Introduction
Human society is the largest organisation of people that the mankind has managed to create. The society develops according to the principles that regulate the functioning of organisations as well. Numerous scholars have tried to study and explain these principles, and what they have managed to generalize is the definition of the organisation as a collection of individuals united by joint goals and activities directed at achieving these goals (University of Leicester, 2008, pp. 4 – 6).
Some other scholars add the flexibility to the definition by considering the role of environment and contingencies in developing the organisational structure (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 20). This paper aims at studying the organisational structure of Wilson & Co., a Grenada-based accounting and consulting company, through application of basic organisation structure theories.
In more detail, this paper will examine the historical and business background of the Wilson & Co. company with the help of considering the accounting and consulting industry background. Further on, this research work will move to study the organisational structure of the Wilson & Co. company and its major goals as stipulated in the company’s mission, vision, and the strategic planning statements.
The next step of the current research will be to compare and analyze the correspondence of the organisational structure and organisational goals of Wilson & Co. company. Respective conclusions will be made from this analysis, which will allow formulation of the final conclusions and recommendations of the research. The two final points of the work will be exactly the summary of the major research findings and the set of recommendations that the company might use in case of necessity.
Wilson & Co. Overview
Industry Background
Thus, Wilson & Co. operates in the business environment of Grenada. The economy of this country is based upon four major areas of activity that include agriculture, tourism and services, trade, and construction (Best of the Caribbean, 2009). The economy of Grenada is a developing one, and this means that Grenada’s business environment is greatly affected by the international economic processes of globalization and trade liberalization (Best of the Caribbean, 2009). This fact, in its turn, also means that the competition in the market of Grenada is strengthened by the international companies choosing to operate in Grenada. The services industry in which Wilson & Co. functions is also characterized by strong competition, with the only exception that only the domestic companies dominate this industry (Best of the Caribbean, 2009).
Company’s History
Wilson & Co. operates in the accounting and consulting segment of the services industry in Grenada. In this industry segment, Wilson & Co has four major competitors. They are Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Arthur Anderson Company, Pannell Kerr Forster, and Agostini W R FCCA Company (Best of the Caribbean, 2009). All these companies, as well as Wilson & Co. operate in the same industry segment and offer their customers the same set of accounting and consulting services that include general and IT management consulting, financial and insolvency consulting services, accounting and auditing, tax planning, outsourcing, and liaison services for international clients (Best of the Caribbean, 2009).
Accordingly, being one of the major players of Grenada’s accounting and consulting services industry, Wilson & Co. is a rather young company whose establishment dates back to March 9, 1992 (Wilson & Co., 2009). Started as a partnership of three enthusiasts of accounting and consulting sphere, Wilson & Co. soon managed to acquire considerable authority among the customers in Grenada and abroad. Currently, Wilson & Co. has the staff consisting of the three founding partners and twelve other professionals. Although being a small-scope company, Wilson & Co. manage to compete in Grenada accounting and consulting services industry (Wilson & Co., 2009).
Wilson & Co. Major Characteristics
Currently, Wilson & Co. is a wide scope-oriented company that aims at providing its customers with the most professional and high-quality services (Wilson & Co., 2009). The major characteristics of this company include the well developed infrastructure that allows Wilson & Co. to carry out its promotional campaign in mass media, online, and among the clients in Grenada. As well, the company has a properly developed website that introduces Wilson & Co. to the new clients and informs the loyal customers about the company’s recent developments (Wilson & Co., 2009). The company also has a clear strategy of its development, and values its partners and employees.
Wilson & Co. can also be characterized by the wide range of services it offers in Grenada market to the domestic and international clients in need of accounting and consulting help (Wilson & Co., 2009). Finally, the fees and prices for Wilson & Co. services are adjusted to the needs and possibilities of different groups of clients and are fairly calculated drawing from the time and effort Wilson & Co. professionals spend on a particular case, the essence of the very case, and the urgency of the task presented (Wilson & Co., 2009).
Wilson & Co. Organisational Structure
Leadership and Management
The concept of leadership is rather important for every organization. In Wilson & Co., leadership is not as prominent as in large-scale companies operating with thousands of employees and having million annual turnovers. In the company with only 15 employees, the team spirit and cooperation are the phenomena that substitute leadership in its traditional understanding. Therefore, the three founding partners of Wilson & Co., Mr. Lauriston Wilson, Jr., Mr. Peter Wilson, and Mr. Donald Wilson, act more as coordinators and co-workers of the company’s staff, rather than traditional leaders, whose role is to supervise, control, reward, and punish (Wilson & Co., 2009).
University of Leicester (2008) reports that according to leadership theories, leadership behavior is either inherent or learn, or conditioned by the contingencies and outside circumstances (p. 247). Applied to Wilson & Co., none of these theories alone reflects the development of the company’s leadership. For example, inherent leadership theory according to which “leaders are born, not made” (p. 248) can be applied to Wilson & Co.
The behavioural theory of leadership can also be applied in part to this company, as Wilson & Co. leaders have managed to establish and develop the company by their specific activities rather than mere being persuasive and charismatic personalities. As well, contingency theory is also applicable as leadership styles and practices of Wilson & Co. were modified and developed in accordance with the company’s needs, market conditions, and development perspectives (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 247).
Services and Fees
The organisational structure of the company is greatly affected by the services the company intends to offer and the fees it has for its services. According to University of Leicester (2008), determining the services and fees of the company is one of the major strategic choices the company’s management should make alongside with selecting the organisational goals and means of their achievement, positioning and promotion of the organisation, and establishing the policies according to which the organisation is operated (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 206). Considered from this point of view, Wilson & Co. disposes of the proper ways of making strategic choices.
The set of services that Wilson & Co. offers its clients ranges from general consulting in management and finance issues to considering specific cases and helping people and organizations in need of help with handling their resources, financial reports, and assets (Wilson & Co., 2009). Wilson & Co. offers general and specific IT management consulting services, the wide range of financial services including business evaluation, insolvency, and fraud investigation services (Wilson & Co., 2009). Moreover, Wilson & Co. offers accounting and auditing services, helps in tax planning, carrying out offshore banking, real estate trade and rent services, and outsourcing (Wilson & Co., 2009).
Drawing from such a wide variety of services offered, Wilson & Co.’s organisational structure can be considered from the point of view of the systems approach to organization as presented by University of Leicester (2008, p. 21).
The systems approach defines four major elements of the organisational structure that include inputs, transformation process, outputs, and feedback. Inputs include human resources and funding allocated to achieving the outputs through the process of transformation. The major outputs of the organisation are services (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 21); therefore, Wilson & Co. has the organisational structure that can be assessed as a proper one if considered through the systems approach. The wide range of services offered and the high assessment of the services quality by the company’s clients allows stating that Wilson & Co. makes proper inputs to its organisational structure and obtains proper outputs.
Departments
As it is noted by University of Leicester (2008), departmentalization and decentralization of the organisational design are major elements of the administrative theory of organisation formulated by Fayol and his supporters (p. 127). Therefore, if considered from the administrative point of view, Wilson & Co. can be assessed as a properly developed company. The reason for such a statement is the clear departmental structure of Wilson & Co., which includes the following units (Wilson & Co., 2009):
- Management Consulting Department
- Financial Services Department
- Accounting and Auditing Department
- Tax and Tax Planning Department
- Estate Planning Department
- Trust and Offshore Banking Services Department
- Corporate Services Department
- Communications and Telecommunications Department
- Outsourcing and Liaison Department
- General Business Advice Department (Wilson & Co., 2009)
Moreover, some of these departments are subdivided into smaller sections dealing with particular areas of the general interest for Wilson & Co. Thus, Management Consulting Department consists of general and information technology subsections; Financial Services Department is comprised of the sections dealing in general consulting, valuation, insolvency, and fraud investigation matters (Wilson & Co., 2009). Finally, Communications and Telecommunications Department is made up of the forwarding services section and the subsections dealing with office rent and internet services.
Theoretical Analysis
Accordingly, the above considered organisational structure of Wilson & Co. can be analyzed through the number of organisation structure and management theories laid out in the report by the University of Leicester (2008). These theories include the generalized overview of “classical” organisational structure views, the scientific theory by Taylor (1911), the administrative theory of organisation structure by Fayol (1841 – 1925), the bureaucracy theory by Max Weber (1864 – 1920), the set of the so called “dysfucntional” theories formulated by Merton (1949), Selznick (1949), and Gouldner (1954) (University of Leicester, 2008, pp. 15 – 16).
The “classical” approach to the organisational structure defends the point of view according to which an organisation is a collection of people united by joint goals. The main motivation to employees in such organization is increase of money obtained and decrease of work performed. The organisations structured according to this approach should, according to University of Leicester (2008) minimize the employees’ skills and strengthen the management control over the work process (p. 6).
However, in Wilson & Co., skills and professionalism of employees are valued most of all, and the fact that Wilson & Co. exists as a structured organization diminishes the role of classical organisation theory in analyzing Wilson & Co. The same can be said about the scientific approach by Taylor (1911), who outlined the ideal organisational structure as a gathering of 10 – 15 people having the same goals and ready to work on their achievement (University of Leicester, 2008, pp. 6 – 8). Taylor also stressed the danger of skill development for the organisational structure, and thus Taylor’s theory is also inapplicable to Wilson & Co.
The administrative theory by Fayol and the bureaucracy theory by Weber are more applicable to the company under analysis. Both these theories are concerned with structuring an organisation in order to facilitate its performance. Thus, Fayol and Weber identify 14 principles of organisational structure, and Wilson & Co. obviously conforms to the bulk of them (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 11).
First of all, discipline, division of work, and centralization of command and authority in Wilson & Co. are notable in this respect. Unity of direction, subordination, and remuneration are also observed in Wilson & Co., which allows speaking of it as a bureaucratically structured company. Finally, equity, initiative, and team spirit are basic values for Wilson & Co., which allows this company to steadily develop (Wilson & Co., 2009).
However, the excessive focus on bureaucracy might result in several serious contingencies, or dysfunctional consequences as argued by Merton (1949), Selznick (1949), and Gouldner (1954). The most dangerous of these consequences is the reluctance and hostility of employees conditioned by the strict supervision of their activities.
Gouldner (1954) calls this phenomenon “bureaucracy vicious circle” (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 16), and to avoid the situation when the management will make control stricter based on decreasing employees’ performance and the latter will decrease because of the stricter control measures, Wilson & Co. needs to pay more attention to the strategic goals in its development. The potential for Wilson & Co. to avoid the pitfalls of bureaucracy can be found out from the company’s goals and contingencies.
Wilson & Co. Organisational Goals
Mission and Vision
The major organisational goals of Wilson & Co. can be obtained from the vision and mission statements of this company. Presented at the official corporate web page, the mission statement of Wilson & Co. defines the following strategic goals of this company:
- Personalized and equal attention to the needs and requirements of every client;
- Employment of the professionals only to provide the company’s clients with the highest quality of services possible;
- Creation of the company’s competitive advantage through assisting Wilson & Co. clients in improving the performance of their companies;
- Responsibility to both employees and clients for the working environment quality and the professional level of services presented (Wilson & Co., 2009).
The vision of Wilson & Co. serves as a logical continuation of the mission statement and a clear outline of the company’s strategy. According to Wilson & Co. (2009), the company oriented on three major strategic directions in its development. They are client service, superior staff, and selectivity in its work. These strategic directions serve as the basis for the strategic planning initiatives implemented by Wilson & Co. In particular, the company adopts the policy of personal meetings with every client and carefully studying the case this client comes with. Selectivity thus allows Wilson & Co. to pick up the most complicated but the most potentially beneficial cases to deal with. This way, both Wilson & Co. and its clients obtain the high quality results of their work (Wilson & Co., 2009).
Theoretical Analysis
Such close attention to the strategic planning issues can be easily explained. McNamara (2008) views strategic planning as the means, through which an organisation defines its major goals for a specific period of time. Strategic planning, according to McNamara (2008), also determines the direction this organisation sets for itself, the means of achieving its goals, and the measurement standards, through which the organisation is to figure out whether its strategic planning has been successful (McNamara, 2008). Thus, understanding the importance of strategic planning and goal setting, Wilson & Co. tries to use the advantages the successful planning presents business companies.
As well, the numerous contingency theories of organisation argue about the importance of strategic planning for a company. Thus, the systems approach of the contingency theories, first formulated by Bertalanffy in 1951, stresses the importance of strategic planning for an organisation. In more detail, the systems approach deals with four major stages in shaping the organisational design. These stages include input, transformation process, output, and feedback (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 21). Strategic planning is important for each of them, as it allows forecasting the next stage while the previous one is implemented.
According to the systems theory, Wilson & Co. makes inputs to its activity in the form of investing money into the company development and employing the professional staff. The transformation process in Wilson & Co. is carried out through making a team of the set of professionals employed and attempting to establish the company’s authority among its clients. The output is presented in the form of services Wilson & Co. offers its clients and in the currently prominent position of Wilson & Co. in accounting and consulting industry in Grenada.
Finally, the feedback Wilson & Co. obtains from its input and transformation process is the positive reputation among the customers and actual figures of the company’s performance for the fiscal year. Based on these data, the company can make conclusions about the efficiency of its organisational and strategic planning, as well as identify the most relevant contingencies observed in it at the moment.
Relevant Organisational Contingencies of Wilson & Co.
On the whole, the contingency theories of organisational design have received such a title as they are arguing, as opposed to classical or bureaucracy theories, that an organisational structure cannot be ideal for every particular context, and that there are three major groups of factors that shape the organisational design. These groups are size of the organisation, technology, i. e. its technological development, and the market conditions in which the organisation has to operate (University of Leicester, 2008, p. 25).
Thus, all three major contingency theories are involved in defining the major contingencies for any particular organization. These theories are the systems theory, the socio-technical theory, and the contingencies theory as such (Donaldson, 2001, pp. 122 – 123). The most relevant contingencies of Wilson & Co. can be determined according to these theories and through the use of the above presented categorization.
Thus, the first group of contingencies of Wilson & Co. concerns the size of this company. As stated many times in preceding sections of this paper, Wilson & Co. is a small-scale company with only 12 staff and three partners constituting its human resources. According to University of Leicester (2008), the size of the organisation is crucial for such aspects of its functioning as centralization of authority, standardization of procedures, and formalization of documentation (p. 27). The larger an enterprise is, the more formalized and standardized its operation can become, and the better are chances that the company will stand the market competition. Accordingly, the small size of Wilson & Co. is one of the company’s contingencies.
Wilson & Co. has no obvious contingencies in respect of technology, but there are two contingencies related to the market the company operates in. The first contingency is the strong domestic competition in the accounting and consulting industry of Grenada, and the second one is the openness of this industry in Grenada to the international, more highly developed companies. Thus, contingent market conditions might make Wilson & Co. modify its organisational structure to stand the competition in the market and develop into a larger scale company with, possibly, international influence (Wilson & Co., 2009).
The final contingency that Wilson & Co. currently faces is the lack of conformity of the company’s organisational structure to its strategic goals and plans. The organisational goals of Wilson & Co. conform to the world’s highest standards for business companies. Wilson & Co. values its clients and employees, aims at presenting the highest quality of services to its clients and to employ only the specialists and professionals in accounting and consulting sphere.
However, the company’s organisational structure is not ready for achieving these goals at the moment (Wilson & Co., 2009). The most problematic areas of the organisational structure are the small scale of the company, Wilson & Co.’s functioning exclusively in domestic market, and lack of actual resources to stand potential competition with international accounting and consulting companies (Wilson & Co., 2009). Based on these contingencies, Wilson & Co. needs specific and measurable recommendations for improvements of its organisational structure.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Concluding Remarks
Thus, throughout this paper, the organisational structure of Wilson & Co., a Grenada-based accounting and consulting company, has been considered. As a result of the research carried out, it is obvious that Wilson & Co. operates in a highly competitive accounting and consulting segment of Grenada services industry. Still, Wilson & Co., founded in 1992, manages to compete in this market having only 3 partners and 12 staff as its employees.
The organisational structure of the company consists of ten departments that offer consulting, accounting, and auditing services to the company’s clients. Wilson & Co. adopts the cooperative leadership and sets progressive strategic organisational goals which, however, are in non-conformity with the current organisational structure and actual possibilities of the company. Based on this, the following recommendations are presented to Wilson & Co. as possible guidelines on the way of putting the company’s organisational structure and organisational goals in conformity.
Improvement Recommendations
Thus, on the basis of the theories applied to the consideration of Wilson & Co. organisational structure and taking into account the relevant company’s contingencies, the following activities are recommended for Wilson & Co. to be able to enhance its organisational structure and overall performance:
- Wilson & Co. should start increasing the staff number in order to become a large-scale company;
- The organisational premises and buildings should also be developed and enlarged to provide enough working space for new staff and offices for new departments;
- Wilson & Co. should diversify its services to stand the domestic competition by including the services that no competitor in Grenada offers its customers and by adjusting the pricing policy to the needs of all social groups in Grenada;
- Create the international development strategy and attempt to enter international markets of accounting and consulting services.
Reference List
Best of the Caribbean. (2009) Best Accountants and CPA’s in Grenada. BOC Grenada. Web.
Donaldson, L. (2001) The contingency theory of organizations: Foundations for organizational science. SAGE.
McNamara, C. (2008) Strategic Planning. Free Management Library. Web.
University of Leicester. (2008) Organisational Behaviour. Palgrave Macmillan.
Wilson & Co. (2009) The firm and Its Philosophy. Wilco Chartered Accountants, Management Consultants, Business Advisors. Web.