1st Answer

Since Groceries Unlimited is a startup company, their internal organizational aspects

need to be aligned well. The 7S framework speaks about the organs that need to be
given the importance for the smooth managing and also in order to enhance the
performance of the organization. The 7S model will help Groceries Unlimited to analyze
the company’s organization.

The following are the various elements of

Strategy: It refers to an approach developed in order to build or maintain the

competitive position in the market. However, it is extremely important to keep the other
six elements in mind while the strategy is designed. A long-term goal strategy refers to
the ideal plan for any organization. However, if it is not in sync with the rest elements,
then the execution won’t be good enough to produce the outcome.

The strategy of onboarding employees should be given time and importance, as it may
determine the shared value, skill, and staff factor. After recruitment of the employees, it
is important that they also know the strategy of the then on-going project.

Structure: This element refers to how the organization is structured. It refers to the
design or format employed in the way of organized departments. Along with the
positioning, it also serves as a fundamental for hierarchy. Completing the tasks by who,
assigned by whom, and who is supposed to bear accountability, all these consist of the
structure.

Systems: The system refers to the process and procedures practiced and the everyday
activities maintained in the organization. The methods such as the arrival of answers,
board meetings and the product/service provision, etc. together make the system of
organization For instance, if Groceries Unlimited is an e-commerce company, the
systems involved would be the procedures where managing, marketing, shipping,
logistics, and customer service is made.

Shared Values: The values must be reflected in the organizational strategy of the
company, in the structure of company, in the system of working, in the leadership style,
in the skills possessed by the employees, and in the methods of functioning applied by
the staff.

Skills: The skills element refers to the intelligence, ability and employee attributes. It
determines the quality of work and the speed for the task completion, hence playing a
very important role.

Style: The style factor symbolizes the technique and fashion in which Groceries
Unlimited is handled. It talks about the qualities of leadership possessed by the
individual or group of management, in authority. With great power, come great
responsibilities. In the same way, the team leaders need to have a wide range of
qualities, so that they can take care of any responsibility handed over to them.

Staff: The staff element involves the number of employees and the kind under which
they fall. With the system factor, most staffs find automated tasks very convenient as it
enables them to manage time with other tasks in an efficient manner. Integrating all the
above elements of the 7S framework can help to enhance performance.

Conclusion (How it improves performance): To explain how the 7S framework

works, the company needs to think about their strategy and systems. Strategy refers to
the plan Groceries Unlimited has for the company; it’s the way they want to go after
their goals. The system refers to the things their employees do every day and the
process through which they perform the work.

Let’s suppose Groceries Unlimited as a startup has a new strategy: They wish to boost
sales with the help of a sales script. However, if they follow the 7-S framework in order
to analyze their organizational aspects, they would discover that employees aren’t
sticking to the script while making the sales calls. Hence, they haven’t aligned their
strategy and systems. In order to fix their problems, they would have to make changes
to either area. Either the company needs to come up with or rewrite the script which the
employees are comfortable following, i.e., fix the strategy. Alternatively, the company
could change the system through making the script mandatory for each and every staff
member. These changes would help them to align the systems and strategy so that the
company can achieve their sales goals.

Once Groceries unlimited aligns the two elements of problem, they now need to look at
the remaining five factors. They need to look at Structure: This includes their company’s
hierarchy; in simple words it indicates and details the reporting structure and hierarchy.
Let’s suppose that the company requires all salespeople to follow the script. If the sales
team manager doesn’t make that rule mandatory, the structure of the company will be
out of alignment.

At the same time, it is important to consider the “”staff”” element. If the employees
require help to follow and become better at script, for example, the company needs to
hold training sessions in order to align the Strategy, systems, structure, staff. Likewise,
the company also needs to ensure that their values and their leadership styles work in
harmony with the other elements. Also, since it is a startup-company, it is important to
know that all the departments can have limited number of staff members in order to be
smoothly managed by the team leaders. However, every employee recruited needs to
skilled and intelligent.
2nd Answer

Introduction: Organizational design refers to the process of creating hierarchy within a

company. The six elements of organizational design enable the business leaders to
establish the departments of company, chain of command and overall structure.

Work specialization: Work specialization refers to the very first elements of structure of
the organization. Business leaders should consider the job tasks and specific duties
associated with the given positions. In a retail store, the jobs are clearly defined and the
store needs to assemble clear guidelines and job descriptions of which employee
should be doing what in order to keep things from descending into chaos. Each
and every one should be tasked with specific duties so that things don't fall
through the cracks.
Departmentalization: Departmentalization refers to the process through which the
work is collected on an everyday basis It includes business subdivisions and units on
the basis of their functions or other criteria. Most companies, such as grocery stores,
supermarkets, usually prefer to use more departmental types simultaneously on the
basis of type of task, function or other guidelines on the basis of the type of product
types, group of customers and even geographic location.

The functionality of a retail store can operate with the help of a separate sales and
marketing method rather than operations. Operations in the context of supermarkets
apply to promotion of new products, while sales would occur for products that have
been commercialized since the beginning.

In addition, every supermarket must have a product to be sold. The department can be
divided by the kind of product and can work in the prescribed part by separation of the
activities and costs of salary associated with the specified parts such as softline,
hardline or some other terms to be used in the retail store.

Chain of Command: The chain of command refers to what the organizational chart
typically illustrates. It indicates which team members would report to which manager
(team leader) in the company's structure of human resources.

The CEO, owner, or president usually takes the responsibility of reporting to

stakeholders and overseeing all the organizational aspects involving the profits,
personnel matters, and operations. In a small organization, the owner is likely to have
more one-on-one time with employees and customers. This holds true in the initial few
years as the owner/founder of the retail store is expected to perform many different
roles in order to keep the business smooth. On the organizational chart under the
retail store operations, it is expected to see a tree or hierarchy diagram of store
managers, and department or assistant managers, cashiers, salespeople, receiving,
and loss prevention (security) personnel.
Span of control: The span of control refers to the design element of the organization
considering the managerial capacity to lead the number of subordinates. There are
limits to the number of subordinates a superior can oversee and supervise. The span of
control addresses this element of design.

A marketing manager (team leader) may have employees working under him which
include the executives handling the public relations, promotions, and displays of in-store
visuals. Under the merchandising department, the manager may have to supervise the
executives concerned with planning, buying, and the personnel controlling the inventory,
and the HRM manager may have to supervise the staff under human relations who look
after the hiring, recruitment, and training of employees and handle benefits and other
personnel matters. Finally, an IT manager may lead and supervise the staff members
looking after things such as mainframe and desktop computer maintenance and
backup, online security, and other information technology issues.

Centralized or Decentralized: For a retail store, a decentralized decision making

process would be suitable. In this, the upper levels of management delegate some of
the process of decision-making onto executives at the lower-level and even to individual
employees. The overall authority is still maintained by managers at the top level, who
make policies influencing the decisions having a major impact on the store, but most
responsibility of decision-making is delegated to the lower levels.

This form of management would, for example, allows a marketing manager at a retail
store to take quick decisions that may positively impact their work environment.
Decentralized management is usually the case in areas having a lot of direct contact
with clients and customers, as it allows the managers closest to the “Action” to be more
flexible.

Suppose a retail store sells trendy clothes. The sales and staff managers often receive
feedback from shoppers that can be of great importance for the purchase department in
order to cater to the consumer needs. If this information is relayed through the line of
upper management, which in most cases are weekly or monthly reports, it causes a
huge delay on the changes impacting the storefront.

Conclusion: Irrespective of size of the organization, various tips can guide the
organization in planning their structure. It is important to focus on providing a good
experience to the customer. It is important to keep few layers as possible. The more
layers a company has, the more complicated things would become for the employee
and the customer. Tie compensation provided to the experience of customer,
regardless of the role or job duties. It is important to develop a culture of one company
and one team. Necessary to eliminate the silos between sales and operations, which
remind all employees that each cog in the machine has its own importance and
usefulness.
3rd Answer

3a. Organizational effectiveness, in general, is defined as the collaboration of

resources, people, and processes in order to achieve certain objectives

The complications to deliver a service or product lie in the resource coordination, people
and processes in a way that the maximum possible output in quality and quantity is
achieved at the least cost.

In many situations, organizations don’t perform their best. Within an organization, a

reason for this may be that effectiveness of organization cannot be considered in a
holistic assessment of the functionality of a company.

1. Appreciate Resources, People, and processes: The first step to improve the
effectiveness of the organization is to appreciate the interrelationship of resources,
people, and processes. The awareness of a general process flow from the consumption
of resource to the service delivery is considered the value chain of the organization. So,
it is important to recognize which of these process chains are supportive and which
ones are core processes. Also, every department would have their own set of core
processes defining their ultimate purpose and contribution to the whole of the
organization. Assimilation of this process information will ensure that there is an
alignment among departments and that every department executes effectively as a cog
in the entire organization.

2. Address Organization Strategy and Objectives: Once there is a good understanding

of the value chains, the second step is required to address strategy and objectives of
the organization. The core process identified should align to the strategy and objectives.
But, what needs to be done first: strategy or value chain? The presented methodology
must not be considered in sequence. Until an equilibrium is achieved, there is a back
and forth between strategy and objectives and the definition of the value chain. The
definition of strategy and objectives through the strategic plan would have an impact on
the design of the value chain that may require adjustments. The strategic plan therefore
plays an integral part in working in order to achieve effectiveness of higher organization.

.
3 Align Organizational Structure to the Strategy: The final step is to align the structure
of the organization to the strategy. By reviewing a strategic plan, one will find some
noble objectives and initiatives. However, when mapping these objectives with the
organizational structure, it is possible to identify discrepancies. Often, various
organizational units don’t map to the strategy or are not affected by the strategic plan. In
many scenarios, every unit of organization picks what it deems its main concern out of
the overall plan of strategy. A differentiator of an effective organization is the capability
to engage all units of organization to participate and contribute in making the company
the best it can be.
4. Measuring Results against Strategy: To ensure ongoing success, organizational
effectiveness needs to be measured, and there are different techniques that can be
used. The most popular one is the balanced scorecard, which measures customer-
facing internal organizational performance through learning and improvement, and uses
financial criteria in order to establish a holistic view that indicates how effectively the
municipality is functioning. To ensure that management stays on track according to its
strategic plan, the balanced scorecard must be linked to strategy.

5. Continuous Improvement: Finally, to achieve the effectiveness of organization, the

organization should demonstrate a willingness that it wants to continuously improve its
processes. This would require techniques of feedback, channels of internal and external
communication, and that suggestions to improve are taken seriously. If nothing ever
changes, people will develop apathy toward the organization, which may lead to
stagnation and ineffectiveness. Organizations having a good strategic plan and are
able to communicate it to the organization, monitor progress, and evaluate their
processes for constant improvement would achieve a better level of organizational
effectiveness.

3b. George must adopt an indoor process approach: This approach has been
developed in response to a hard and fast output view of the goal approach. It's at the
interior activities. Organizational effectiveness is assessed as internal organizational
health and effectiveness. Consistent with Internal-Process Approach, effectiveness is
that the capability to urge better at internal efficiency, co-ordination, commitment and
staff satisfaction. This approach assesses effort as against the attained effect.
Factors like trust, integrated systems, and smooth functioning are viewed as more
precise measures of organizational effectiveness compared to, for instance, the goal
attainment approach. The method model emphasizes the interior logic and consistency
among the throughput processes of the organization since they convert an
organization's inputs into desired outputs.
The basic hypothesis of this approach is that there's a transparent linkage between the
interior processes (such as deciding and staffing) and desired outputs. Notwithstanding
the above concerns, another problem that's common to the goal attainment, systems
resource, and internal process model of effectiveness is their failure to think about the
political nature of organizations. Non-profit organizations, like Hellenic national sporting
organizations (NSOs), are political entities, whereby multiple constituencies (volunteers,
coaches, paid administrative staff, state representatives, etc.) function together to
understand organizational goals and seek satisfaction for his or her needs or
expectations. In these terms the multiple constituency models can provide a more
representative picture of the effectiveness of such organizations. this is
often because actually strategic constituent groups determine the way organizations are
functioning and what's to be perceived as effective or ineffective presented the input-
throughput-output cycle which was supported an open system view of organizations.
This framework integrated several models of effectiveness: the goal, system resources
and process model which their focus was respectively on the output, input and
throughput sectors of a corporation. The multiple constituency models conceive
effectiveness not as one statement but it recognizes that organizations have multiple
constituents or stakeholders who evaluate effectiveness in.