Leading Change
...12/24/2007
MBA 520
Good Sport is a company that has just invented a new line of portable fitness equipment called XtendSport. In order for the product to make it to the marketplace, several departments within Good Sport must come to an agreement so the next phase of the project can be implemented. In addition, several organizational and leadership issues must be addressed to ensure the longevity and success of the company. Several organizational structures are in use by companies such as span of control, centralization, departmentalization and formalization. Departmentalization is the structure that is present with Good Sport.
The organizational structure that best describes Good Sport is faces a departmentalization structure. Departmental structure aligns employees with their specific activities. Within this particular structure at Good Sport there also exists a functional structure, which is a form of departmentalization. This structure groups employees around the specific area they are most familiar with. “A functional structure organizes employees around specific knowledge or other resources. Employees with marketing expertise are grouped into a marketing unit, those with production skills are located in manufacturing, engineers are found in product development, and so on,” (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005, p.15). At Good Sport, the functional structure is comprised of the executive, middle, and lower management teams. Each of these are departmentalized according to specific areas of expertise such as finance, production, R& D and sales. For example, at Good Sport the Vice President of the sales department only deals with issues relating to sales and how feasible a plan is from a sales perspective while the Vice President of the production department at Good Sport deals with production issues such as how certain products will be produced. The overall...
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