Answer

In this chapter, you will learn about organizing the business with organizational structure and charts. After you have read Chapter 6, please use the topic below as a starting point for class discussions, but please feel free to generate and initiate your own topics, including any questions or comment you may have for the concepts and content of this chapter.

At a minimum for every chapter, you need to submit at least one
primary discussion posting(s) in response to the instructor’s topic or a
new topic initiated by another student. You also need to submit at
least one secondary posting(s) commenting on other students’
postings. Please note that initiating a new topic is classified as a
primary posting. In the subject line of your posting, please indicate
whether it is primary, i.e. initiating a new topic, responding to the
instructor’s topic or to a new topic initiated by another student, or
secondary, i.e. commenting on other student’s postings.

1. Please read the chapter-opening case “Organizing for Success at Abercrombie & Fitch” on page 175 and answer the following questions: What should international companies be concerned about when acquiring other companies to make the cultural integration as smooth as possible? What kind of corporate organizational structure is most widely accepted and used in the United States? If you were to open your own company, how would you structure and lead your company?

Replay

1.Primary Post - Response to Instructor

1. International companies should be concerned about understanding the needs of the market in those foreign areas. They also need to understand their competitions, knowing how to either gain or keep a competitive advantage.

2. The most widely accepted corporate organizational structure in the United States is the functional structure. This type of structure is where the higher up's group their workers by department as their businesses grows. Companies divide their departments by functions such as marketing, accounting, engineering and business development. An advantage of this structure is that grouping jobs by skills and knowledge enables a greater efficiency of human resources.

3. If I were to open my own company, I would open a theme park. The type of organizational structure that I would implement would be a functional structure. A functional structure would be beneficial for the whole business to run smooth. Having all the different departments,

• Legal & Administration
• Operations & Maintenance
• Marketing
• Finance & Human Capital
• Food & Beverages

These are the backbone of the theme park running without any hiccups. As far as leading the company, I would take on the democratic leadership. I would choose this style, because this provides a lot of feedback to the higher up, and more progressive work gets done. It creates more of a team oriented environment.

2.Primary posting- response to Professor's prompt

1. What should international companies be concerned about when acquiring other companies to make the cultural integration as smooth as possible?

International companies should be concerned about making sure that there is clear understanding of the values of the companies acquired as well as the culture of that company and their country. The difference in management styles should also be noted and adapted to ensure a smooth transition. For example, Daimler-Benz in 2000 merged with Mitsubishi Motors in an effort to increase its auto presence in Asia. The lack of consideration of the Japanese culture clashed with the German management and communication style which ultimately led to the failure of that merger. I think that cultural integration is useful even in the U.S. as we have so many ethnic groups. We live in a global economy and cultural consideration should be a given as we interact with different countries and industries.

2. What kind of corporate organizational structure is most widely accepted and used in the United States?

The functional organization is the most widely accepted and used structure in the United States where the organization is divided into smaller groups based on functional area. It is most effective in large corporations because it allows for more efficiency because employees are grouped by function, ex. Finance, marketing, production,engineering.

3. If you were to open your own company, how would you structure and lead your company?

As an entrepreneur opening up my own company, I would lead my company in providing the vision and guidance to my products. As a startup, I will most likely be its first and only employee and initially establish a sole proprietorship until my company becomes profitable. Then I would have a relatively flat and open structure where employees in different functions collaborate together. I would eliminate bureaucracy and enable open communication. As the company grows, I would look at a hybrid functional and divisional structure.