Mintzberg’s Critical Organizational Structures and the Three Self-Determination Theories

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Contents Executive Summary  3 Introduction  4 Organizational Structures  4 Divisional Structure  4 Professional Bureaucracy  5 Self-Determination Theory  6 Autonomy  6 Competence  7 Relatedness  8 Conclusion  9 Executive Summary
The report is organized into two parts that are presented individually. The first part highlights some of Mintzberg’s critical organizational structures and elaborates on them explicitly. The two organizational structures include divisional, whereby each division has its structure, and the professional bureaucracy, which operates under well-laid-out rules and regulations and is operated by professionals. The report provides real-life examples of organizations that utilize this structure in each division, including Procter & Gamble (P&G) as well as law and accountancy firms. In each of these structures, human resource (HR) management plays a crucial role in ensuring they are successful, and hence, the report also outlines some of the HR practices to augment employee performance. The second part of the report looks into the three self-determination theory constructs, including autonomy, relatedness, and competence geared at improving overall employee performance. This part outlines the HR practices that can be utilized for each of the three constructs, including training activities, team building, and giving the employees the freedom to decide on their own and align with the organizational goals. This part will also outline my experiences with HR practices and how they improved employee performance at the workplace.
Introduction
Organizations are created to achieve their specified goals. Due to the different plans an organization needs to achieve, various structures are prone to be present. Henry Mintzberg divided organizations into five main parts. The fundamental components include strategic apex, operating core, technostructure, middle line, and support staff, providing indirect services and supporting other major components, including administration (Lunenberg, 2012, p.2). Mintzberg also divided the organizational structures into five: simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisional structure, and adhocracy. While there are different divisions of organizational structures, employee engagement is vital to achieving corporate objectives. Given the economic strain businesses face on their budget, one of the frameworks utilized in creating employee engagement is the self-determination theory (SDT). The SDT framework outlines three constructs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and how they impact employee engagement at the workplace (Salikhova et al., 2020, p. 4). This essay will look into two types of organizational structures, providing real-life examples and outlining the HR management practices needed to ensure employee performance improvements within these structures. The report also highlights how the HR manager would facilitate the attainment of the psychological needs of competence, relatedness, as well as autonomy while maintaining workplace productivity.
Organizational Structures
Divisional Structure
Within the divisional archetype, all units are in the middle line. This structure is different from the rest of the other structures in the sense that it does not constitute a complete structure from the strategic apex to the operating core, but rather each division within the organization is made up of different structures (Mintzberg,n.d. p. 381). Mintzberg highlights that most fortune 500 companies, especially those that deal with a wide range of merchandise, utilize the divisional structure. For instance, Proctor and Gamble (P&G), a multinational consumer goods company, is among the many that use the divisional structure. The company produces different products, such as household products and personal care products. This way, its divisional structure revolves around product categories, such as beauty, fabric care, and baby care. Each division has its structure responsible. The advantage of this structure is that it allows each category to focus on its unique needs rather than bombarding the senior leaders with a lot to handle. It also tailors the products to the market and consumer demands of the product and responds to changes in the market. The importance of HR in this kind of structure cannot be ignored as they help support employee performance in several ways. One is providing performance evaluation and feedback to assess employee performance and provide feedback for improvement. Another way is by providing clearly defined job roles and responsibilities (Burley, 2023, n.p) and utilizing collaborative recruitment to have the best and most qualified employees join the team.
Professional Bureaucracy
The professional bureaucracy coordinates standardized and specialized skills (Mintzberg,n.d. p. 348). This kind of division relies on the professionals that perform it for rules and carrying out the different tasks. The rules are based on law, regulations, or independent external bodies (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, 2023, n.p). In this structure, standard operating procedures and rules are strictly enforced, and a clear hierarchy of authority exists. In most cases, law and accounting firms use this structure. Partners and senior attorneys make the decisions in law firms, and junior attorneys and support staff follow established procedures and rules. Similarly, partners and senior accountants make the decisions in accounting firms, and junior accountants and administrative staff follow established regulations and guidelines. In order to support employee performance, HR professionals need to emphasize hiring and training highly skilled professionals as the idea behind the structure s to recruit and maintain top talent, provide training and development to help in career advancements, and keep up with the current market regulations.
Self-Determination Theory
According to Glendinning (2018, p.4), self-determination theory (SDT) holds that humans are inclined towards achieving active growth and seek opportunities to fulfill their fundamental psychological needs. All the basic psychological needs delineated within the SDT framework should be met for an individual to be psychologically fit and integrated. It is not enough to satisfy one or two of the fundamental psychological wants. These include relatedness, competence, and autonomy (Glendinning, 2018, p.4). By implementing these constructs, the HR manager is able to leverage an evidence-centered model to motivate employees effectively. SDT considers relatedness, competence, and autonomy to be crucial attributes for sustained motivation as well as factors to attain individual well-being, thriving, and growth (Forner et al., 2020, p. 78).
Autonomy
Autonomy is the need or passion for demonstrating volition as well as the ability to self-regulate one’s emotions. Individuals feel auton...