STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example Out of various strategies that businesses use for ensuring business success, change itself is a strategy that the business needs to take careful attention in implementing of it, managing it and managing its resistance as well. First part of this piece of research paper presents a brief discussion on organizational success and analyzes how Cadbury’s organizational structure will have to change especially in relation to Mintzberg’s theory of organizational structure. Second part of the paper discusses strategic change and how effectively it can be implemented and managed in Cadbury. Organizing for Success Organizational strategy and organizational structure are closely interrelated. Organizational strategy refers to a special way that the organization positions itself in relation to its stakeholders, given the organization’s resources, capabilities and mission etc (Stonehouse, Campbell, 2004, p. 354). Strategic choices of a firm influences the structure and design of the organization as well. As argued by Alfred Chandler, the structure follows the strategy mainly because the decision maker in a firm develops managerial and growth strategies that become the basis for designing the structure of the organization (Stonehouse, Campbell, 2004, p. 354). ... The strategy being implemented influences the structure and design of the firm. For instance, if a firm implements customer focus strategy or customer relationship strategy, it will have to focus on delivering greater values to customers by concentrating on value propositions and the whole organization attempts to gain attractions from the customers. Strategy thus affects organization’s structure. Though there are various approaches to organizational structure, Mintzberg’s theory of organizational structure seems to have gained considerable attention in recent years as many researchers have widely studied its significance in organizational behaviour. According to his theory, there are two basic approaches to the formation of organizational structure, they are contingency approach and configuration approach (Stonehouse, Campbell, 2004, p. 364). Contingency approach has been described as a structure that the organization depends largely on various factors like the nature of its business, nature of its strategy, its size, geographical span of its activities, its age and history etc. according to Mintzberg’s view, it is better for an organization to base its structure on configuration approach rather than basing on contingency approach because factors like span of control, need for formalization, centralization or decentralization etc are to be logically configured in to internal consistent groups (Stonehouse and Campbell, 2004, p. 364). Contingency approach and configuration approach are considered to be the main determinants of organizational structure according to Mintzberg’s theory. According to Mintzberg’s organizational structure theory, an existing organization will be fit in