Question

You read about and practiced with various concepts regarding organizational structure and culture which affect employee behavior and success. Read the scenario carefully and provide your response regarding the organizational structure and culture in the fictional organization provided below.

Scenario (fictional):

An industry consulting firm has the following structure and culture:

All the employees at this consulting firm work full-time. All the full-time consultants report to various industry directors depending on the industry contract. The company employees work mostly from home with directors or consultants renting temporary office space with or without videoconferencing when needed for either client meetings or vendor meetings. The company is very successful and has an expanding client base.

The company CEO is extremely relaxed and extremely smart and expects everyone at the company to display a relaxed yet expert demeanor as well. There really are very few rules or expectations at the company as the CEO also believes in keeping processes very simple.

The previous president retired about six months ago, and the CEO, together with a human resources firm, hired a new president. About two months ago the company’s employees (i.e., consultants) started receiving emails from the new president putting pressure on all of them to produce results in less time but pressuring them to charge the clients higher sums without making any more money for themselves. In addition, the new president wants the staff to come into the office now three times a week for meetings. Three months ago the new president hired thirty new full-time consultants that seem more like salespersons than consultants to existing employees. A few of the long-time consultants have been emailing the CEO about these changes and suggesting they may go elsewhere. In the meantime, the Finance Director has detected several anomalies in the contract terms and financial results from some of the new consultants and one or two of the existing consultants.

• Describe the organizational structure at this consulting firm and how it affects employee behavior.
• Describe how the changes to the organization’s culture might affect employee behavior.
• Provide a recommendation for any adjustments you think need to be made at this organization based on the Reading and explain why.

After checking your spelling and grammar, upload your minimum 250-word response

Answer 1

Solution –

The organization structure is flat and has a straight line authority. This flat culture allows the consultants to be innovative and increase their productivity. The freedom in their working and way of work allowed for enhancing their performance. This kept them in sync with the consulting culture and allowed them to keep their demeanor. The change in the organization structure has led to a confusion between the employees and they have started to feel frustrated with the change. They have started contacting the CEO. This shows their dissatisfaction and also shows that the change is not welcome. Their whole way of work has been dismantled. The organization needs to communicate their expectations to their employees and also come up with an acceptable way of working. What is necessary for them to understand here is that their already exists a certain way of work and culture before the new president was hired. If the changes are required then they need to be subtle and acceptable to the organization as a whole so that implementation is easier. The management should do the following to ensure smooth transition –

1. Communicate with the employees and share the vision
2. Provide a career road map and set some expectations
3. Articulate the changes and also be open to feedback. All changes implemented do not always give the best results.

This will ensure that the open culture is restored and still the way of work and expectations are modified.