Discuss the importance of structure in relationship to strat

Discuss the importance of structure in relationship to strategy. Explain which of these factors should come first, and why.

Solution

An organization\'s strategy is the set of action/s that is required to achieve a specific goal and stay in good stead with clients and vendors. On the other hand organization structure is a term that depicts the hierarchy and work structure distribution of the company. often these two are seen in seperation but if considered carefully one will be able to understand these 2 are closely woven and dependant on each other. On one hand strategy is required to decide the short term and long term goals of the company, on the other a well described work and organization structure is needed to accomplish these goals.

Not having a proper organization structure means task overlap and workforce confusion, especially when it comes to laying a strong foundation for long-term productivity. Task overlap, a situation in which two or more employees perform the same task in different departments, costs a company money. This creates confusion, inefficiencies and lack of accountability -- because no employee ultimately has a clear responsibility over who does what, where and when. This will surely hurt the organization even if they have set goals as the goal will lack implementation.

Similarly, not having a goal is going to hurt the company as well even it has a set organization structure. Absence of strategy means, absence of a path to move ahead. So even if the vehicle (structure) is ready, it wont be able to move as it is having no path (strategy) or destination (goal) defined. So, Structure and strategy should complement each other.

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Strategy should come first and then as per the strategy the organization structure should be made. As the example of car and road illustrated above, if we know the road to travel we will be able to decide which vehicle will suit more- no one would like to ride a scooter to move from illinois to chicago. Similarly depending on the goal or strategy one should decide upon the organization structure- a Line structure will be appropriate for an sales organization whereas a informal structure will be ideal for a creative organization like Ad agency.