Understanding Organizations: Structure, Culture, Leadership & More

This assignment delves into the critical aspects of organizational behavior, starting with an examination of organizational structure, including its basic principles like work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, and span of control, as well as different types such as functional and divisional structures. It further explores the factors influencing organizational structure decisions, such as the size of the organization and the business environment. The assignment then transitions to organizational culture, emphasizing its importance in employee interaction and brand image, and outlines steps to implement an ethical organizational culture, including clear expectations, behavior modeling, positive reinforcement, feedback mechanisms, and training. Leadership is another focal point, with explanations of trait, behavioral, contingency, situational, transactional, and transformational leadership theories, highlighting the role of leaders in setting direction and the importance of management skills. The concept of organizational power is addressed, differentiating between coercive, legitimate, and expert power, and suggesting ways for management to leverage power to foster desired behaviors. Finally, the assignment discusses motivation, defining it as a psychological phenomenon aimed at meeting employee needs and drives, and explores Alderfer's ERG motivation theory, emphasizing the significance of meeting employee needs for enhanced productivity. The assignment also touches upon successful groups, differentiating between formal and informal groups, reasons for joining groups, and the forming stage of group development.

Question 1.
Organizational structure.
Organization structure refers to a system in which an organization communicates and develops
objectives and then sets procedures to attain the objectives.
a. The basic principles of organizational structure are divided into:
i. Work Specialization: This refers to the division of work activities or tasks in an
organization into various separate tasks.
ii. Departmentalization: This principle refers to the basis where related jobs are grouped.
iii. The chain of command: Refers to the line of authority spanning from the top management
to the lower management which determines who reports to whom.
iv. Span of control: This principle refers to how efficiently a manager can manage his or her
staff.
b. The two types of the organizational structure include:
I. Functional structure: This type of organizational structure is comprised of different
hierarchies for each function in an organization.
II. Divisional structure: This type of organizational structure involves grouping of tasks with
similar characteristics into a single unit.
c. Factors that may influence the decision about organizational structure include:
I. The size of the organization.
The size of a company is crucial in deciding the organizational structure to implement since it
determines the framework for operations.
II. Business environment.
The business environment influences the organizational structure to be implemented. For
example, for a dynamic environment, the organizational structure will need to change while a
static environment will not require any organizational structure changes.

Question 2.
Organizational culture.
a. Organization culture is essential due to the following reasons.
 Culture determines how employees interact in an organization: A healthy culture
ensures employees are loyal and motivated towards the management.
 It helps in creating the brand image of an organization: Organizational culture
gives an organization an identity since an organization can only be known by its
culture.
b. Implementing an ethical organizational culture is crucial in cutting down misbehavior in
organizations. Ethical consequences are therefore prevented. The steps involved in
creating an ethical organization culture may include;
i. Creating clear expectations.
Clear defined expectations guide employees on how to act and interact since the
expectations act as guidelines.
ii. Modeling of desired behavior.
To ensure employees follow guidelines, executives of an organization should
model the behavior they would want to see in their employees.
iii. Positive reinforcement.
This involves techniques such as rewards to employees which improve and
increase the desired behaviors in employees.
iv. Feedback mechanisms.
It involves systems that allow employees to report unethical behaviors without
recourse to themselves. Also, there should be policies that promote zero-tolerance
to unethical practices.
v. Training.
It involves providing tools and strategies to employees that aid develop skills used
in solving ethical dilemmas.

c. Upper, Doer & Fetch can improve their organizational culture if they include the
following initiatives;
1. Encouraging team connection.
Building closer relationships will allow reduce stress among employees hence helping
them to get together. This promotes both work satisfaction and teamwork.
2. Have a unified culture.
Due to the merger, the organization should encourage one culture since a unified culture
encourages productivity.
Question 3.
Organizational leadership.
a. The following is an explanation of different theories of leadership;
1) Trait theories seek to ascertain the characteristics of a successful leader. The leader
must have traits such as honesty, sincerity, and reliability. On the other hand,
behavioral theories emphasize on the specific behavior of leaders and not their
characteristics.
2) Contingency theories argue that the leadership style should be based on particular
situations since there is no single way of leading. On the other hand, situational
theories argue that leadership is affected by a specific situation from which a leader
works or emerges from.
3) Transactional leadership basis its argument that managers offer employees something
they want in exchange for what they want from them.
4) The transformational theory argues that a leader is able to create stable relationships
that result in trust which later result to better motivation to the employees or followers.
b. Leaders aid other people in doing the right things. They help map out where a team or
organization needs to go through building an inspiring vision or setting direction.
However, since leaders set the direction, application of management skills is of great
importance since it helps set the right direction to be followed.

Question 4.
Organizational power.
a) In organizations, power refers to the ability to affect or influence the behavior of other
people by the control of resources.
b) Sources of power can be differentiated into;
1) Coercive power: This power is based on a manager’s capability to cause an irritating
experience for his or her employees.
2) Legitimate power: this power is based on mutual agreement and position since one is
delegated the power by his or her members.
3) Expert power: this power exists when a person has vital knowledge that a particular
group needs.
c) Embracing and living the behaviors one wants the employees to adopt. Since the merging
of Upper, Doer & Fetch, there has been some staffing issues since the staff do not see
themselves as part of the new set-up. Therefore, the management can employ power by
living the behavior that they desire their employees to embrace. This will be easy for
them to follow and accept.
Question 5.
Motivation.
a) Motivation refers to the process of meeting the desires, needs, and drives of people in
order to accomplish the goals set. Motivation is considered as a psychological
phenomenon since it's about creating willingness among employees to perform much
better. Factors that can drive motivation include recognition, monetary rewards, and job
satisfaction.
b) Alderfer ERG motivation theory: this theory structures human needs into three categories
including existence, relatedness and growth needs. Its framework recognizes that
employees may have multiple needs that need to be satisfied simultaneously since the
three needs may vary from each individual. However, if a higher need is unfilled, a
person may turn to the lower needs that appear easy to satisfy. This is referred to as the

frustration-regression principle, and it affects the workplace motivation. For Upper, Doer
& Fetch, since the employees are not recognized they end up feeling that they are not part
of the setup. Therefore, being able to meet their needs fast will ensure productivity from
the merger.
Question 6.
Successful groups.
a. The types of groups include;
1) Formal groups: Refers to groups that are defined by the organization’s structure. This means
that behaviors of the employees are directed towards organizational objectives since there are
rules that regulate the behavior of employees.
2) Informal groups: Refers to groups that are not organizationally determined. They are natural
formations from the employees due to common interests such as work assistance or social
interests.
b. People may join groups due to the following reasons;
1) Support and commitment.
People in Upper, Doer & Fetch may join groups in order to support one another in working on
different projects. This would improve work performance.
2) Group synergy.
Joining groups will allow people to bring different strengths together hence being able to make
better decisions.
3) Interpersonal needs.
People in Upper, Doer & Fetch may join groups in order to meet needs such as needs for
affection, needs for inclusion and needs for control.
c. Forming stage: this refers to the first stage of group development. In this stage, members
start coming together however they are discreet with their behavior so as to be accepted by all
members of the group. Controversies and personal opinions are avoided in order to achieve an

understanding of the group’s purpose. It’s a stage where members are learning of how the group
is to operate and what is expected of them.