ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Phuoc D. Nguyen

There are many types of organizational structures, including simple, team, functional, product/service, market, project, customer/Atlassian, geographic area, matrix, mechanistic, organic, divisional, circular, Zendesk/the TOFU, Mindjet/the elastic, Forrester/the funnel-focused, GitHub/the culture, Messy reporting, Rue La La/the Creative, hybrid/combination, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, adhocracy structures, etc. Based on the vision, mission, and corporate strategy goals leaders design appropriate organizational structures.  According to Alisa and Senija (2010) the relationship between organizational culture and organizational structure types: If Uncertainty avoidance/ Formalization and Power distance/Centralization are high they correspond to high Task Culture / Bureaucratic Structure and low Power Culture/Entrepreneurial Culture. If Uncertainty Avoidance/ Formalization and Power Distance/Centralization are low that corresponds to a high People Culture/Professional Structure and a low Task culture/Innovative Structure. Paradoxes of this relationship are low Power Culture when Uncertainty avoidance/ Formalization and Power distance/Centralization are high. Uncertainty avoidance/ Formalization and Power Distance/Centralization are high which corresponds to high Power Culture/Entrepreneurial Culture because Power Culture is high which corresponds to high Power Distance/Centralization. Power Distance/Centralization is low which corresponds to low Innovative Structure. If Power Distance/Centralization is low, it motivates a highly Innovative Structure.

Janićijević (2013) proposes “Organizational culture generates its impact on organizational structure both through its design and its implementation… The culture creates a frame of reference in which the organization management’s considerations and reasoning circulate in the process of decision-making concerning the organizational structure model.” (p. 39). Latta (2009) suggests “Model of Organizational Change in Cultural Context (OC3 Model), eight stages of cultural influence are identified: cultural analysis of readiness, shaping vision, informing change initiatives, reflecting culture in implementation strategies, embodying cultural intent, cultural mediation of implementation, moderating outcomes of change, and documenting collateral effects.” (p. 24). It is suggested that to complement one stage of organizational structure change to the next stage of shaping vision into this model and the output of this stage is informing change initiatives.

Organizational structure redesign and change depend on the change needs of vision, mission, corporate and business strategies, corporate and business policies, and corporate and business goals. Organizational structure redesign and change lead to the change of organizational culture, core values, cultural values, personal values, CSFs, core competencies, competitive advantage, brand/service positioning, reputation, communication, management systems, and management information systems. Therefore, leaders choose appropriate organizational structure redesign approaches and types of culture to implement organizational, organizational structure, and organizational culture change.