Reference no: EM132271617
Company Structure
Each week, you will be asked to respond to the prompt or prompts in the discussion forum. Your initial post should be 75-150 words in length, and is due on Sunday. By Tuesday, you should respond to two additional posts from your peers.
Organizations are a bit like snowflakes, they are all unique. However, we can group them by some similar characteristics such as how they are structured. This week you explored a variety of organizational structures as well as the benefits and disadvantages of each.
Research the company you selected for your milestone project in Week 1 to determine its structure. Is it functional, conglomerate, divisional, matrix, or hybrid? Provide supporting references in your initial post that are less than two months old that support your assertion as to which type of structure your organization uses. Assess the suitability of their structure. Is it the most appropriate? Does it work well for them? If not, what structure would you recommend and why?
Review a minimum of two of your classmate's posts and respond with additional insights, information, questions, or links to more information on the company and structure they shared. Is the structure the same or different than organization? Would their structure work for your organization? Why or why not? Your responses should be academic in nature and linked to research and management topics discussed this week rather than personal stories of shopping with the company they chose for example.
Steven Wippler
After reviewing this week's course material and researching the Walt Disney Company, I determined that the company utilizes a multidivisional organizational structural. Chapter 6 of our text this week states that a M-form (for multidivisional) approach, is based on multiple businesses in related areas operating within a larger organizational framework in which design results from a strategy of related diversification. (Griffin, 2019, Ch. 6).
Furthermore, the text literally calls out the Walt Disney company verbatim as being multidivisional in paragraph two on page 6-4c (i'll take the freebee). To me, this makes perfect sense as Disney is comprised of more than just it's movies and their theme parks, yet all of its segments are somehow inter-related.
The company is diversified under four related business segments which are: Media Networks, Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, and Consumer Products & Interactive Media (Williams, 2019). Based on the sheer size of the company and their global footprint, I think this organizational structure works well. Additionally, the article I found attributes the company's organization structure to its competitive advantage and strategic growth (Williams, 2019). Logically, this makes sense.
I thought of it as the release of a movie such as "Toy Story" and corresponding theme park rides/attractions as well as consumer merchandise that come along with it. I think the Walt Disney Company has found what works for their rather large organization and I believe they won't have any issues continuing with this organizational structure in the future.
Reference:
Griffin, R. (2019). Fundamentals of Management. Boston, Ma: Cengage Learning Fleming, M.
Williams, A. (February 28, 2019). Walt Disney Company's Organizational Structure for Synergistic Diversification.
Angela Hazelton Structure-
In my evaluation and understanding of this week's topic in structure, I believe The Hershey's Company operates in a hybrid method. Hershey's has multiple businesses throughout the world but yet are all related. This is a large company with many brands such as Kisses, Jolly Ranchers, Breathsavers, and Cadbury just to name a few.
The overall structure of Hershey's appears to be divisional and I would imagine it operates within product departmentalization as well as geographical departmentalization.
This company currently has plants in seven different cities in the United States and ten additional countries. Each of these plants has to have a functional structure to succeed with making the products alike. There are procedures that are also governed from the top down, starting with the board of directors.
The Hershey Company's stock continues an upward trajectory. They are also celebrating their 125th anniversary this year. Their strategies to continue to grow the business with additional brands and products are working. I would have to say that Hershey's is functioning in a structure that works for this large of a business.