Managerial Roles and Organizational Structures

The assignment content discusses various topics such as Mintzberg's managerial roles, three key stakeholders of an organization, factors behind ethical and unethical behavior, World Trade Organization, contingency factors influencing organizational structural choice, cultural intelligence, Porter's generic strategies, entrepreneurship in the American economy, and virtual learning organizations. It covers a wide range of subjects from business management to education.

The managerial roles suggested by Mintzberg can be broadly classified into three categories such as the
-- the interpersonal contact, the information processing role and the decision maker.
In case of interpersonal contact maker, the managers need to work as a figurehead, a leader and a
liaison. While processing the information, managers require working as monitor, disseminator and the
spokesman. In the role of decision maker, the manager needs to work as disturbance handler, resource
allocator, negotiator and entrepreneur.
The three key stakeholders of the organization are-- the suppliers, the employees and the customers.
The quality of raw materials and the uninterrupted supply is crucial for executing the production related
activities. So, suppliers play an important role in product or service creation. The employees in an
organization influence the quality of product and service. Profitability of an organization is dependent
on the customers and their perception on the business.
The factors behind ethical and unethical behavior by an individual are:
Individual characteristics: The individual characteristics such as the value and personality shape the
judgment significantly and so, influence the moral behaviour.
Moral development stages: The moral development of an individual occurs at three different stages and
at each stage, the judgment of the person changes.
Issue intensity: The decision making of an individual depends significantly on intensity of the issues. The
importance of ethics varies to an individual on basis of the issue intensity and so, the judgment also
changes accordingly.
Structural variables: The structure of an organization can determine whether the employee would
behave ethically or not. If the organization follows formal rules and regulations, the risk of arising ethical
dilemmas reduces.
Organizational culture: The culture of an organization is also important to encourage the employees for
taking ethical decisions.
The World Trade Organization governs the international trade. In the modern age, due to globalization,
the businesses are operating in the global market. However, the market rules and regulations are not
same in all nations. The World Trade Organization ensures that the businesses are not violating rules
and regulations but still getting scope to run profitably.
The five contingency factors that influence the organizational structural choice are:
 Strategy: The business strategy influences choice of organizational structure. The structure of
businesses offering a single product is different from the structure of businesses which offer
multiple products.

 Environment: The environmental factors such as the legal factors or level of competition shape
the selection of organizational structure.
 Size of the organization: The structure or large and small organizations is different.
 Age of the organization: The new organizations often follow the informal structure whereas the
older organizations adopt more formal structure.
 Technology: Availability of technology is another key factor behind the selection of
organizational structure. For instance, availability of advanced communication technology
facilitates the businesses to choose a structure that facilitates business collaboration.
The cultural intelligence has three main dimensions including the knowledge of culture, the
mindfulness of the individuals and the behavioral skills. The knowledge of culture enables the
individuals to understand the attributes of a particular culture and so, the risk of conflict reduces.
The level of mindfulness indicates the ability of an individual to understand the reactions used in a
different culture. Understanding on the reactions of different cultures enhances effectiveness of the
cross-cultural communication. The behavioral skills of an individual are also important to enable the
individual for choosing the right behavior in a particular situation.
Porter’s generic strategies are the cost leadership strategies, the product differentiation strategies, the
cost focus and the differentiation strategy. The cost leadership strategy enables the organizations to
offer the products and services at lower cost. In other words, use of the cost leadership strategy, the
organization can cut down the cost of manufacturing products. Reduction of the inventory cost is
effective to reduce the overall cost of manufacturing. So, the organization can use it for achieving the
cost leadership position.
The differentiation strategy aims at development of distinctive products or services. For instance, the
organizations can invest on their R&D activities to create highly unique products.
The focus strategies are effective to meet the requirements of niche markets. For instance , an
organization can create the low-cost products to reach the customers with lower purchasing capability.
On the contrary, an organization can develop organic foods for health conscious customers.
The entrepreneurship plays the following three important roles in American economy:
Boosting the economic growth: The economic growth of USA is highly influenced by the
entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs are the major contributor of GDP. So, growth of the
entrepreneurs influences growth of the national economy as well.

Job creation: The businesses are the key employers in USA. The rise in entrepreneurship increases
the job opportunities which are beneficial for the workforce.
Driving innovation: The entrepreneurship leads to development of new products which bring
innovation in the market.
The virtual learning organizations are different than the traditional organizations in terms of student
autonomy, access to the resources and the role of teachers. In case of virtual organizations, the
students get more flexibility to choose the schedule which is not possible in case of traditional
organizations. The resources in virtual organizations can be accessed at any time and from any
location which is different than the traditional institutions. Finally, in case of virtual organizations,
the learner has to take more responsibility whereas the learners in traditional organization are
heavily dependent on teachers.