You have decided to create a consulting business to address increasing market needs for sustainability and innovation in the community. You want to
emphasize how businesses can make incremental changes in the workplace to achieve sustainable results that increase profitability and brand reputation. The mission of the company is to “facilitate sustainable social, economic, and environmental development opportunities for the good of businesses in the community.” The company should be designed as a mission-driven, for-profit organization that will create partnerships that result in sustainable changes for the community. You would like your business to be successful so that your consulting firm can raise your city’s ranking in the “Most Sustainable and Innovative Communities” list from the top 20% of all U.S. communities to the top 10%.
Before you design a business venture plan that includes its organizational design, you will identify how the business will generate revenue. You will assess the sustainability and innovation needs for 30 businesses in the local community in the first year. You will then share the results of those assessments with all business stakeholders to generate feedback that will be used to develop and implement proposals for consulting. You would also like to hire three university students as part-time interns to help you develop an organizational structure. You are interested in seeking investors in the business community who would like to take a leadership role in the business and its decision-making.
You are excited about this opportunity and begin considering the organizational structure for your consulting business.
Note: Additional employees may be hired in the future.
Task
A. Describe an organizational structure you would select for the consulting business in the scenario by doing the following:
1. Describe the main features of one of the following organizational structures that would meet the needs of the consulting business and explain how this
structure applies to the scenario.
• functional
• divisional
• matrix
• teams
2. Using the chosen organizational structure described in part A1, explain how each of the following four factors work within the chosen organizational
structure for the consulting business in the scenario:
• functions or departments
• chain of command
• centralized or decentralized
• level of formality
B. Describe one of the following organizational theories, and explain how it can be used to support the organizational structure described in part A1:
• scientific management
• bureaucratic
• administrative
• neoclassical
• modern
• contingency/situational
C. Describe how an organizational structure can impact the effectiveness of the consulting business in the scenario by doing the following:
1. Using the goal-approach model of organizational effectiveness, describe how the organizational structure selected in part A1 can impact the effectiveness of the consulting business in the scenario.
2. Using the goal-approach model of organizational effectiveness, explain the advantages or disadvantages of using one of the organizational structures from the list in part A1 that is different from the structure already selected for the consulting business.
