Some form of organizational culture and structure exist in every organization. Successful organizations are often credited with having an appropriate organizational culture and/or structure in place that allows them to reach success. Many companies can believe that they have the needed structure in place to assure success; yet they fail where others succeed. Some work very well, and some just do not work at all. For any organizational culture and structure to function properly, it seems as though alignment within the organization towards these end goals is necessary. In organizations, upper management determines the company vision (its desired end state) as well as its mission and strategy to achieve this ultimate goal. The ability of an organization's culture to motivate employees and increase its effectiveness is directly related to the way in which members learn the organization's values.
Organizational structure controls how people and groups cooperate and interact to achieve goals. The principal task of organizational structure is to encourage people to work hard to coordinate their efforts to ensure high levels of organizational performance (George & Jones 2005, p. 6). It plays an important role in day-to-day functions of an organization. The delegation of authority, work specialization, and employee reporting framework are some of the elements that help determine what the organizational structure should be. An efficient structure will facilitate decision-making and smooth the span of control or scope managers have over operations.
Organizational culture can be defined as the set of shared values, beliefs, and norms that influences the way employees think, feel, and behave toward each other and toward people outside the organization. As noted in ...