Strategic Management: Organizational Configuration

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT - THE MINI ASSIGNMENT
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Question 1
Organization configuration mainly involves a group of firms that tend to share a common profile of the organization’s characteristics or features. The organization configuration provides a valuable model that can be used to describe how the organization structure affects the implementation of a strategy. In other words, the organizational configuration can help predict the organization structure of any type or kind of organization, which is then used to develop the organization’s strategy. It is usually part of the organizational structure, and the common elements that the groups share under the organization structure include a chain of command, the span of control, job design, departmentation, and others (Serrat, 2017, p. 2). Under configuration, it is important to note that the organization’s structure is defined. Once one is more conversant with the structure, then they can measure whether the structure and the strategy are well suited.
Mintzberg developed the organizational configuration theory, and under this, he proposed and defined five configuration approaches or parts whose interaction determines the strategy of the organization. Notably, these include strategic Apex, Techno structure, staff support, operating core, and middle line (Serrat, 2017, p. 3). The heart of the organization is made of the people of the operating core, and these are the people that produce its products and deliver its services. The strategic Apex is where the entire organization is overseen. The middle line forms the line between the Apex position and the operating core as more managers are employed to manage the workers and their managers, which is a result of the organization's growth. As the organization grows and becomes more complex, the technostructure is employed. This consists of the people that can coordinate the work of others and can include analysts or managers. Then there is also the support staff, and these provide the various internal services such as external relations, things to do with technology, information systems, and others (Serrat, 2017, p. 3). As discussed earlier, understanding the organizational structure plays a key role when it comes to developing and suiting the strategy; therefore, the organizational configuration model defines the different types of organizational structure. One of the organization structures includes the simple structure, also known as the entrepreneurial organization that is made of the flat structure which is one large united with a few or one senior manager. The other is the machine organization or machine bureaucracy, and under this, the tasks are grouped by the functional departments, decision making is centralized, and the work is formalized. The other is the professional organization which is very bureaucratic and relies on highly trained persons that demand the control of their work. There is also a divisional organizational structure, which comprises many business units and product lines divided into a number of autonomous or independent divisions that make their own decisions and each having a unique structure. An innovative organization structure is one that is made of many creative individuals or experts that the company brings together to form one creative and functional team.
Structure, strategy, and system or resources are supposed to reinforce each other under organizational configuration, and the main question is how they should influence each other. Following the configuration of the system, structure, and strategy, it should be noted that the organization is also influenced by other factors such as the environment and the organization’s performance. Notably, organizations are always dependent on a system or resources to be obtained from the outside environment. Therefore, the organization needs to develop a structure that matches the environment. Once the resources are obtained, the organizational structure is also developed such that the resources or the system are made productive. It is important to note that the different needs of the organization usually call for a different structure and systems configuration, following the strategy that is currently being implemented, and thus, for the firms to be generous, there is a need to focus and observe the market. It should be noted that their limited number of strategies and structures in the different types of the environment and the context of the organizational resources or systems are feasible in limited configurations. All the above conclusions follow the different relationships, including the one between the structure of the organization and the present or proposed strategy of the organization. According to different studies, it was concluded that once the organizational structure did not match or was not compatible with the organization’s suggested or current proposal, that would be defined as a corporate failure and thus would prevent the strategy from being properly implemented. Therefore, a reciprocal and interactive relationship is required between the strategy and the structure for the strategy to be properly and effectively implemented by the organization. The other relationship that is important to consider is between the strategy and the resources. Managers need to configure the resources or the system for the strategic change to occur in the organization, as the resources are the ones that provide the grounding for the strategy. According to some scholars, the formulation of a strategy is a resource itself, and thus organization’s orientation of the strategy should match the different resources of the organization. The other relationship between the three aspects of configuration is the one between the system and the structure of the organization. The organization’s structure had a unique influence on the organization’s ability to use its resources or various systems. Therefore, when the firm accumulates its multiple resources, the organizational structure...