You have been hired by a website design, production, and hosting company whose n

Question

You have been hired by a website design, production, and hosting company whose new animated website designs are attracting a lot of attention and a lot of customers. Currently, employees are organized into different functions such as hardware, software design, graphic art, and website hosting, as well as functions such as marketing and human resources. Each function takes its turn to work on a new project from initial customer request to final online website hosting.
The problem the company is experiencing is that it typically takes one year from the initial idea stage to the time that the website is up and running; the company wants to shorten this time by half to protect and expand its market niche. In talking to other managers, you discover that they believe the company’s current functional structure is the source of the problem—it is not allowing employees to develop websites fast enough to satisfy customers’ demands. They want you to design a better one.
Questions
1. Discuss ways in which you can improve how the current functional structure operates so that it speeds website development.
2. Discuss the pros and cons of moving to a (a) multidivisional, (b) matrix, or (c) product team structure to reduce website development time.
3. Which of these structures do you think is most appropriate, and why?   

Explanation / Answer

1.

Choose a better and more complex organizational design

2.

a. Matrix

Pros
-It allows employees to learn from one another
-It is very flexible.

Cons
-The two boss structure can get confusing for the employee.

a. Multidivisional

Pros
- Focused on customer
-Satisfies the needs of diverse companies

Cons
-It is not as flexible as mangers would like to respond to the environment as quickly.

b. Matrix

Pros
-It allows employees to learn from one another
-It is very flexible.

Cons
-The two boss structure can get confusing for the employee.

c. Product Team Structure

Pros
-You only have one boss to report to
-It allows the team to become empowered to bring a new and redesigned product to the market
-The artificial bond between departments disappear

Cons
-The managers roles become informal and more like an advisor or mentor

3.

The product team structure is most appropriate.

•Unlike the matrix, the product team structure has no dual reporting because of conflicting demands from both the product boss and functional boss
• having cross-functional teams diminishes the artificial boundaries between departments.

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