Question:
The case described the current organizational structure for a small sized customized software programming firm. Please discuss what type of new organizational structure would you recommend for this firm.
The company in which I am currently working for is a small size custom software programming company which service to a specific clientele – mainly apparel industry. The company is consisted of two founders, an office manager, five programmers, three outside sales, and me who handle the accounting for the company. One of the founders is in charge for technical side of the business, while the other is responsible for planning, organizing, sales, and marketing. Both of the founders are I.T. expert and one of them has extensive knowledge about the manufacturing process of the garment industry. The founder who is in charge of sales/marketing geared at understanding client needs while marketing/selling client specific products which can be altered, expanded and worked on to create far more specific services. All the sales persons including me and the office manager report to him. The software design department which is headed by the other founder serves as a team leader who works closely with the rest of the programmers. Due to the size of the company, we don’t have a finance director. I would say I am the one who comes closest to the financial side of the company as my task is to keeping the company’s book as well as balancing finances.
In our company, the structure was designed according to the overall goals of the company specific to the functions we do for our clients. The company uses a team-based type of structure to support the organization’s plan because it relies strongly upon collaboration, shared goals, and other aspects of cooperation to achieve its various plans and missions. This type of structure benefits from the collective and shared decision-making, planning, goal setting, and overall collaborative nature. On the other hand, some negatives are that this approach is often arduous, time consuming, and even cumbersome since it takes a long time to reach consensuses.