Management Analysis: Tesco and Apple, Organization and Communication

This report provides an analysis of management practices, focusing on two companies: Tesco and Apple. It begins by examining organizational structure, specifically the flat and flexible structure of Tesco, and discusses the key management functions of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling within this context. The report then shifts its focus to Apple, exploring its management culture through the lens of the cultural web, examining elements such as stories, rituals, symbols, organizational structure, control systems, and power structures. Finally, the report addresses common communication mistakes made by managers, including ignoring omissions, using inappropriate communication forms, and lying, emphasizing the importance of effective communication in fostering trust and organizational success. The report concludes with a list of cited references.

Running Head: Understanding Management
Understanding Management

Understanding Management
Table of Content:
Task 1: Organization Structure..............................................................................................................2
Task 2: Management culture.................................................................................................................3
Task 3: Communication mistakes managers make................................................................................4
References:............................................................................................................................................6

Understanding Management
Task 1: Organization Structure
Information provided
 Management structure is flat and flexible
 10 Customer service staff
The name of the organization is Tesco.
Management is the organization and coordination of business activities in order to achieve the
desired objectives. Managers and board of directors are responsible for setting up of the business
objectives and monitoring them. The management is comprised of three tiers, Top level
management, middle level & low level. All the levels have different tasks to perform at each level.
Flat organization structure simply means have relatively fewer or just one layer of management. The
chain of command is short, while the span of control for managers is wider. Span of control is the
number of people directly reporting into a manager, hence the importance and power of the
manager increases manifold in such organizations. Effective communication is one of the key
advantages in such structure, flat structures promotes democracy and ease of manager. The flow of
communication is smooth. Lean and flatter structures are also quick in decision making, as a decision
does not need to be approved by many middle level managers before putting it into an action plan.
The flat structure also helps in improved performance, increased production and increased
profitability (Yinan, Tang & Zhang, 2014)
Planning: Planning can be understood as the role of management in setting up of business
objectives. Planning is required for defining mission and vision for the organization, identifying its
objectives and finds a strategy to achieve those objectives. In context of customer service staff, the
role of planning is to make the team understand the goals and objectives of the organization and
based on that align the goals of the customer service staff. In absence of any goals the company just
goes in a haphazard direction (Chadwick, 2013)
Organizing: Organizing requires management to develop the organizational structure and allocate
the human resources to accomplish the objectives. In flat organization structure managers have a
great span of control; hence the job responsibility of the individuals has to be assigned carefully with
good clarity. Job design is an important part of the organizing. In the current context the 10 service
staff are divided into 4 job functions, namely, Customer relationship managers, customer success

Understanding Management
managers, service managers & feedback managers. Hence, organizing is the most pivotal function of
the management as it involves with assigning job responsibility and job functions. The job functions
have to be identified with respect to the objectives and goals of the organization (Siemens, 2014)
Leading: Leading involves the social and informal sources of influence that one uses to inspire action
taken by others. If managers are effective leaders, their subordinates will be enthusiastic about
exerting effort to attain the organization objectives. Leading involves qualities like confidence, good
communication, respect for work, respect for team members and respect for the organizational
goals and objectives. If the leader is serious about attaining the goals of the organization, only then
he can inculcate the same within the team members and lead them. In the present context the 10
customer service staffs is led by Service delivery manager who ensures by providing them valuable
lessons of his experience and also real life examples of the thought leaders in the service industry.
The staff is motivated by various intrinsic and extrinsic motivation which aides them to achieve their
goals (Anderson, 2016)
Controlling: It may sound like a negative word, but in the context of organization it is just ensuring
that the performance does not deviate from standards. It consists of three steps, establishing
performance standards, comparing actual performance against standard and taking corrective
actions whenever necessary. The monitoring can be done by viewing the sales performance, the
financial statements of the company and other quantifiable parameters. Controlling is important in
the organization to set the benchmarking for the employees and monitor the growth of the
company (Chang, 2016)
Controlling would ensure that a consistent level of service is delivered at all levels. There is multiple
check point for service delivery; middle managers/service delivery managers will ensure the
consistency in services at all the department or the check points. The approach is to inspect,
evaluate, analyse and then control to see the points identified for service consistency.
Task 2: Management culture
The company chosen is Apple
Management culture is a system of shared assumptions, beliefs and values which show people what
is appropriate and inappropriate behaviour. These values have a strong influence on the employee
behaviour as well as organisational performance. Presence of culture leads to increased
performance of the employees as they maintain and follow decorum. Strong organisational cultures

Understanding Management
can be organizing as well as controlling mechanism for the organization. The culture consists of some
aspects which are visible and some aspects of it are related to self-consciousness. Management
culture can be understood as three layered structure, at the deepest lies the assumptions, then the
values and the outer circle is the artifacts which lays the foundation of management culture (Choi,
2013)
There are 6 elements that define the cultural web. By analysing these elements a deeper
understanding of the culture can be obtained. The six elements of cultural web are (Herman, 2014)
 Stories: The simple understanding is how people talk about the company, what events
describe the company, its leadership, its past events etc. (Roberts & Pickalla, 2016)
 Rituals & Routines: The daily behaviour and action of people in the organization
 Symbols: It is the visual representation of the company, the logos, the marketing collateral
etc. (Menninger, 2013)
 Organizational structure: The hierarchy structure the company follows, flat, top down etc.
and the power and influence of the people.
 Control systems: The way the organization is controlled (Lee, 2016)
 Power structures: The people who are invested real powers in the company (Rietbergen,
2017)
Application of cultural web to Apple:
Symbols: Logo of apple is extremely suave and neat, the bite of apple was on purpose to not make it
look like a cherry. The motif was designed to make it a fit. People relate to the logo of apple at
extremes level and it is one of the most recognized logo in the world...
Stories: Apple and Steve jobs are used interchangeably. The stories here states that Steve jobs was
one of the biggest innovator in the world and the company stands on the grounds of innovation.
Hence, the stories of apple are related with technological innovation and creativity.
Organizational structure: The structure of the organization is Divisional, every division has its own
P& L, it suits apple because of its giant structure.
Culture contributes to the success of organization and every organization is working towards
maintaining its culture. Culture helps in keeping the employees aligned to the goals of the
organization, a strong culture reflect strong team work, helps in retaining employees and attracting
the best talent of the industry. Culture helps in differentiating its brand identity and people relate

Understanding Management
with it. A company having a strong sense of culture implies discipline, value for work, motivated
teams and employees and greater productivity. Thus leading to the success of organization.
Task 3: Communication mistakes managers make
 Ignoring acts of omission: When the managers don’t explain the rationale behind their
decision, employees are unable to trust them. Managers not conveying the goals of
organisation leave employees clueless as they have no idea where the organization is
headed. If the managers are not appreciating the employees it makes the employee feel sad
and not motivated. All these are examples of communication failure at the hands of
managers, hence should be avoided on highest priority. A feeling of trust and relationship
should be developed within the employees in order to take the organization on the path of
success.
 Using inappropriate forms of communication: In organization, appropriate form of
communication is really important. E-mails, face to face meetings, team meetings, board
meetings etc. have a specific purpose and are designed accordingly. If the managers are not
using appropriate tools of communication, the message is bound to be misunderstood and
the sense of meaning is lost. For example, termination of employee should not be made
public; it should be done behind the closed doors in the presence of the HR. Similarly, if the
manager wants to set some deadlines for its team, it should be written and communicated
via email, else the purpose is lost and at the same time there is no proof. Hence, using
appropriate form of communication is most important in the organization. The
communication effectiveness is lost in the absence of such measures.
 Lying: Lying is one of the frequent things which managers do and in the process loose the
trust with its employees. It is the duty of mangers to not lie to their team members, if
pressed upon , instead of lying ,they can easily say, right now they can’t comment on this
topic. This would help them to avoid unnecessary criticism from the employees. Certain
discussion of management are bound to remain discrete and not be disclosed and discussed,
the same has to be mentioned to the employees if they ask about any such topic.
Unnecessary lying will only lead to bad relationship, losing faith and trust in the manager,
which would further affect the productivity of the employees, resulting in complete failure
of the system. Lying also leads to grapevine among the organization, grapevine is not good
for any organization as it only creates a sense of confusion and unnecessary tension in the

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organization. Therefore the onus is on the mangers to smartly tackle such confidential issues
and at no cost lie to its employees.
References:
Anderson, D.L., 2016. Organization development: The process of leading organizational change. Sage
Publications.
Chadwick, G., 2013. A systems view of planning: towards a theory of the urban and regional planning
process. Elsevier.
Chang, J.F., 2016. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press.
Choi, Y., 2013. The influence of conflict management culture on job satisfaction. Social Behavior and
Personality: an international journal, 41(4), pp.687-692.
Herman, A., 2014. The world wide web and contemporary cultural theory: magic, metaphor, power.
Routledge.
Lee, L.Y.S., 2016. Hospitality industry web-based self-service technology adoption model: A cross-
cultural perspective. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 40(2), pp.162-197.
Menninger, K., 2013. Number words and number symbols: A cultural history of numbers. Courier
Corporation.
Rietbergen, P., 2017. Power and religion in baroque Rome: Barberini cultural policies. Brill.
Roberts, R.L. and Pickalla, L., 2016. Youth Stories Project: Cultural and Linguistic Diversity.
Siemens, G., 2014. Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age.

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Yinan, Q., Tang, M. and Zhang, M., 2014. Mass customization in flat organization: The mediating role
of supply chain planning and corporation coordination. Journal of Applied Research and
Technology, 12(2), pp.171-181.