As a target organization for analysis, Spotify is chosen, a Swedish streaming service that allows for legal listening to music files and provides access to both songs and other formats, such as podcasts and audiobooks. It has both a customized website and a user-friendly mobile app that is suitable for all types of operating systems and different devices. The problems related to this successful service’s operational activities and organizational design are excessive spans of control and weak role distribution. Mankins and Garton (2017) analyze the routine activities of Spotify and note that its principle of distributing tasks among employees is based on “loosely coupled, tightly aligned squads,” which, in turn, makes it harder for them to adjust to long-term plans (p. 5). However, this practice is fraught with poor performance due to limited management practices and the lack of time and resources to assess the adequacy of the relevant operational decisions.
From a theoretical perspective, the presented problems can be considered as risks caused by managerial omissions due to the inability to control the activities of a specific number of employees within the framework of the assigned tasks and developmental goals (Scott & Davis, 2007). The issues are relevant in the context of the extensive market coverage that Spotify is seeking and require appropriate intervention because employees cannot regulate the range of tasks on their own, and only “God controls not only the rain but also the whole natural order” (Merida, 2015, p. 117). Therefore, the general problem addressed in this research is the inability of management to establish a sustainable algorithm for allocating tasks based on the available workforce, which results in excessive spans of control and weak role distribution.
References
Mankins, M., & Garton, E. (2017). How Spotify balances employee autonomy and accountability. Harvard Business Review, 95(1), 1-7.
Merida, T. (2015). Christ-centered exposition: Exalting Jesus in 1 & 2 Kings. B&H Publishing Group.
Scott, W. R., & Davis, G. F. (2007). Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural, and open systems perspectives. Pearson Education.