Team-based, geographic and team-based organizational structures
Team-based, geographic and team-based organizational structures are common in organizations based on different factors. Geographic organizational structure has its activities or products organized based on location or geographical area. Each region has its management teams and can operate based on the local demand or customs. As an advantage, the geographic structure suits large organizations which have diversified product lines or product lines across different regions of the world (Sidani et al., 2011). Secondly, regional management teams are often in close contact with local communities and customers, which means they can develop products which respond to local needs. Regional structures also support flexible responses to market needs. For instance, if the market in Asia changes, then the local team in the region can react with flexibility and swiftness.
The most significant limitation of the geographic structure is that the potential for conflict between the local and central management is massive. The corporate headquarters sometimes impose practices and protocols that are not responsive to the needs of the local markets or take away the autonomy of these local units. Such moves breed conflicts between the HQs and the local teams (Sidani et al., 2011). Developing a unified corporate culture in this structure is difficult as communication and coordination become challenging between the geographic divisions and the head office. Thirdly, the geographic structure also allows for duplication of roles, which limit productivity and efficiency.
Team-based organizational structure is composed of teams which work towards a common objective while implementing individual tasks. Team-based organizations have been communication, with a single manager who leads several groups. Communication between employees is effective and more free-flowing (Sidani et al., 2011). Secondly, conflicts are resolved faster in team-based structures since communication is transparent and free-flowing. Thirdly, team-based arrangements are flexible and have an empowered workforce. Employees can easily be shifted from teams to teams, hence maximizing their skills and talent.
However, team-based organizational structures have their weaknesses as well. Firstly, personality conflicts within teams negatively affect team efficiency and harmony. Disruptive employees and personality differences sometimes make it extremely difficult for managers to supervise these teams adequately (Sidani et al., 2011). Secondly, some employees never embrace the spirit of teamwork. Not all employees in a team-based organizational structure are team players and therefore working in groups does not maximize their talent and skills. The other limitation is that underperforming staff often hide behind the teams, which means managers may be required to implement individual performance milestones.
In a product-based organizational structure, the functional approach is used, but a large number of business units are created in which major products are categorized (Sidani et al., 2011). It, therefore, implies that each product division has functional groups required to support the product. The critical advantage of product-based organizational structure is that failure in one department (or product division) does not affect the other divisions. For instance, e-commerce section of Amazon may lose sales, but this does not mean that the cloud computing division also loses sales. In such circumstances, risk can easily be managed (Sidani et al., 2011). Secondly, there is greater flexibility in these organizations. Processes that work in division A may not work in B, and therefore the product divisions are allowed to be flexible in how they operate. Thirdly, for employees, this type of structure allows the employees to specialize their talent and skills in a specific division, which means they learn new skills and expertise in niche areas.
The critical limitation of a product-based structure is that it only supports large corporations which have diversified product lines. In smaller businesses, the structure can cause challenges. Secondly, the division of product lines can create operational inefficiencies since each of the units operates independently (Kumar, 2018). The operational inefficiencies also emanate from staff from different departments performing duplicate functions, which means the organization losses productivity hours and profitability.
Description of the Structures
In a product-based structure, each company division is dedicated to a specified product line. It, therefore, implies that each product line has its management team. For organizations with multiple products, the product-based structure is the best since each division can focus on each product line. The diagram below is a depiction of the product-based organizational structure.