The NJIT organizational structure is highly centralized and has a complex hierarchical structure. Whereas, the organizational structure of NJIT governed by the board of trustees in which several members are involved, and the office of the president include assistant vice president, senior assistant president, and chief external affairs which report to the board. Other presidents appointed at the low-level who says to the executive president’s office such as president of student affairs, academic support, and human resource, etc. Although each of the presidents has their own duties responsibilities and have multiple levels of hierarchies. Assistants and directors support the vice presidents top-level function, these directors or assistants did not directly link to the hierarchy of organization but considered an integral part of the organization. It seems like the office of president is the core of organizational structure and board of trustees are in the top management, but work in hand with the president who represents the line relationship with each other. There are other seven branches of vice president which operates under the influence of president (Gruzd and Collins, 2017).
Type of Organizational Structure Of NJIT
NJIT follows the functional and centralized organizational structure in which different departments are involved in having specific responsibilities and roles. Every department has directors or managers who report to the executive level such as academic vice president has assistants and directors who publish them, and then vice president report to president’s office and same process continue for other departments also. According to Barbour et al. (2018), one of the most challenging situations in this hierarchical structure is interdepartmental communication among individual departments. But NJIT perfectly covered this flaw as each department individually work and monthly or weekly progress report send to the presidents' office, whereas decision making is only in the hands of the board of trustees.
NJIT follows a highly centralized hierarchal structure, and communication often flows from top management to down level management and precipitates through vice president of each department to the various levels of hierarchies. Top level management communicates in the form of policies and procedures and often in the way of reports. The lower level management performs evaluation activities in a hierarchy which is further analyzed by the top-level management and audit report has been presented to the executive board. Lapointe & Lapointe (2016) describe in the study that, communication among the different groups in the hierarchy is conducted more in a formalized manner according to the given guidelines by the executive board. Although Osch et al. (2015) argue that informal communication in any organization is considered as inevitable and cuts across between many levels. Informal discussion is also known as grapevine and useful among the group who have a similar interest within the organization. In NJIT each department also adopts the informal communication, but the top-level management only finalizes changes.
Decision Making
NJIT has the centralized organizational structure in which major decisions are mainly taken by the top-level management, and other levels of management should abide by the choices. Whereas Reznikov et al. (2014) explained in the research that, organizations who follow centralized, hierarchical system must face growth difficulties. Because, before taking the decision higher level management have to consider different preferences, day to day problems of employees, conflict of interest and requirements of the diversified community of organization. To avoid the conflict NJIT appoint heads of different departments which control the functions of the specific department and in case of any problem, the head of respective departments have the right to decide to avoid consequences. Top-level management evaluates the audit report and makes the first decisions which are applied to every department.
Adaptability
The organizational structure of NJIT requires quick adaptation because nowadays trends in technology have been changing rapidly so to keep up-to-date organization adaptability is a must. The board of executives changes the rules and regulations, then each member of different departments would be expected to adapt the changes made by top-level management quickly. The members of each level adjust their practices accordingly to accommodate the effects of changes made around them. Biena & Arena (2018) argued that decentralized organizational system is more capable of adapting change because the delegating authority is physically present to assist the lower level management. Whereas in a centralized system, changes in the procedures may lead to inefficiency in actions because all decisions are cleared and approved by the top management. But NJIT organization structure effectively manages the difference as they will also provide on job training facilities to their employees.
Students Rights In NJIT
NJIT has already discussed their policies and procedures related to students on their website portal on ‘students’ rights and responsibilities.’ NJIT policies cater to the issues of property damage and loss, discrimination issues, drug abuse, and sexual harassment, etc. They also conduct awareness programs regarding the family educational rights, drug prevention and discussed different laws related to mentioned issues. In case of any violation, the offender must face the consequences and the management would not give any relaxation. NJIT provides diverse culture to their students through which they can enhance their skills and learn different things from different students.
Question 2: Cultures in Organizations
Explain and discuss the relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance. How does an organization’s culture influence its profitability, responsiveness to customers, and innovativeness? Then, find one company with a culture that generates high performance and one company with a culture that has led to an average or poor performance. How do these two cultures differ?
Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Organizational Performance
Tsai (2011) stated in research that, last century witnessed the industrial revolution and the importance of organizational culture and organizational performance is considered an essential aspect of corporate management. Organizational cultures refer to the set of values and beliefs that are prevailed in an organization for a long time, Whereas views of staff and amount influence the behavior and attitude towards work. The multicultural organization faces challenges in creating a positive organizational culture in which employees effectively excel their skills. As Leithy (2017) argues that open and transparent communication are useful factors which contribute to creating corporate culture. The reason behind the success of the multinational organization is that employees respect and recognize the cultural rules. Active organizations consider performance consistency as the essential element to maintain the level of success. The main threat to performance efficiency includes the communication breakdown which indirectly or directly creates a cultural understanding. However, Cameron & Quinn (2006) stated in the study that when the interaction between employees and low-level management is right, that will contribute positively in team communication and this will encourage employees to accomplish organizational goals and enhance the effectiveness of organization (Yan, 2016).
Organization’s Culture Influence Customers Responsiveness
Brettel et al. (2014) highlight that, the concept of organizational culture has gained wide acceptance worldwide because consistency in performance results in higher customer satisfaction. Organizations who value diversity and have employees from diverse backgrounds, those organization better serve their customers who belong to different regions. However, the optimal organizational goal is to provide quality service to their end customers with satisfaction. Quality in organizational performance produces the consistency of loyal customers because greater the number of customers more significant will be the profit of an organization. Management of the organization usually adjust their management behavior which helps to achieve the company’s goals, and it also affects the customer responsiveness towards the organization.
Organizational Culture Influence Productivity
Leithy (2017) continued in the research and highlighted the importance of organizational culture relates to productivity and just stated that productivity is the art of getting the organization’s products or services to clients at the lowest possible prices. Whereas Deng & Zhang (2018) argues that productivity is more than providing products at cheaper rates, it is related to quality and customer needs. Effective communication helps to convey the message to employees and give them proper direction to do things efficiently. Productivity in the organization can be attained in the organization through motivating employees, and it thrives in a pleasant climate. If authorities of the organization transform the fragile environment into the long-lasting culture to achieve success, then the employees will more focus on the several areas of improvement.
Organizational Culture Influence Innovation
Any organization gains a competitive advantage when they have effective and efficient corporate culture, as innovation is an essential aspect of achieving success (Acar, 2012). Change helps to differentiate products, services, and procedures of overall business from the competitors and through innovation strategy organization gain higher market share. According to Feldman (1988), organizations who have decentralized organizational structure tend to adopt innovative strategies more fastly because they have effective communication with employees as compared to centralized, hierarchical structure. Innovation is the present era need of every organization as Hogan & Leonard (2014) stated that without implementing innovative strategies organizations could not compete in the global market. And organizational culture leads to effective communication which results in the fast adoption of innovation procedures.
Organizational Culture of Google And Nokia Influence Performance
As Anderson (2014) described in the research that, Google is considered as having the best corporate culture. Google is one of those companies who truly understand the needs of employees; they offer a flexible schedule to their employees and employees work according to their terms which help them to unleash their creativity. Google organizational culture is more like a fun place instead of the workplace which is difficult for a company to achieve, however with these opportunities provided to employees googles able to reach the efficiency and effectiveness.
Nokia company face setback a few years ago because of the bad management practices. Whereas Carayanni et al. (2014) explained that due to ineffective communication and lack of proper strategies implementation, Nokia employees could not use their skills efficiently which result in low-performance. Nokia was consistently struggling to achieve the competitive edge in the market by encouraging their manager to investigate strategies and search the options for adopting modern technologies. Fraj et al. (2015) stated that the main reason behind the setback of Nokia company is that, management and foremost authorities could not integrate the innovation with an organizational culture which results in poor performance.
Difference in Culture
The main difference in both company’s culture is that recognition of employees and market needs. Google considered their employees as an asset of organizations, and Nokia fails to recognize the needs of employees which create problems in communications. According to Hall & Auernhammer (2013), effective communication leads to better performance and management become more aware of the employee's needs.