The Wallace Group Case Study

Organizational structure. Need for expanding size of executive management team and adding new corporate layers in the corporation.

The relationship between an organization’s strategy and structure are extremely important because it “directly impacts a firm’s performance” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 309). Also, as an organization grows, it should reevaluate the current strategy and structure to ensure that it remains the optimal choice for the organization (Rothaermel, 2013). The four types of organizational structures, listed in order of least to most complex according to Rothaermel (2013), are: (1) simple, (2)

• Given the changes in the company, there should be some periodic review of the organizational chart to assess whether changes are needed (having the same organizational structure for over 30 years may not be the most effective or efficient)

In today organization, these concepts have been changing and researchers have showed the importance of identify and work to improve them but if they resist this change process; they will continue having the same problem.

Need to develop communications channels for suggestions and ideas along with feedback regarding employee’s goals

Structure is the basis through which an organization seeks to create control the direction of an organization. This is completed through clear definitions of the allocation of work, differentiation, and the coordination of having those responsibilities working together towards the efforts of the organization, integration (Bolman & Deal, 1993, pp). Through these methods, the organization is able to devise a division of labor that collaborates to bring about the missions and goals of an organization. The structure that comes about from this can be varied in their rigidness and flexibility it allows, and to an extent this is a great contribution to its success.

Organizational Structure is necessary to run any company effectively and efficiently. There are six key elements that a company should be following for success and those elements are as follows:

As per the issues stated above I would recommend that Mr. Wallace begin to use strategic management. "Strategic management is that set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation." The main problem of The Wallace Group is that there is no focus. Hal was a successful entrepreneur, but lost his focus and handle on the company when it expanded. Some benefits of strategic management are developing a "strategic vision", focusing on what is "strategically important" and gaining a better understanding "...of a rapidly changing environment."

Change is going in the organization. With the help of theories I can easily visualize

Effective organizational structures define how job tasks are subdivided, grouped, coordinated, and managed. Six key components of organizational structures include division of labor, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization, and formalization (Remme, Jones, Van der Heijden, & De Bono, 2008, p. 79). Each element influence how employees interact with each other to reach organizational goals. Different structures are common in similar organizations among high performing organizations (Reimann, 1974, p. 707). The most appropriate structure will depend on the unique needs and culture of the organization.

a. The Wallace Group suffers from moving back and forth from an entrepreneurial mode to adaptive mode in its decision making. This can be clearly seen from the early days of Harold Wallace running all three businesses, reacting to existing problems as they arise, to the more recent events of settling unresolved disputes between Corporate

Manager’s of an organization has to use structure to help the company run efficiently. “The five types of organizational structures are functional, divisional, matrix, team-based, and virtual network” (Draft, 2013, p.316). Functional structure in an organization that is developed by grouping departments by the skills, level of knowledge, activities done daily, and the resource used. “This structure places specific departments from the bottom to the top” (Draft, 2013, p.318). For example, specific departments such as: human resources, accounting, engineering, and manufacturing are placed at the top, while there are mostly seen at the bottom in other organizations. While common functions such as; people, facilities, and other resources are combined together as a single department instead of being divided into multiple departments.

Structure is vital in shared governance where expertise and knowledge serve as guides to actions. It requires a commitment to the organizational mission and the profession of the organization. The practices must be structured within the rules of the employer and the laws that govern the industry. It also requires consistency in definitions, standardization, and the design of the governance with regular evaluations of performance levels.

Several years ago, Wallace and the Board decided to diversify further because two-thirds of their business was still defense-dependent. They learned that one of the major suppliers of the Plastics Group, a chemical

Over the past decades, organizational changes have become recurrent. It then became decisive for managers to perfectly understand this phenomenon in order to lead organizations to efficiency.