Outerwear, LTD. 1

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Repairs in the Organizational Structure of Outerwear, LTD.

Heather Mueller

Ithaca College

Outerwear, LTD. 2

The Outerwear, LTD. Case Study to Create an Effective Organizational Structure

The key issue presented in the “Outerwear, LTD. Case Study” is that Outerwear does not

have an effective organizational structure, which hurts the communication within the company

(Peterson, 2000, p. 83). The lack of structure, combined with language barriers and mindless

communication, causes disorder and conflict that damages the productivity, speed, and accuracy

throughout the organization (Peterson, p. 83).

Analysis

What the management at Outerwear, LTD. lack is an effective organizational structure to

promote the company’s main objectives with little conflict. Managers and subordinates also need

to learn how to communicate with each other. The company is currently structured with a weak

line organizational structure, which is “the organizational structure of activities contributing

directly to the organization's output” (Dictionary.com, LLC., 2008). The responsibilities of each

worker are not clear, and communication between employees is imprecise and disrespectful. Dan

Bryan, the vice president of operations, brought a last minute change to a production supervisor,

without informing the operations manager, Mrs. H. (Peterson, 2000, p. 84). Since Bryan did not

properly inform Mrs. H. about this change, Mrs. H. thought the production manager was not

doing her job properly and rudely reprimanded her (Peterson, p. 84). Once the production

manager tried to implement the new change, the workers beneath her did not listen to her

because they do not speak English very well (Peterson, 2000, p. 85).

The vague responsibilities and imprecise, disrespectful communication are the two main

objectives that need to be fixed with a modified structure (Knotts, 2007). If the upper

management at Outerwear, LTD. does not create a new clear plan for the organizational structure

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of the company, communication will not improve, and the company will not be able to thrive and

succeed.

Solutions

The upper management at Outerwear, LTD. needs to reformat the structure of the line

organization. Each position needs to have redefined responsibilities, and each employee needs to

be informed of the changes. With clearly defined responsibilities, “each group may better

understand their role in the organization,” improving communication (Knotts, 2007). In line

organization, “each employee always has only one supervisor so the responsibilities are clear and

unambiguous” (Rothwell, n.d.). Therefore, the format of the organization should be changed.

Mrs. H. should be the head of the department with Dan Bryan beneath; also, the company should

hire another person beneath Mrs. H. to help Bryan with his responsibilities. Bryan can be in-

charge of two production supervisors: shipping and administrative services; and the new

employee can be in charge of the other two production supervisors: design and pattern

preparation and cutting operations. Then, subordinates will only report to their own production

supervisors within their division. With this structure, it will be very clear who is in power. All

changes and commands will ultimately go through the manager though, because “in a line

organization, top management has complete control” (Knotts). The upper management should

also rewrite the responsibilities of all positions and give each employee a written explanation of

their clearly defined roles and responsibilities so there will be less confusion over duties.

Another solution for the company is to have a new process for submitting all commands

and last minute changes. The company can use “multiple channels in the communication of a

single message” (Sokolik, 1970, p. 245) in multiple languages. This will assure credibility of the

message and understanding by all employees. Each message should be announced over a

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loudspeaker, and delivered in a written contract to every pertinent employee, in a timely manner.

The employees at Outerwear also need to be aware of being mindless about their communication

because currently, they are “not cognizant of their communication with others and put no effort

into improving it” (Waddock, 2008, p. 59). “Effective communication requires trust among

participants,” (Dobkin & Pace, 2008, p. 219) and if management is mindless, trust will never be

built. To fix this problem, the upper management should enforce mindful two-way

communication (Sokolik, p. 245). Since “each new experience influences future transactions,”

(Waddock, 2008, p. 53) upper management should positively encourage employees and get them

to submit feedback on their view of the company. With these continuing changes implemented,

communication will be more effective and concise to reduce conflicts and promote productivity.

The European Union (EU) needed a way to publish the “S series of the Official Journal of

the European Union each working day in the 20 official languages of the EU” (IDA, 2004). In

order to complete this huge task, the EU adopted the OJS Publication System, which

primarily processes notes in one language, but also translates it to the 20

other languages. The channels the notes are delivered through are by fax, e-

mail, online forms, a helpdesk, CDs, and websites (IDA). Using multiple

channels of communication in multiple languages increases efficiency and

effectiveness to save the company costs and allow the company to offer

better services.

Conclusion

The course of action that Outerwear, LTD. should follow is to implement a stricter

structure of their line management system, while using multi-channels of mindful

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communication. With this structure, communication will always be clear and accurate, and the

company will be able to maintain its core objectives of productivity, speed, and accuracy.

Outerwear, LTD. 6

References

Dictionary.com, LLC. (2008). Line organization. In Dictionary.com. Retrieved November 4,

2008, from The Columbia Encyclopedia Web site: http://www.dictionary.com

Dobkin, B. A., & Pace, R. (2008). Understanding and shaping the world through verbal

communication. In S. Hamula, K. Kalman, M. Kish, K. Komaromi, & W. Ressler (Eds.).

Introduction to strategic communication [custom text] (pp. 201-228). Hightstown, NJ:

McGraw Hill Primis Online.

IDA. (2004, June). Multi-channel delivery of eGovernment services. Retrieved November 6,

2008, from European Commission Web site: http://www.cisco.com/web/DE/pdfs/

publicsector/ida_07_04.pdf.

Knotts, T. L. (2007). Line-and-staff organizations. Retrieved November 4, 2008, from Advameg

Inc. Web site: http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Int-Loc/Line-and-Staff-

Organizations.html

Peterson, L. G. (2000). Outerwear, LTD. In G. L. Peterson (Ed.). Communicating in

organizations: A casebook (2nd ed. pp. 83-87). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon

Rothwell, K. J. (n.d.). Organization: In general and in principle. In Unesco.org. Retrieved

November 4, 2008, from http://www.unesco.org/webworld/ramp/html/r8722e/

r8722e07.htm

Sokolik, S. L. (1970). The personnel process: Line and staff dimensions in managing people at

work. Scranton, PA: International Textbook Company.

Waddock, S. (2008). Stakeholders: The relationship key. In S. Hamula, K. Kalman, M. Kish,

K. Komaromi, & W. Ressler (Eds.). Introduction to strategic communication [custom

text] (pp. 1-39). Hightstown, NJ: McGraw Hill Primis Online.