Describe management style, culture and organisational structure and how they affect its performance and operation and help meat their objectives.

The Democrat

The democratic leader makes decisions by consulting his team, whilst still maintaining control of the group. The democratic leader allows his team to decide how the task will be tackled and who will perform which task. The democratic leader can be seen in two lights:

A good democratic leader encourages participation and delegates wisely, but never loses sight of the fact that he bears the crucial responsibility of leadership. He values group discussion and input from his team and can be seen as drawing from a pool of his team members' strong points in order to obtain the best performance from his team. He motivates his team by empowering them to direct themselves, and guides them with a loose reign.

However, the democrat can also be seen as being so unsure of himself and his relationship with his sub-ordinates that everything is a matter for group discussion and decision. Clearly, this type of "leader" is not really leading at all.

Business Culture

The Power Culture:

This culture is dependent upon one strong personality/leader who creates a "web-like" organisation & a central power source. Power emanates out from the centre of this "web" & promotion, power & influence is handed out solely by the person in the centre of the web.

The People Culture:

In this culture, the individual is the central point & the team structure is only designed to serve the individual. This culture only exists for the people concerned, who tend to have strong ideas about how they should work. People in this culture are often difficult for the organisation to manage.

The Task/Network Culture:

This is very much a small-team (or a network of small companies) culture, designed to complete projects. The emphasis is on getting the task completed & they tend to have a degree of control over their own activities. This culture tends to be flexible & adaptable.

The Role/Rule Culture:

This culture is very bureaucratic, with the emphasis on procedures, rules, role-descriptions & authority. Job-position is central to this culture, which places a high value upon consistency & predictability. This culture can often be inflexible & resistant to change.

Organisational structure

Matrix Structure

The matrix structure is used for project-based organisations. This involves taking people from their functional areas and putting them into teams to work on specific projects.

Flat Structure

In the flat structure there are few layers in the organisation. This structure is often used for smaller businesses e.g. shop

There is only one level of command with a wide span of control. Communication in this type of structure will therefore be a lot more effective. This will keep costs down, as employing managers to look over the workers will no longer be needed. There is less bureaucracy. However if there are a lot of workers who are all responsible to the managing Director the workload will be massive and him/her will spend so much time sorting out problems he/she will not be able to get on with their own work at all.

Divisional Structure

A divisional structure is when the organisation is broken up into divisions of different areas. This could be by functions if a large company or countries if they sell their product or service in many different countries or shops if they have different branches. If a sole owner has four shops he might make that shop manager have total control over that shop and watch over all four.

Advantages are that each division can have specialised employees. There is also more motivation as the bureaucracy has gone. Disadvantages could occur when communication is poor between divisions and that the divisions weaken the overall control

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Hierarchical structure

A hierarchical structure has many layers. This shows that the layer at the top has direct control over the people below them, they have control over the people below them and so on. This can also be described as a pyramid structure.

You can see in the diagram the lines of communication and the span of control. Advantages of the hierarchical structure are that every one knows whom they are responsible to and whom they are responsible for. This can also shows where specialists are needed in their divisional groups. Disadvantage of having a hierarchical structure is that messages can get distorted or lost from one manager to the next. There is also poor communication between the different functions.

What Organisational Structure does BA have?

British Airways has a hierarchical and divisional structure as you can see in the example I gave earlier. This works well for BA as each division is managed by a director and then several managers. This ensures everyone knows whom he or she is responsible to and whom he or she is responsible for. The downside of the hierarchical structure is the chain of command. Each division may not know what the other is doing which could cause a problem. Also because the lines of communication are quite long it may be possible for messages to get lost or distorted. This is why it is important to have an autocratic management style as every employee must be kept alert and task focussed so that those sorts of problems do not occur.

How does management style affect BA?

Management style is more likely to have an effect on the employees. The autocratic approach is the most likely to be used by BA as they use the hierarchical structure this is to make sure all employees are following the strict guidelines set by BA. This keeps productivity high however the morale may be low. But if they were changed to a democratic approach things may take longer to solve and there may be disputes between employees.

How does culture affect performance?

Culture can affect the performance of the business in a positive and negative way. Most of the time in BA a role or bureaucratic culture that is keen on routine and procedure, making sure every employee works to the objectives of their manager and how their manager wants them to work. This will encourage the employees to stay task focused and complete the jobs in hand however they may become disheartened that they as an individual are not involved in the team spirit that some other cultures may have.

How do organisational structure, management style and culture help BA meet its objectives?

Organisational structure can help BA meet its objectives by using the divisional structure so that the organisation is divided by functions, which will be working towards completing the objectives. Organisational structure could also help the objective to have a significant presence in all geographical markets. BA is likely to have divided up the divisions by area as well as the other business functions. Each area division should be able to see how well they are doing in that geographical market and then work to improve it. The organisational structure is bound to help the employees in a number of ways. Firstly they will all know whom they are directly responsible to and for and where they are in the organisational structure. It also makes it easier for the managers to see how the working environment is for the people they are directly responsible for. Management styles will differ depending on the objective they are working on e.g. To be a safe and secure airline will involve an autocratic approach so to make sure everyone on the flights will be safe. Culture is governed by the management styles and organisational structure. Whatever the organisational structure and management styles are the culture will be adapted to it. The strategies used by the business to complete the objectives will be seen in the culture.

The organisational structure will probably affect certain objectives more than others. In my opinion the main objectives that it affects are: -

Strong & consistent financial performance. I think this because the strong and consistent financial performance can be monitored carefully by the finance department to make sure that marketing is not costing too much and to make sure that they are spending enough on other things like customer service.

Significant presence in all geographical markets. Organisational structure could also help the objective to have a significant presence in all geographical markets. BA is likely to have divided up the divisions by area as well as the other business functions. Each area division should be able to see how well they are doing in that geographical market and then work to improve it.

To be a good employer and sustain a working environment that attracts retains and develops committed employees who share in the success of the company. The organisational structure is bound to help the employees in a number of ways. Firstly they will all know whom they are directly responsible to and for and where they are in the organisational structure. It also makes it easier for the managers to see how the working environment is for the people they are directly responsible for.

Gary Harrison