Organizational Design of Microsoft Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Organizational Design of Microsoft - Essay Example Ellis and Mayer (2001) state that, 'the extent to which an organisation aligns its strategy with the environment significantly influences the firm's ability to cope with threats and to take advantage of opportunities'. Microsoft is an international company with stakes in almost every nook and corner of the world. Therefore, the company requires having adequate representation in different regions depending upon the strategic nature of the operations and stakes involved. The process of organizing is essentially departmentalization of services and activities of the company. Department implies distinct area, division or branch of a company looking after the performance of specific jobs being looked after the appropriate levels of management. Another important aspect of organizational design is to put a limit to the number of workers or supervisors that a manager can look after effectively. The span of organization depends upon the size of the company and operating area. On the one hand a narrow span organization helps in close control of the activities and better interpersonal communication, it also results in taking away the freedom of the workers on the production floor, because in that case the sup ervisors are always found to be breathing down the neck. On the other hand a wide span organization functions effectively when a number of responsibilities are delegated to subordinates, who in turn try to pass on some freedom to the workers. But such an arrangement also runs the risk of losing control, if there is no control mechanism in place. Similarly, wider spans need to have a reliable mechanism for interdepartmental and interpersonal communication. The 'maintenance and after-sales services' too play an important role in today's market driven economy. Murthy et al. (2002) emphasize that effective maintenance management also requires a multidisciplinary approach where maintenance and customer care is viewed strategically from the overall business perspective. Therefore, while deciding about the design of the organization, companies are supposed to keep track of all such aspects. Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft) was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen when they developed an interpreter for Basic programming language at Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems. Subsequently the company started off its first international office in Japan as ASCII Microsoft in 1978 and thereafter moved to Washington in 1979. It operates mainly in five business segments namely; Client, Server & Tools, Online services business, Microsoft Business Division and Entertainment & Devices division. The Company coordinates its activities with the help of four key operation centres of the company are at; Dublin, Ireland which looks after the Licensing, Manufacturing, Operations and Logistics Humacao, Puerto Rico, USA which takes care of the manufacturing business of the company Reno, Nevada, USA works in close coordination with legal department of the government as it caters exclusively to the Licensing and operations divisions. In addition the company has its centre at Singapore which looks after the Operations and Logistics part It needs to be emphasized here that though Microsoft has operations in many countries around the world, but a cursory look at its