Examining Different Approaches To Management And Theories Of Organisation And Evaluating How Organisational Structure And Culture Contribute To Business Success

Terms of reference

The task that I have been set is to examine an organisation of my choice and use my own research to satisfy the following outcomes:

* Examine different approaches to management and theories of organisation.

* Evaluate how organisational structure and culture contribute to business success.

To do this I need to answer the following questions in the form of a business report:

* Identify the organisation's approach to management, supported with examples.

* Identify the type of structure and provide an overall organisational chart

* Identify the organisation's management style and give examples

* Highlight any variances between theory and practice in Qs 1 to 3 above, using illustrative examples.

* Identify the culture of the organisation and use examples

* Show with examples how this culture has helped with the success of the business

Executive summary

In summary, I have stated that Egg's approach to management closely follows that of Human Relations. I have also said that the Human Relations approach to management was devised by Elton Mayo and his Hawthorn experiments.

I have included an organisation chart of Egg this can be found at the Appendices at the back of the report. The organisational structure of Egg is that of a Functional one, this means that the business is structured by department where everyone does the same job or similar.

Also I stated that the management style of Egg is that of consulting. This means that Egg likes every member of the team to be involved but ultimately the decision is made by the team leader or manager.

I have outlined the differences between the theories of management and actually putting it into practice and making it work in order to achieve a set of targets.

I have said that the culture of Egg is one that is a mixture of both the Greek temple and of the Net. These four styles were devised by Charles Handy, and show the different cultures that could occur inside an organisation.

Finally I have stated that Egg because it has such a relaxed attitude towards its approach to work and staff, that they actually make it fun to turn to work and achieve the targets set.

Introduction

Egg plc was formed in 1998 as an e-commerce company. Although they have only been in existence a short time, Egg plc has built up nearly 3.2 million customers and has nearly 2000 employees working from three offices in London, Dudley and Derby in the UK.

In 2000, Egg plc floated on the stock exchange, with the UK based financial services company 'The Prudential' being the major shareholder with 79% of the shares.

Egg plc specializes in four main areas, banking, insurance, investments and online shopping. The company is intending to expand its services in the near future.

An early measure of success for the company was the award, in 2001, of the Yell.com recognition for "Best Finance Site", achieved after only three years of trading.

1. Identify - with reference to academic theory - the organisation's approach to management, supported with examples.

1.1 There are six different approaches to management that an organisation can use:

* Scientific

* Classical Administration

* Bureaucratic

* Human Relations

* Systems

* Contingency

Each approach has very different characteristics, and each is more suitable for a particular type of organisation.

1.2 Looking at Egg plc and the way that the organisation is run, I would suggest that the approach that the management uses is broadly the Human Relations approach.

1.3 The Human Relations approach to management focuses on the attitudes and relationships of the workers. It involves mainly the philosophy devised by Elton Mayo. He performed a number of experiments at the Hawthorn plant of Western Electric Company in the USA. The experiment was to see if there were any changes in the productivity of the girls working there if he changed the lighting. But he found that no matter what he did to the lighting, productivity went up anyway. He worked out this was because the girls were more motivated because someone was taking the time to focus on them.

1.4 I think that this is relevant to Egg plc because their website contains a lot of information about their staff, and how they like to have a pleasant, relaxed working environment, whilst achieving high targets at all times. For example, in every office there is a staff room for relaxation that contains both a pool table and a table football game. This allows staff to get to know each other better and to allow for a better atmosphere, because they can relax quickly, and overcome the effects of potentially stressful jobs.

1.5 Another example of the management taking a positive step towards ensuring staff feel relaxed and motivated is that there is no uniform at Egg plc. This encourages a freedom of image, and members of staff tend to enjoy coming to work more than other companies where rigorous rules are enforced.

2. Identify the type of structure and provide an overall organisational chart.

2.1 The