What is a Functional Organization Structure?

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından
Your working style depends on your organizational structure. The organizational structure defines your role and responsibilities and work culture. This culture includes work environment, reporting system, hierarchy, etc.
An organization can adapt to any structure as per their requirements. If they are dealing with the projects, they will choose a projectized organization. However, an organization dealing with operations will stick with a functional structure.
Every organizational structure has a different system.
In a projectized organizational structure, you report to the project manager. In a functional organizational structure, you report to a functional manager. In a matrix organizational structure, it depends.
I have discussed the matrix and projectized structures in other blog posts. Now, we will discuss the functional organizational structure.

What is a Functional Organizational Structure?

A functional structure divides the organization into departments based on their function. Each is headed by a functional manager and employees are grouped as per their role. Functional managers have experience in the roles they supervise. This ensures that employees are using their skills effectively. It helps organizations in achieving their business objectives.

Employees are classified according to their function in this structure. The organizational chart for a functional structure shows the role hierarchy: for example, president, vice president, finance department, sales department, customer service, administration, etc.

Each department has a head responsible for it. This helps the organization control the quality and uniformity of their performance. These employees are very skilled. They are experienced in the same work and they perform excellently; productivity is high in a functional structure.

Functional departments are sometimes referred to as “silos.” This means the system is vertical and disconnected, communication flows through the department heads to the top management.

Here, all authority stays with the functional manager. Usually, the project manager does not have any role in this structure. Their role will be minimal, even if they exist. They will need the functional manager’s approval to use resources and they may act as a coordinator or an expediter.

The functional organization structure is suitable for a business dealing with operations, like manufacturing industries.

Most small industries with only a few products use this structure. The employees are highly skilled due to repetitive work which means high efficiency and the best performance.

Joe Biden is elected the 46th president of the United States.

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından
Joseph R. Biden Jr. was elected president on his third try, after an extraordinary race in which he campaigned as an elder statesman seeking to restore civility to the nation.

Biden Jr. was elected president of the United States on Saturday, defeating President Trump after campaigning on a promise to restore civility and stability to American politics and to expand the government’s role in guiding the country through the surging coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Biden, 77, who will become the 46th president and the oldest man ever sworn into the office, secured 273 votes from the Electoral College after Pennsylvania was called for him, though the race was far closer than many Democrats, Republicans and pollsters had expected.

The result also provided a history-making moment for President-elect Biden’s running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, who became the first woman, and first woman of color, on a winning presidential ticket.

With his third run for the White House — after unsuccessful bids in 1988 and 2008, and after spending eight years as President Barack Obama’s vice president — Mr. Biden finally attained a goal that he has dreamed of for decades, capping a career in national politics that began with a victory in a 1972 Senate race here in Delaware. He was swept into office this year with the support of a diverse coalition of younger voters, older voters, Black Americans and white college-educated voters, particularly women.

Mr. Biden’s triumph concluded an extraordinary election that was expected to set modern records for turnout, despite being held amid a pandemic that has upended life across the United States. More than 100 million Americans voted before Election Day as states sought to make voting safer, putting the nation on track for the largest turnout in a century once the final vote is tallied.

Mr. Biden also won the popular vote by nearly three percentage points, and, with more than 74 million votes, broke the vote record set by Mr. Obama in 2012. Mr. Trump received more than 70 million votes — far more than the 63 million he received in 2016 when he beat Hillary Clinton while losing the popular vote.

Voters overcame their fears of the coronavirus, long lines at the polls and the vexing challenges of a transformed election system to render a verdict on Mr. Trump’s chaotic and norm-breaking presidency. Mr. Trump was the first incumbent president to lose a bid for re-election since George H.W. Bush lost to Bill Clinton in 1992.

Still, the race was not the landslide many Democrats had hoped for: Mr. Biden lost a number of important battleground states where he had invested time and resources, most notably Florida, amid signs of challenges with a number of Latino constituencies.

The Trump campaign and Republican lawyers have already begun a wide-ranging legal assault to challenge Democratic votes and victories in key swing states, part of a long-telegraphed effort to call the validity of the election into question.

Mr. Trump, who baselessly declared victory early Wednesday, before votes were tallied in multiple states, had regularly questioned the legitimacy of the election as polls showed him trailing, and it was not immediately clear how he would respond to the news of Mr. Biden’s victory.

Much of Mr. Biden’s agenda in office may rest on his ability to work with Congress. Democrats have maintained their hold on the House but had a much narrower path to reclaiming control of the Senate

Source: https://www.nytimes.com

Competitive Advantage

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından
Definition: Competitive Advantage means superior performance relative to other competitors in the same industry or superior performance relative to the industry average.

What is competitive advantage?

There is no one answer about what is competitive advantage or one way to measure it, and for the right reason. Nearly everything can be considered as competitive edge, e.g. higher profit margin, greater return on assets, valuable resource such as brand reputation or unique competence in producing jet engines. Every company must have at least one advantage to successfully compete in the market. If a company can’t identify one or just doesn’t possess it, competitors soon outperform it and force the business to leave the market.

There are many ways to achieve the advantage but only two basic types of it: cost or differentiation advantage. A company that is able to achieve superiority in cost or differentiation is able to offer consumers the products at lower costs or with higher degree of differentiation and most importantly, is able to compete with its rivals.

An organization that is capable of outperforming its competitors over a long period of time has sustainable competitive advantage.

The following diagram illustrates the basic competitive advantage model, which is explained below in the article:

How a company can achieve it?

An organization can achieve an edge over its competitors in the following two ways:

  • Through external changes. When PEST factors change, many opportunities can appear that, if seized upon, could provide many benefits for an organization. A company can also gain an upper hand over its competitors when its capable to respond to external changes faster than other organizations.
  • By developing them inside the company. A firm can achieve cost or differentiation advantage when it develops VRIO resources, unique competences or through innovative processes and products.

How does strategic management work?

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından

Strategic management can be either prescriptive or descriptive. Prescriptive strategic management means developing strategies in advance of an organizational issue. Descriptive strategic management means putting strategies into practice when needed. Both methods of strategic management employ management theory and practices.

While upper management is responsible for implementing strategies, ideas, goals or organizational challenges can come from any member of the company. Many companies employ strategists whose jobs it is to think and plan strategically to improve company function.

There are four steps to strategic management:

  1. Analysis
  2. Formation
  3. Execution
  4. Evaluation

1. Analysis

Before planning a new strategic process, you must evaluate the current process to achieve your goal. What is working? What is not working? What input from organizational stakeholders can you gather? This is the time to answer any questions that will help solidify the necessary elements of the strategic plan. A SWOT analysis, or identification of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, is a useful tool.

2. Formation

Once you have the information you need, it is time to create an action plan for reaching the goal. Make sure the steps are clear, focused and directly related to the goal. Prepare easy to understand implementation guidelines if the process or procedure will impact many people within the organization.

3. Execution

Follow the steps outlined in your strategic plan. Make sure that all stakeholders are implementing the plan as designed for maximum efficiency.

4. Evaluation

Evaluate the final product. Did you achieve your goal? Was the process implemented appropriately company-wide? Based on your answers to these questions, you can reflect and revise as needed.

Strategic Management: Definition, Purpose and Example

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından

Achieving organizational goals takes planning and patience. Strategic management can help companies reach their goals. Strategic management ensures the steps necessary to reach a business goal are implemented company-wide. In this article, we will define strategic management, explain how strategic management works, discuss the purpose of strategic management and provide an example of strategic management.

What is strategic management?

Strategic management is the strategic use of a business’ resources to reach company goals and objectives. Strategic management requires reflection on the processes and procedures within the organization as well as external factors that may impact how the company functions. The process of strategic management should guide top-level actions and decisions. Companies of all sizes and in all industries can benefit from the practice of strategic management.

Strategic management includes setting objectives for the company, analyzing the actions of competitors, reviewing the organization’s internal structure, evaluating current strategies and confirming that strategies are implemented company-wide.

Strategic management is the sum of strategic planning and strategic thinking. Strategic planning is the identification of achievable goals. Strategic thinking is the ability to identify the needs of the organization to achieve the goals identified through strategic planning.

What is Strategic Management

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından

What Is Strategic Management? 

Strategic management is the management of an organization’s resources to achieve its goals and objectives. Strategic management involves setting objectives, analyzing the competitive environment, analyzing the internal organization, evaluating strategies, and ensuring that management rolls out the strategies across the organization.

Understanding Strategic Management 

Strategic management is divided into several schools of thought. A prescriptive approach to strategic management outlines how strategies should be developed, while a descriptive approach focuses on how strategies should be put into practice. These schools differ on whether strategies are developed through an analytic process, in which all threats and opportunities are accounted for, or are more like general guiding principles to be applied.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Companies, universities, nonprofits, and other organizations can use strategic management as a way to make goals and meet objectives.
  • Flexible companies may find it easier to make changes to their structure and plans, while inflexible companies may chafe at a changing environment.
  • A strategic manager may oversee strategic management plans and devise ways for organizations to

What is Two Factor Theory?

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından

Frederick Herzberg approached the question of motivation in a different way. By asking individuals what satisfies them on the job and what dissatisfies them, Herzberg came to the conclusion that aspects of the work environment that satisfy employees are very different from aspects that dissatisfy them. Herzberg labeled factors causing dissatisfaction of workers as “hygiene” factors because these factors were part of the context in which the job was performed, as opposed to the job itself. Hygiene factorsincluded company policies, supervision, working conditions, salary, safety, and security on the job. To illustrate, imagine that you are working in an unpleasant work environment. Your office is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. You are being harassed and mistreated. You would certainly be miserable in such a work environment. However, if these problems were solved (your office temperature is just right and you are not harassed at all), would you be motivated? Most likely, you would take the situation for granted. In fact, many factors in our work environment are things that we miss when they are absent but take for granted if they are present.

Herzberg’s research is far from being universally accepted. One criticism relates to the primary research methodology employed when arriving at hygiene versus motivators. When people are asked why they are satisfied, they may attribute the causes of satisfaction to themselves, whereas when explaining what dissatisfies them, they may blame the situation. The classification of the factors as hygiene or motivator is not that simple either. For example, the theory views pay as a hygiene factor. However, pay may have symbolic value by showing employees that they are being recognized for their contributions as well as communicating that they are advancing within the company. Similarly, the quality of supervision or the types of relationships employees form with their supervisors may determine whether they are assigned interesting work, whether they are recognized for their potential, and whether they take on more responsibilities.

Despite its limitations, the theory can be a valuable aid to managers because it points out that improving the environment in which the job is performed goes only so far in motivating employees. Undoubtedly, contextual factors matter because their absence causes dissatisfaction. However, solely focusing on hygiene factors will not be enough, and managers should also enrich jobs by giving employees opportunities for challenging work, greater responsibilities, advancement opportunities, and a job in which their subordinates can feel successful.

What is the ERG theory?

Gönderi tarihi Buğra Korkmaz tarafından

ERG theory, developed by Clayton Alderfer, is a modification of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Instead of the five needs that are hierarchically organized, Alderfer proposed that basic human needs may be grouped under three categories, namely, existence, relatedness, and growth. Existencecorresponds to Maslow’s physiological and safety needs, relatedness corresponds to social needs, and growth refers to Maslow’s esteem and self-actualization.

ERG theory’s main contribution to the literature is its relaxation of Maslow’s assumptions. For example, ERG theory does not rank needs in any particular order and explicitly recognizes that more than one need may operate at a given time. Moreover, the theory has a “frustration-regression” hypothesis suggesting that individuals who are frustrated in their attempts to satisfy one need may regress to another. For example, someone who is frustrated by the growth opportunities in his job and progress toward career goals may regress to relatedness need and start spending more time socializing with coworkers. The implication of this theory is that we need to recognize the multiple needs that may be driving individuals at a given point to understand their behavior and properly motivate them.