Organizational Structure Metaphors

Abstract or Introduction

In today’s hyper-competitive world, organizations struggle daily to garner and maintain valuable market share. Thanks to globalization, businesses are experiencing competition from all four corners of the globe. It is now common for competitors to operate in completely different environments, both internally and externally. Despite the increased opportunities offered by globalization, it becomes increasingly difficult for some companies to remain competitive. As such, aspects such as “superior/subordinate relationships, leadership, teamwork, motivation, and conflict management” (Norris, 2000, p. 105) become ever more important, and each of these hinges upon the organization’s structure. Organizational structure can be defined as "the recurrent set of relationships between organization members" (Donaldson, 1996, p. 57). There are four common characteristics for all organizations despite their structure and design. They all have some sort of hierarchy of authority. They also all have coordination of effort and with this coordination, is a division of labor. In the end, they all also have a common goal the organization is working towards. (Kreitner & Kinicki, n.d.)