and the devices and continuing their game from any devices and
any time. The games are free with essential social features embedded for enhancing the
experience of the players. The company also tries and builds passionate and unique culture based

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on the collaboration, respect and humility. King Digital Entertainment Limited tries to make the
games a part of the daily entertainment of the players (king.com 2018).
The company found in the year 2003 when it started as the developer of browser-based
video games. The company had Melvyn Morris as the chairperson with Riccardo Zacconi and
Toby Rowland as the co chairperson. The company generated revenue of $1.88 billion along
with a net income of $700 million (king.com 2018).
Task 2
Organizational Structure and Its Impact On Company’s Functionality:
Organizational structure helps in determining the manner in which the power, role and
responsibilities are controlled, assigned and coordinated along with determining the information
flow between various levels of the management (Robbins and Judge 2014).
The organizational structure of a video gaming industry like King comprises of
development and publishing. The development in the video gaming industry occurs in three
different stages through the involvement of three different parties. The first party involves the
developers who remain internal to the publishing organization. The second party represents those
developers like the programmers and the artists who lead to the creation of games. The third
party represents the involvement of the outside firms that create games for a platform requiring
licensing fee. The publishers represent the right holders of the games who are responsible for the
marketing of product launch. The industry also consists of other members like the community
managers and the PR directors (Tran and Tian 2013).

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Figure: Organizational Structure of King Digital Entertainment Ltd
Source: (Robbins and Judge 2014)
The organizational structure can influence the functionality of an organization by
following means:
1. The organizational structure facilitates work division as each of the supervisors have
specialized knowledge in his area of work
2. A proper organizational structure leads to easier communication between the various
departments thereby making the execution of work easier
3. An organizational structure leads to better performance of the employees by enabling
them to learn from their own experiences and the supervisors.

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Task 3
Modern Management Approach for Improving Functionality:
The modern management approach that King Digital Entertainment Ltd can adopt for
bringing about an improvement in its functionality lies is the contingency approach. Contingency
approach also referred as the situational approach refers to the management concept that states
that put forward that there is no single universally applicable management principles for the
managing organizations (Otley 2016). This is because different organizations faces different
situations and thereby requires the adoption of different ways of management. According to the
contingency approach, management has a situational nature and its technique is dependent on the
situational complexity. The contingency approach focuses on the instances of ‘if’ and ‘then’ of
management. The ‘if’ is the independent variable while the ‘then’ refers to the dependent
variable of management or it refers to the technique that needs adoption at that particular
situation. For instance, ‘if’ the workers have stronger physiological needs ‘then’ there lies the
necessity of adopting financial motivators and ‘if’ the need is of higher order ‘then’ there should
be adoption of non financial motivators. The contingency approach to management put forward
the fact that there exists no universal or best style of management principles. Management is
more situational and the actions taken by the management depends on environmental
circumstances. The adoption of the contingency approach helps an organization in understanding
complex organizations since the focus remains solely on the multivariate organizational nature.
The approach enables the organization to undergo operations under the environmental
conditions. The contingency approach instead of having specific solutions for solving problems
portrays a framework where each of the solution is dependent on environmental conditions. As

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per this approach, a same problem can have varied solutions at different periods while different
problems might have similar solutions at same time. The contingency approach provides insight
to the organizational adaptability towards both the internal and the external environment. In other
words, the approach tries to fit in the internal environment to the external.
Task 4
Analysis of Organizational Culture Based on Handy’s Cultural Framework:
According to Handy’s Cultural Framework, there exist four classes of culture that include
power culture, role culture, task culture and person culture (Yancura 2017). Each of the Handy’s
culture shoots from different presupposition about the human thought and learning, motivation
and the basis of influence and power.
Power Culture: Organizations with this type of culture believes in top down or
centralized influence and power.
Role Culture: Organizations with this culture represents the bureaucratic one and run by
the strict procedures, precise delineated power and narrow defined roles.
Task Culture: Organizations following this type of culture is based on small team and is
mostly solution and result oriented mostly marked by the adaptability, empowerment and
flexibility.
Person Culture: Organizations with this type of culture focuses mostly on individuals.
Such organizations are mostly people focused, value oriented and designed towards the meeting
of the self-actualization needs of the individuals.

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King Digital Entertainment Ltd follows a power culture that is responsible for the
ongoing success. Although organizations with this kind of culture responds quickly to the event
but depend heavily on people’s ability at centre for determining continued success. In this type of
culture, succession is a vital issue. At King, this type of culture makes the individuals rely
heavily on the individuals instead of the committees. Organizations with power culture judge
performance on results and appear abrasive and tough. Success often accompanied by the higher
turnover and the lower morale since the individuals’ fails or moves out of competitive
atmosphere(Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge 2016). Working in organizations with power
culture, employees needs to correctly anticipate the expectation from power holders and
accordingly perform. Anticipation and understanding the culture results in a satisfied and happy
organization that helps in breeding intense commitment towards the corporate goals. While
wrong anticipation leads to huge dissatisfaction that not only leads to employee turnover but also
leads to the lack of enthusiasm and effort.
Task 5
Analysis of Two Innovative Strategic Management Objectives:
The two innovative strategic management objectives of the company include:
1. Fostering Creativity through Risk Taking: The organization for streamlining operations should
lead to the reduction of the product errors and the elimination of the waste along with the
thorough analysis of procedures, processes and policies by the employees (Johnson et al. 2014).
Access to the workflow is measured using the tools that include the analysis of the root cause
and the process mapping.

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2. Maintenance of a Diverse Workforce: Long-term success of organization depends on the
robust planning of recruitment, hiring, interviewing and retaining the employees that King does
quite diligently (Mullins 2016). Development of the comprehensive program and by using the
innovative means like the social media the employers can easily reach to the potential employees
along with attracting new talent for solving complicated business issues.
SWOT Analysis:
Strength
1. King represents a market leader and has a
position in the global market with its popular
Candy Crush Saga
2. King has a huge fan base and accounts for close
to 285 million users
3. King can represent as a leader in the aspect of
customer demand.
4. The company franchises for other games like
Farm Heroes, Bubble Witch and Pet Rescue
Weakness
1. Narrowing down of the competitive edge
2. There is lack of innovation in the recent internet
protocol
3. Presence of a longer window for the futuristic
expansion and adoption of newer titles

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Opportunities
1. Expanding through the other means of
entertainment like the web and the social media
2. Venturing into the micro pay game facilities put
forward by the mobile devices
3. Acquiring the popular and smaller internet
protocol
Threats
1. Change in the customer demand as well as fan
base for the games.
2. Blending of the game genre by the other
companies
Conclusion:
The report ends by providing an insight into the innovative strategic management
objectives by King Digital Entertainment Ltd in the context of a SWOT framework. The report
also discusses about the organizational cultural and the organizational approach towards the
management. There is also discussion on the details of the company. The company represents
one of the renowned entertainment companies that offered free games to the individuals and
made sure that the games are embedded with social features.

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References:
Graham, B., Ashworth, G. and Tunbridge, J., 2016. A geography of heritage: Power, culture and
economy. Routledge.
Johnson G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., and Regnér, P. 2014. Exploring Strategy:
Text and Cases. 10th edn Harlow:Pearson
king.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://discover.king.com/about/ [Accessed 7 Jul. 2018].
king.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://discover.king.com/press_releases/king-gives-social-
casino-gaming-royal-treatment/ [Accessed 7 Jul. 2018].
king.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://king.com/games [Accessed 7 Jul. 2018].
Mullins L. J. 2016. Management and Organisational Behaviour 11th edn., Harlow:Pearson
Otley, D., 2016. The contingency theory of management accounting and control: 1980–2014.
Management accounting research, 31, pp.45-62.
Robbins S. P. and Judge T. A. 2014. Essentials of Organizational Behaviour 12th edn.. FT
Prentice Hal
Tran, Q. and Tian, Y., 2013. Organizational structure: Influencing factors and impact on a firm.
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3(2), p.229.
Yancura, L.A., 2017. Ho'omana'o: A Cultural Framework for Reminiscence Interventions with
Native Hawaiian Elders. The International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review, 4(2),
pp.59-66.

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