Executive Summary
Proper coordination is important for the success of an organization. Therefore, organization design and structure require attention. Aquarius Advertising Agency is a marketing firm that operates under a traditional organization structure. This means that each department has its own functional unit.
The firm has ineffective coordination thus; the human resource manager should develop strategies that address the needs of the firm.
To begin with, Aquarius Advertising Agency has problems concerning the design and the structure. The firm lacks a separation between governance and operations. This means that employees involved in quality assurance and auditing do not subsist.
Furthermore, role definition is absent yet it is imperative for proper functioning of the firm. Moreover, the firm has a wide span of control that creates havoc. Lastly, the current existing structure, which is functional in nature, does not work because of slowness in decision-making process, ineffective communication as well as many hierarchical levels with unbalanced authority and responsibility.
The proposed solutions concentrate on either alleviation or minimization of the problems. Separation of governance and operations will assist the firm to produce and maintain high quality services.
Moreover, role description will alleviate conflicts of individual interests that usually lead to dissatisfaction of most employees. Besides, Aquarius Advertising Agency should shorten its span of control for easier management of the organization.
Lastly, to address the issue of unsuccessful organization structure, Aquarius Advertising Agency should decentralize its processes, create a balance between authority and responsibility as well as develop effective communication process that follow the hierarchy of command. If the implementation of these solutions take place, Aquarius Advertising Agency is likely to succeed in the competitive business environment.
Introduction
An organization usually performs a number of activities, which require proper coordination without which the company is likely to collapse. Aquarius Advertising Agency is a firm that deals with customized and complete plans. Customized plans involve advertising using slogans and layout while complete concerns the media.
Besides, promotional services include assistance in marketing as well as distribution of products. Additionally, the firm conducts research to analyze the effectiveness of advertising.
The firm operates in a traditional manner under a functional organization structure. Therefore, each department has similar functions. For instance, each department has its own hierarchical and professional systems. Therefore, a formal line of authority and responsibility exist in each department.
Moreover, specialized communication involves sharing of skills, experience and knowledge. Additionally, each unit manages its procedures and processes. Thus, account executives feel neglected.
On the other hand, customer coordination is ineffective. For instance, communication occurs directly from customers to specialists instead of passing through the account executives. Additionally, informal communications exist and some of them lead to formal meetings. For instance, direct communication usually takes place between the specialists and the customers.
My role as a human resource manager would be to meet the set strategic needs of the firm. The strategies would focus on effective and efficient organization design and structure. This includes effective communication, a clear line of authority and responsibility as well as customers and employees satisfaction.
The problem
Organization design
According to the case analysis, separation between governance and operation does not exist. For instance, customers communicate directly with the specialists. The organization has account executives who should act as a link between the customers and the Aquarius advertising agency.
Therefore, it is not a matter of organization lacking the required personnel. The Aquarius advertising agency depends on processes so that it can maintain an excellent relationship between the customers and the firm. Given that the Aquarius advertising agency is in the marketing field, this is unacceptable.
Mintzberg (2009) explains that organization design require to separate governance and operations. According to the case analysis, there is an amalgamation of governance and operation. This is the reason why the some informal meetings lead to contact between the customers and the Aquarius advertising agency personnel who make some presentations, interpretations and policy definitions.
It is evident that in the Aquarius advertising agency, role definition does not exist. As a result, some people have individual roles. This is the reason why the account executives are complaining that their roles are not recognized.
For instance, one of them said that it is hard to manage people who think they are doing their own things by attempting to sell their own ideas to the customers. He continued by reporting that if he was a dictator, he would make them pass through him before they offer any service to the clients. This scenario show that role descriptions of the account executives do not exist.
According to Zeffane (2008), role description is important as it help employees perform their duties according to the set goals and objectives. Since the Aquarius advertising agency does not have a clear role definition, the probability of increase in employees’ turnover is high.
This is because some employees are tired, bored and lack motivation. For example, the account executives are bored and lack motivation because the specialists have hijacked their roles. This is the reason why they have resigned to fate and wish that they could be dictators.
Additionally, the organization structure has unnecessary layers. Unnecessary layers slow the decision making process (Ulrich, 2008). This is the reason why the issue of informal communication between the clients and the specialists has not received any attention.
Additionally, no one has attended to the needs of the account specialists. With time, people will leave the Aquarius advertising agency because they will feel that they are not of value.
Moreover, the span of control of Aquarius advertising agency is wide. This is because the firm has several lines of authority. For instance, a client should pass through the account executive before reaching the specialist. This process is too long. As a result, customers bypass the hierarchy to ease the process.
This has created havoc in the company. In a survey conducted, Lorsch (2010) argues that in a stable environment, a number of hierarchies are necessary but if it is unstable, the scalar chain should be as short as possible.
According to the current organization design, the hierarchy is long yet the Aquarius advertising agency is unstable. This is the reason behind chaos and lack of transparency in Aquarius advertising agency. This is why a specialist can offer presentations and education to the clients without consulting with the president.
The current organization structure
The current structure of Aquarius advertising agency is functional. A functional structure is one where the grouping of people is according to the work that they perform (Anand, 2007). It includes groups that concern marketing, production, human resource as well as finance.
In the Aquarius advertising agency, the groupings entail purchasing, human resource, merchandising, distribution and finance. Therefore, each department has a similar function. As a result, each department has its own authority and responsibility. For instance, account vice president leads the account department.
Thus, he heads the account and executive departments. The operation vice president is the head of all the operations that take place in the Aquarius Advertising Agency. The operation vice president heads the production, copy and art departments. Finally, the marketing vice president heads the research, media and merchandising departments.
The vice presidents report to the executive vice president. The executive vice president reports to the president. Finally, the president is answerable to Board of directors. Additionally, the human resource and the financial managers are in the same line of authority.
Above them are the legal counsel, executive vice president and policy committee who perform similar functions, as they possess the same authority and responsibility. The overall in charge of the Aquarius Advertising Agency is the board of directors. Therefore, every person in the firm must report any issue to the board through the described scalar chain.
Why the existing structure does not work
To begin with, the existing structure does not work because of the slowness in decision-making process. According to McMaster (2007), decision-making process in such a structure is usually slow because of the many levels of authorities.
For instance, if the media department has a problem pertaining advertisement, it has to go through the marketing vice president, human resource manager, legal counsel, the president then board of directors. All these people have to discuss the issue before a solution is given.
As a result, time is wasted. Additionally, the process is slow and tiresome. In the event that the affected department is not consistent with the follow up of the problem, the company is likely to collapse.
Another reason behind the failure of the existing structure is ineffective communication. In such a structure, information should flow systematically from the customer, to the specific department, then the vice president following the same hierarchy until the board of directors receives the information.
This process is very long and as a result, Aquarius Advertising Agency is using shortcuts to fasten the communication process. For instance, customers communicate directly with the specialists.
This direct communication has led to dissatisfaction of some workers who feel that other people do not respect their authority and responsibilities. For instance, the account executives feel that other workers are ignoring their role, which is liaison between the customers and the specialists.
Lastly, this structure does not work because of the many levels of commands. According to Knudsen ( 2008), many hierarchical levels lead to difficulties in changing the needs of the customers. For instance, it may be difficult for a client with a problem concerning finance to have his needs receive satisfaction.
This is because of the long level of command that the account executive has to follow. Additionally, the concerned department does not have authority and responsibility to make some decisions.
For instance, the account executive may have the required knowledge of dealing with the customer’s problem but lack the appropriate authority and responsibility. As a result, a simple problem may consume a lot of time before the finding of the solution.
The proposed solution
Aquarius Advertising Agency requires performing a number of activities concerning organization design and structure to address the problems experienced by the firm. The main solution is organization restructuring.
Stacy (2010) explains that organization restructuring assist an organization to alleviate existing problems via provision of solutions that address the management issues. Therefore, organization restructuring should concentrate on authority, responsibility, role descriptions, scalar chain, communication and decision making process.
To begin with, Aquarius Advertising Agency needs to separate governance and operations. This means that management functions should be different from the processes. Zeffane (2008) argues that a separation between governance and other functions result to an organized firm. Examples of governance functions include quality control and assurance as well as auditing.
These functions are imperative in ensuring that an organization is on the road to achieving its vision and mission. Therefore, Aquarius Advertising Agency should create quality control and assurance as well as auditing functions. These functions will ensure that the firm is addressing the needs of the employees and the customers.
For instance, in the presence of such functions, complains, as those portrayed by the account executives will be outdated. Additionally, employees should have chances of assessing their own tasks to ensure that they are providing services that are of high quality (Handy, 2009). This will alleviate a situation where the employees feel that they are not of value to the Aquarius Advertising Agency.
Moreover, managers should perform their function of supervision to ensure that employees are doing the right things according to the laid down principles and rules. For instance, if managers of the Aquarius Advertising Agency were performing their roles effectively, they would have realized the existence of informal communications and meetings.
Furthermore, Aquarius Advertising Agency should develop role description that contributes to the achievement of the organization mission. According to Ulrich (2008), role description assists each employee to know his scope of works. Role description is important in Aquarius Advertising Agency because it will assist in the alleviation of individualization.
Individualization is a system where employees perform roles that favor their interests and not that of the organization (Stacy, 2010). For example, the arrangement of informal meetings benefits the specialists and not the chief accountants. Additionally, the chief executives do not have a clear role description.
This is the reason why other employees bypass their liaison role. As a result, Aquarius Advertising Agency need to define and describe the roles of each employee and make them familiar to every person in the firm. By doing so, the problem of role conflict will not occur again.
Additionally, the Aquarius Advertising Agency should narrow its scalar chain. This is because a short hierarchy of command makes the control the organization operations easier (Lloyd, 2008). Additionally, it reduces the shortcuts that usually result to informal meetings and presentations.
For instance, if Aquarius Advertising Agency had a short hierarchy of command, the specialists would consult with the president rather than having their own informal meetings and communications.
Additionally, the account executives would report their grievances rather than sitting back and grumble. Therefore, a short hierarchy of command is significant for the proper functioning of the Aquarius Advertising Agency.
To solve the problem of organization structure, Aquarius Advertising Agency requires decentralization process. This is a process where the lower level of management can make decision (Knudsen, 2008). It is important because if fasten the decision making process. For instance, the head of the art department should have the ability of making some decisions without consulting the president.
Additionally, different heads of departments should have authority as well as responsibility. According to Handy (2009), authority is the power to do something while responsibility is the obligation of performing a task. Therefore, employees should have authority that match with a specific responsibility.
This will help the Aquarius Advertising Agency to serve customers effectively. This is because it will lead to a reduction in problems associated with a long hierarchy of command. For instance, a chief executive who has authority and responsibility can address the customer financial issues without going through the scalar chain up to the board of directors.
Finally, Aquarius Advertising Agency should develop effective communication process. An effective communication process has a unity of direction and it assist in alleviation of situations where some employees are bypassed (Anand, 2007).
Therefore, Aquarius Advertising Agency should lay down the communication procedures from the top to the bottom and vice versa as well as horizontally and diagonally. This will reduce the chances of informal communication among employees and customers as well as the workers and the organization.
Conclusion
Organization design and structure is imperative for the success of a firm. The Aquarius Advertising Agency is a marketing firm that requires organization restructuring because of the many problems that it is facing.
For instance, problems concerning the organization design include separation between governance and operations, lack of role description and a wide span of control. On the other hand, it has an existing structure that does not work due to a variety of reasons.
They include slowness in decision-making process, ineffective communication and many levels of commands. As a result, there is a proposal of a number of solutions to address the existing problems.
The solutions encompass a clear distinction between operations and governance, role definition, narrowing of the scalar chain, decentralization process, a matching authority and responsibility as well as development of effective communication. If the implementation of these solutions take place, Aquarius Advertising Agency is likely to succeed in the competitive business environment.
References
Anand, R 2007, ‘What is the Right Organisation Design’, Organisational Dynamics, 36 (4), 329-344.
Handy, C 2009, Understanding Organisations, Penguin Books, London.
Knudsen, T 2008, Organisation Design: The past, Present and the Future, Springer, New York.
Lloyd, J 2008, Organisational Structure can be Underlying Cause of Workplace Issues, Oxford Publisher, Oxford.
Lorsch, W 2010, Organisational Structure and Design, IL Publication, Homewood.
McMaster, J 2007, The Intelligence Advantage, Organising for Complexity, Butterworth Heinemann, Newton.
Mintzberg, H 2009, ‘Structures in 5’s: A Synthesis of the Research on Organisation Design’, Journal of the Institute for Operation Research and the Management Science , 126 (13), 322-325.
Stacy, R 2010, Strategic Management and Organisation Dynamics, Pitman Publishing, London.
Ulrich, D 2008, The Boundary Less Organisation: Breaking the Chain of Organisation Structure, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey.
Zeffane, R 2008, ‘Organisational Structures: Design in the Nineties’, Leadership and Organisation Development Journal , 245 (78), 18-23.
Original Organisation Structure:
New Orgnaisation Structure:
