Six Factors Of Organizational Structure

"An organization can be defined as a group of people working together in a structured and coordinated fashion to achieve a set of goals". (David Needle, 2004)

Organizational structure is considered by many to be “the anatomy of the organization, providing a foundation within which the organization functions.” Thus, the structure of an organization, similar to the anatomy of a living organism, can be viewed as a framework. The idea of structure as a framework “focuses on the differentiation of positions, formulation of rules and procedures, and prescriptions of authority.” Therefore, the purpose of structure is to regulate, or at least reduce, uncertainty in the behavior of individual employees. There are six factors which influence organization structure and design: technology, size, environment, strategy, interest groups and culture. (David Needle, p15)

Needle (Needle, 2004) believes, organizational culture represents the collective values, beliefs and principles of organizational members and is a product of factors such as history, product, market, technology, strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture. Corporate culture on the other hand refers to those cultures purposely created by management to achieve specific strategic ends through four elements; the power, role, task, and person culture. A subsidiary has a different culture according to the country.

Subsidiary managers are members of global management teams which involve them to