Management and Organizations in the Video Gaming Industry

This report provides an insight into management and organizations in the context of the video gaming industry, specifically King Digital Entertainment Ltd. It covers the company's organizational structure, modern management approach, cultural framework, and innovative strategic management objectives. The report also includes a SWOT analysis of the company.

Running head: MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS
Management and Organizations
Name of the Student:
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
About the Organization....................................................................................................................2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................3
Organizational Structure and How the Structure Facilitate Functionality.......................................3
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................4
Modern Management Approach for Improving Functionality of the Company.............................4
Task 4...............................................................................................................................................6
Organizational Culture Based on Handy’s Framework...................................................................6
Task 5...............................................................................................................................................7
Innovative Strategic Management Objectives of the Company......................................................7
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................9
References:....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing an insight into management and organizations in the context
of a video gaming industry that generated huge revenue of close to £ 3.35 billion in the economy
of the United Kingdom. The company under discussion is King Digital Entertainment Ltd, also
known as King, popular as the founders of Candy Crush Saga. King represented a prominent
interactive entertainment company in the world of Smart phones. The company led to the
development of over 200 fun titles and offered games enjoyed across the world. The popularity
and the sustenance of the company attributes to its efficient leadership and managerial practices.
Task 1
About the Organization
King Digital Entertainment Ltd is a part of the video gaming industry that develops
games for web especially for Smartphone, Windows 10 and Facebook (king.com 2018). The
company earned fame after the release of the popular and the most financially successful game
Candy Crush Saga in the year 2012. Riccardo Zacconi led the company since the company was
co-found. The company has developed over 200 fun titles and offered games enjoyed across the
world. The franchise of the company includes Candy Crush, Pet Rescue, Farm Heroes and
Bubble Witch.
The games designed by the company have a broader appeal thereby allowing the people
in playing for the moment and picking it up sometime later. The games put forward by the
company is synchronized across the platforms thereby allowing the players in switching

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seamlessly between platform and devices thereby helping in continuing the game from where
they are left so that they can be played at any time and on any of the devices. The games are
available free and they come with social features for enhancing the experience of the players.
The company generated annual revenue of $1.88 billion in the year 2013 of which Candy Crush
alone accounted for $ 2.5 billion (king.com 2018).
Task 2
Organizational Structure and How the Structure Facilitate Functionality
An organizational structure helps in defining the allocation of the activities such as
coordination, task and supervision directed towards the achievement of the organizational aims
(Ashkenas et al., 2015). In other words, organizational structure represents the perspective or the
viewing glass via which people observe an organization and its ambience.
Figure 1: Organizational Structure of Video Gaming Industry

4MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS
Source: (Tran and Tian 2013)
The organizational structure of King Digital Entertainment Ltd is usually made of artists,
designers, animators and programmers. Each of the teams will consist of several managers
whose function remains in easy flow of communication across the team. The development teams
include the audio team, technology team, pitch team and a separate department for quality
assurance and publishing. The non-development teams include the human resource and
recruitment, IT, finance, administration, legal, finance, marketing and public relations. The role
played by the senior management lies in the maintenance and development of relationships for
facilitating acquisition newer contracts and development of business strategy for ensuring the
profitability of the company.
The organizational structure facilitates the functionality in the following manner (Camison
and Villar-López 2014):
 It portrays the foundation for the standard routine and procedures of the company
 It determines the individuals who participate in the process of decision-making and the
extent to which their views shape the actions of the organization.
Task 3
Modern Management Approach for Improving Functionality of the Company
Adoption of the contingency approach can lead to the improvement in functionality of
King. The contingency approach refers to the management theory that put forward suggestions
implying that the most ideal management style depends on situational context and hence

5MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONS
adopting a rigid and single style becomes insignificant in the longer term (Wu et al., 2014). The
contingency managers typically pay attention to both situation and his/her own style and make
efforts for ensuring there is efficient interaction between both. This particular management
approach is in contrast with the other approaches of management in the sense that individual and
personality determines the predicting patterns of the management and the responses to the given
situations. The uncertainty and environmental change, work technology and the organizational
size are identified as the environmental factors influencing the effectiveness of varied
organizational forms (Stock, Six and Zacharias 2013). As per contingency perspective, the
stability in the environments ensures mechanistic structures that emphasize formalization,
centralization, specialization and standardization for achieving consistency and efficiency. The
predictability and certainty also permits the use of rules, procedures and policies in guiding the
decision making for dealing with the problems and the routine task.
The contingency theory proves to be beneficial for the organization due to its potential of
learning from the specific situations and using such lessons in the management of a similar kind
of future situation (Miner 2015). This management approach also leads to the development of the
ability in adapting to the external changes and pressures. This approach also leads to the
development of leaders possessing skills in the multiple areas. Thus, the contingency approach to
management also known as the situational approach puts forward an assumption that there exist
no universal answers since the people, situations and organizations changes and varies over the
time. Therefore, the ideal thing to be done depends on the complexity of a variety of internal
contingencies and critical environment.

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Task 4
Organizational Culture Based on Handy’s Framework
According to the cultural framework of Handy, four classes of culture include Power
Culture, Role Culture, Task Culture and Person Culture (Hays 2016). King Digital Entertainment
Ltd follows a power culture for the determination of its ongoing success. In the organization with
power culture the power culture, the power concentrates on the hands of only few individuals the
influence of which remains spread out throughout organization. The power culture however
follows certain regulations and rules and the employees are judged based on their achievement
rather than how they act and do the things. A consequence of the power culture remains in
quicker decision making even when the decisions do not have alignment with the long-term
organizational interest (Berkenkotter and Huckin 2016).
In other words, Handy compares power culture to the web a spider with all the important
spiders occupying the centre. Organizations with such cultures not only respond quickly to the
events but they also depend on the abilities of the people representing the centre for continued
success (Claeye 2014). This will enable attracting the people who are politically minded and
power oriented to undertake risk without rating higher security. The key power base in this
culture remains in the control of the resources and the problem lies in its size. This type of
culture finds difficulty in linking various activities and retaining control although there is a
central financial control. This culture relies on the individuals heavily instead on the committees.
Organizations with power culture appear to be abrasive and tough and whose success remains
accompanied by the lower morale and the higher turnover as the individuals either opt or fail out
of competitive atmosphere (Hogan and Coote 2014). The employees working for such

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organizations should be able to anticipate the expectations from the power holders and acting
accordingly. Although power culture represents a strong culture but it can quickly turn toxic and
result in dictatorship if not anticipated properly.
Task 5
Innovative Strategic Management Objectives of the Company
The innovative strategic management objectives refer to those objectives that determine
the competitive advantage to a company. The two innovative strategic management objectives of
King Digital Entertainment Ltd include (Wheelen et al., 2017):
 Directing the company towards winning by offering franchises of games like Pet Rescue,
Bubble Witch, Candy Crush and Farm Heroes along with ensuring an encapsulated idea
of a bite sized entertainment
 Providing inspiration to the people through value creation since the company is
undeniably one of the successful gaming company for the mobile devices. The company
presently possesses three out of the top ten games on App Store with close to 356 million
monthly users generating close to $1 billion profits.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Holds position in the global market
 Possess a dedicated fan base
 Acts as a leader in responding to
customer demand
Weakness
 Narrowing down competitive base
 Lack of innovation relating to the
current internet protocol ( IP )
 Longer release window for further

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 Sole focus on the research and the
development through discrete
campaigns
 Popularity of games like the Candy
Crush
future expansions and newer titles
 Dependence on the other game
brands for ensuring growth
 Existence of streamlined market with
close to 75 percent of the revenue
from mobile channels
 Stagnancy in the global sales
Opportunities
 Further developments in mobile
gaming facilities
 Enhanced uptake of the mobile and
online gaming
 Expanding into different mediums for
entertainment
 Implementation of pay games in
mobiles
 Acquiring the popular and the smaller
IP
Threats
 Change in customer demand for the
games
 Existence of other companies who
blends the genres of the games
 Existence of the pirated, private and
the illegal servers

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Conclusion:
The report ends by throwing a light into management and organization in the context of
the video gaming industry, King Digital Entertainment Ltd. The report commenced by
introducing the organization and touching onto its every detail. The report also put forward a
diagrammatic representation of the organizational structure along with a mention of a
management approach, cultural framework and innovative strategic management. The company
has offered games like Candy Crush that accounted for close to 97 million people on a particular
day with 67 percent of the money spent by the players. The company occupies amongst the ten
popular grossing games on Google Play, Facebook and the Apple App Store.

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References:
Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T. and Kerr, S., 2015. The boundaryless organization: Breaking
the chains of organizational structure. John Wiley & Sons.
Berkenkotter, C. and Huckin, T.N., 2016. Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication:
Cognition/culture/power. Routledge.
Camisón, C. and Villar-López, A., 2014. Organizational innovation as an enabler of
technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. Journal of business research, 67(1),
pp.2891-2902.
Claeyé, F., 2014. Managing nongovernmental organizations: culture, power and resistance (Vol.
16). Routledge.
Hays, P.A., 2016. Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and
therapy. APA Books.
Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014. Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test
of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1609-1621.
king.com (2018). [online] Available at: https://discover.king.com/press_releases/king-gives-
social-casino-gaming-royal-treatment/ [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018].
Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership.
Routledge.

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Stock, R.M., Six, B. and Zacharias, N.A., 2013. Linking multiple layers of innovation-oriented
corporate culture, product program innovativeness, and business performance: A contingency
approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(3), pp.283-299.
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.
Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management
and business policy. pearson.
Wu, T., Wu, Y.C.J., Chen, Y.J. and Goh, M., 2014. Aligning supply chain strategy with
corporate environmental strategy: A contingency approach. International Journal of Production
Economics, 147, pp.220-229.