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Leader In Actions

Leader in Actions
Hai Ho Nguyen
University of Phoenix
ORG 502—Human Relations and Organizational Behavior
Siamak Moayedi
Grey Scott
October 3, 2005

MEMORANDUM
To: Seagraves, Irene, chief executive officer of Smith and Falmouth
Cc: Moayedi, Siamak
From: Nguyen, Hai Ho
Subject: Organizational structure and leadership
Date: October 3, 2005

According to McShane and Von Glinow, "organization structure refers to the division of labor as well as patterns of coordination, communication, work flow, and formal power that direct organization activities" (2003, p. 446). The purposes of this memorandum are to identify and describe the formal organizational structure of the Smith & Falmouth (S & F) company. The S & F is a tele-shopping and mail order network that has operation in the United States and Canada. The memorandum also compares S & F's structure with other organizational structures, analyze the effectiveness of the S & F organization's informal culture with the formal structure. The memorandum also assesses the informal culture of the S & F's company, determines its impacts on the formal structure, and discusses the role of power and politics within the organizational culture. In addition, the memorandum will demonstrate the power and politics within the S & F culture and recommend the most effective leadership style to Irene Seagrave, chief executive officer of the S & F.

In terms of labor and coordination, the formal structure of S & F was coordinated through informal communication under a formal hierarchy that included sharing information on the mutual task between the three managers and the chief executive operation. According to McShane and Von Glinow (2004), the Hierarchy assigns legitimate power to individuals for directing the work flow. In terms of elements of organizational structure, S & F was a flat structure with a wide span of control. Even though the structure was centralized, S & F had been operated as a decentralized...