Management of Organizations Significance of Managers in Achieving Organizational Success

Organic vs. Mechanistic Organization

Process of Formulating Corporate Strategy

Meaning of Organizational Culture

Management of Organizations

Organizational management is one of the most crucial components for organizational success and productivity. This is primarily because the process entails handling various aspects that are geared towards achieving the organization's overall objectives. Some of the most important issues in organizational management include effective decision making and conflict resolution. These important aspects are usually handled by the organization's top management, which play a vital role in ensuring organizational success. For managers, the process also entails formulating corporate strategy and creating a suitable organizational culture that helps in realization of the overall goals and objectives.

Significance of Managers in Achieving Organizational Success

As previously mentioned, organizational managers play an important role in the success of an organization, especially in relation to decision making. Actually, organizational success is usually dependent on the existence of inspirational leaders and managers who propel an organization towards improved and sustainable results (Mckinney, n.d.). The first measure through which managers play a significant role in achieving organizational success is through making decisions regarding organizational strategy and culture. Through this process, managers influence the daily organizational process, which in turn affects profitability and success.

The significance of managers in achieving organizational success is also evident in their role in establishing clear goals for the organization. For instance, at McDonalds, the company's managers are involved in the process of establishing strategic goals and direction that governs organizational processes and influence profitability. McDonalds' managers are also mandated with the task of changing organizational goals from time to time depending on market factors so long as the changes contribute to the realization of increased profitability and success. However, the restaurant's General Manager works with his/her leadership team to develop specific goals and help Department managers to establish their own goals. The success and profitability of McDonalds throughout the years can partly be attributed to effectiveness of its managers in establishing strategic goals and direction. Therefore, through helping in establishing clear goals, managers play an important role in achieving organizational success by influencing a company's strategic direction in light of market factors.

The other way through which managers play a vital role in realization of organizational goals is by defining plans that are in line with the organization's overall objectives. For McDonalds Corporation, the managers utilize the established clear goals as a means of developing plans and actions that contribute towards success and productivity. Managers have the task of ensuring that plans and actions taken within the organization align with the desired goals and mission. In essence, many organizations have failed not because of poor managers or leaders but mainly because of lack of plans that are in line with organizational mission and goals. The process of developing plans that fit the organization's goals involves infusing it with value, effective distribution of resources, and developing its distinctive competence (Cohen, Eimicke & Heikkila, 2008).

The final way through which managers play a vital role in obtaining organizational success is through ensuring effective communication and review of work progress. After formulating plans and actions towards success, managers communicate these plans to organizational departments. The departments utilize the plans as the basis for their action and processes in order to ensure increased profitability. Managers review each department's work on the basis of organizational objectives and depending on the established goals to determine progress towards desired results.

Organic vs. Mechanistic Organization

Organic and mechanistic organizational structures are two different types of mechanisms that are utilized by companies to differentiate roles and responsibilities, information flow, and power and authority within the firm. In addition to effective management, organizational structure is the other important element for success and productivity. Generally, an organization must select the most suitable organizational structure based on its individual needs. A suitable organizational structure enables the firm to effectively adapt to unprecedented circumstances and respond suitably to its internal and external business environments. Moreover, a suitable organizational structure helps to ensure proper decision-making process and operating procedures are established within the organization. Organic and mechanistic organizational structures are systems that were properly classified by Burns and Stalker in 1961 based on the findings of studies in the electronics sector (Naoum, 2001, p.85). Despite being different, these two organizational structures have certain similarities.

One of the similarities between the two structures is that they focus on helping an organization towards achieving its overall goals and objectives. Despite their differences and suitability for different business...

Secondly, these structure help towards promoting effective decision making and proper operating procedures when selected appropriately. The ability of the two structures to promote organizational success and productivity is largely attributed to their role in promoting effective decision making and ensuring the establishment of proper operating processes. Third, organic and mechanistic organizational structures provide managers with suitable ways for developing an organizational design that helps in achievement of desired results. These organizational design considerations enable managers to make decisions regarding effective management.
Regardless of these similarities, there are numerous differences between organic and mechanistic organizations. First, a mechanistic organization is characterized by centralized decision making, a long organizational structure, inflexible departmentalization, and seemingly high extent of job specialization. On the contrary, an organic organization has decentralized decision making, a short organizational culture, flexible departmentalization, and low extent of job specialization (Gitman & McDaniel, 2007, p.253). Secondly, a mechanistic organization is a bureaucratic organization whereas an organic organization is a dynamic organization that is characterized by flexible environments. Third, while an organic organization is closely linked to autocratic leadership style, a mechanistic organization is closely associated with democratic leadership style. Fourth, while rapid change is usually very challenging to implement in a mechanistic organization, it is seemingly easier and simpler to organize. In contrast, an organic organization is relatively difficult and complicated to organize though implementing rapid change is usually easy. While an organic organization is characterized by open communication between employees, executives, and managers, a mechanistic organization has minimal daily interaction since employees work separately and have their own specific tasks.

Process of Formulating Corporate Strategy

The formulation of corporate strategy can be described as a process through which an organization selects the most suitable courses of action for achievement of established goals and objectives. Corporate strategy formulation is an important aspect of organizational success since it provides the mechanism for actions that would contribute to realization of desired results. The significance of corporate strategy to organizational success and productivity is that the process forces an organization to critically examine its changing environment and anticipate changes through suitable plans. Moreover, the process of formulating corporate strategy enables an organization to examine its resources, allot budgets, and determine the most effective measure for increasing return on investment. During formulation of corporate strategy, managers decide where to compete and determine value creation activities for the business or organization (Hill & Jones, 2012, p.309). There are various steps that companies can use towards formulating effective corporate strategy.

When starting a new restaurant chain, McDonalds Corporation should follow the six steps for formulation of corporate strategy. The first step in formulation of corporate strategy is defining the organization with regards to its business and area of competition. This step also entails determining the organization's customers in relation to their needs in order to develop a strong customer base and obtain competitive advantage. Defining the organization also requires identifying the end benefit for customers, identifying the target market, and operating processes. This step should be followed by defining the strategic mission for the organization, which helps in providing a long-range and long-term view of the organization's objectives ("Strategy Formulation" n.d.). A clear strategic mission provides the company with direction for carrying out its processes and plans.

The third step is to define the strategic objectives in order to determine the necessary performance targets to achieve the clearly established objectives and goals. Once the strategic objectives are created, they must be communicated with all stakeholders and workers to promote success and productivity. This will be followed by defining the competitive strategy with regards to where the organization fits into the specific industry and marketplace. The process of defining competitive strategy also involves creating proactive reactions to possible changes in the market. The other aspect in defining a competitive strategy is determining the company's resources and how they will be utilized.

The fifth step in formulating a corporate strategy is implementing the strategy to determine its effectiveness. However, the organization needs to ensure individual actions or tactics are created to act as the foundation for implementing the created corporate strategy. The final step in formulating corporate strategy is to evaluate progress through examining process and results based on established objectives. This process enables the organization to determine if the established goals are being met or not as well as identified any changes that may be needed to propel the organization towards achieving desired results.

Meaning of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a term that can…