Critical Analysis On Sony Corporation Organizational Structure
Question
Task:
Assessment 1: Business Report
Please choose one of the following 2 topics:
Questions 1: Outline Sony’s organisational structure and provide an explanation of why the organisation is structured in this way.
Question 2: Outline how Aravind eye hospital applies the principles of ‘Scientific Management’ and why.
This is an assignment in which you apply business and management theories to a particular organisation
-Review how the management concepts have been applied in the particular organisation and why
-Minimum of 6 sources: 5 academic & 1 non-academic (company website)
Answer
Executive summary
Organizational Structure is basically the demonstration of systematic thoughts. A system that helps in increasing the production rate and bringing success to the company. Different categories of organizational structures exist. This assignment mainly focuses on the inclusive dimension of organizational Structure. Since 1946 to date, Sony Corporation has gone through a lot of ups and downs yet became one of the leading transnational companies in the world. From starting as a small company to being such an influential company in the market and the customers are the topic of this assignment.
Introduction
This assignment contains a brief study on Sony Corporation organizational structure. It discusses the types of organizational Structure and takes Sony Corporation as an example to discuss on. The company's ideals and values and the way they motivate their employees have been discussed here. Precisely, the journey of the company starting from 1946 till date and how it became world's one of the leading transnational companies. The assignment mentions the ups and downs that the company had to go through in order to achieve its targeted goal. Initially, the company could not serve the targeted market but later their business strategy turned out to be extremely attention-seeking to the customers. The inclusive nature of the Sony Corporation organizational structure helped the company to reach the height of success. The theme of this case study is to understand the various aspects of “Sony Corporation organizational structure” followed by the company in order to bring success to the company.
Organizational Structure: A short note
There is always a hierarchical system in an organization. The Structure that is aims to describe the hierarchy within an organization is called “Organizational structure”. The Structure recognizes each job, its purpose, and where to be reported within the organization. Sony Corporation organizational structure has been developed to establish the organization's functions and in order to assist them in achieving their goals for further growth. Basically, it is the manifestation of the systematic thoughts (Ahmady, et al., 2016). The structure of an organization is the equations of the elements in an organization. The systematic perspective of Sony Corporation organizational structure defines that it is made up of both hard and soft components (Balasubramanian, et al., 2019). The tangible aspects of an organization, such as groups and hierarchical units, are the soft elements of an organization. There exist three aspects of “Sony Corporation organizational structure”, such as; inclusion, hierarchy and functional. The aim of this study is to discuss the particular structure that “Sony Corporation” follows. By the rate of their success it is clearly understood that the company has a strategic structure in order to become one of the leading transnational companies in the world.
- Hierarchy dimension mentions the corresponding scales of “organizational units” by following the same procedure of the ‘organizational chart’.
- The functional dimension shows the different activities performed in an organization
- The inclusion dimension shows the relationship between the employees and the authoritarian body or the CEO.
The specified aspects show the “formal Structure” of an organization. Apart from these three, there are many forms of organizations that are hard to explain by following the organizational chart.
There are three principles to be kept into account when planning Sony Corporation organizational structure.
- It deals with the formal equations and where to report in the organization. Also, it shows the sum of layers in the authoritarian body and defines the manager’s control span.
- “Organizational Structure” regulates the workers' positions as working in groups in a unit. The structure purposes to divide the units of the whole organization.
- It includes the system design by which all the units are regulated. Sony Corporation organizational structure also guarantees effective relationships with the organization.
Aims, strategy, technology, organization size, and the environment affect the “organizational structure” (Nair & Sivakumar, 2020). These are the content-variables which determines the position between the company and its environment. To sum it up, the organizations make these “formal structures” to determine the work goals and regulate the performance of the employees. By the mentioned dimensions of the “Sony Corporation organizational structure”, it can be guessed that they have followed an inclusive structure where they have focused on their employees in order to bring out the best performance out of them.
Background information of contextual organization Sony
Sony is a major Japanese company that manufactures consumer electronics goods. Being one of the most renowned names in “consumer electronics”, it holds second place in the world. In the year of 1946, Tokyo Tshunin Kogyo was started as a start-up company with 190,000 yen of a capital and a number of not more than 20 workers (Yasuaki, 1999). According to the “Masaru Ibuka” the founder, the objective for this venture is establishing an “ideal factory” that stresses over a free spirit and “open-mindedness” that through the technology will eventually contribute to the “Japanese culture." This notion symbolizes enthusiasm of “Sony” claiming to do what has never be done before. Keeping up with this notion, the company has been successful in releasing numerous goods as the “firsts of Japan and the world”.
The company was inaugurated in the time of World War II and Mortia, a science instructor, joined the imperial Japanese army in order to design heat-seeking missiles. Morita and Ibuka worked together for the next 40 years and their equation is termed as the most productive and intriguing relationship in the history of business. Ibuka had a brilliant mind with development of product and Mortia was the marketing and business management specialist. This outstanding combination initiated by Sony Corporation organizational structure turned the company into a very popular brand name in the whole world. The company’s name initially wasn’t Sony, but “Tokyo Tshunin Kogyo” that precisely means “Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation.” The name officially became “Sony” in the year of 1958 which was derived from a word “Sonus” ("Sound") in Latin and was perceived to be a universal term.
“Sony” made an electric rice cooker as its first consumer electronics good. Although this product did not hit the market massively, the company made success in repairing radios and other electronic goods. In the year of 1950, “Sony” came up with the first Japanese-designed tape recorder. This product also could not hit the market, and the company's luck was about to get doomed. The founder of the company, Ibuka went to the United States of America in the year 1952 and was able to make the primary contacts to get the license for transistor from “Bell Laboratories” (Schwartz, 2010). The next year Mortia visited the U.S and sanctioned the contract with “Western Electric”, and this contract turned out to be a big success for the company. It led to the company's first highly successful product line: Transistor radios. Though at that time, Texas Instrument Incorporated was already in the market, Sony's pocket-friendly and mini-sized all-transistor radio took away all the customer’s attention. After this turnout, Sony never had to look back and started achieving its success rapidly.
What are the various aspects of Sony Corporation organizational structure?
The structure that “Sony Corporation” follows is an inclusive structure. It focuses on awareness and offers various educational programs to its employees. The company believes that the implementation of the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) structure is more effective in bringing success to the company. They offer learning programs to the employees to introduce them with CSR structure so that they can give out their best in their respective works of area. It publishes journals on the factors of the CSR structure to help the entire team of Sony group better understand social responsibility. The corporate structure of the company focuses on the function-based groups and their primary responsibility is to address the current demand in the market. That is why it has specific businesses and product types. They don’t rush on making every single product that is in the market but focuses on what the consumers may want. They come up with innovative ideas of products and that is because they provide with a very motivating workspace to their employees so that they are the best at their works (Sony Corporation, 2020).
Talking about the culture and Structure of organizations, Sony corporation's journey has been remarkable. Generally, companies experience crisis in engaging the employees. They put pressures on the workers to produce. Hence, workers try to get more done in less time and burn out. But the Structure Sony Corporation follows states that “While energy is not, time is finite”. It suggests that people may work on escalating their “energy level”. Sony has met this commitment by establishing rituals (Gotsis & Grimani, 2016). The rituals are somewhat like putting off the e-mail for an hour or two a day so that the employees can concentrate on the prerogatives. The company allows its employees to take a daily 3 p.m. walk. They believe that this may help the employees sooth there emotional, physical and mental energy. The company ensures that the leaders of the organization set an environment for the employees to make them feel comfortable and not overtly stressed out during work (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). While working with “Tony Schwartz” regarding the “energy project”, “Sony Corporation” provided with an energy management training for the entire team. The reaction of this program has turned out to be extremely positive to date. This program has made eighty-eight percent of the participants more determined and productive in the case of performance (Sony Corporation, 2020).
In the end, it could be said that the Sony Corporation organizational structure that the company follows is highly inclusive. The team is empathetic and focuses on its employees in order to achieve greater success.
Conclusion
The mentioned assignment deals with some of the facts about Sony Corporation organizational structure. It states an elaborate discussion on the factors involved in Sony Corporation organizational structure. After engaging in the case study of Sony Corporation, it is derived that the most effective Structure in an organization is the inclusive dimension. The leaders of this company have executed efficient leadership by allowing the employees to take their time in the middle of the work. They established some rituals to increase the level of energy as time is finite. They provided the employees with energy management training that helped in bringing success to the company.
Bibliography
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Balasubramanian, S., Al-Ahbabi, S. & Sreejith, S., 2019. Knowledge management processes and performance. International Journal of Public Sector Management.
Corporation, S., n.d. Sony.com. [Online]
Available at: sony.com
Gershon, R. A. & Kanayama, T., 2002. The sony corporation: A case study in transnational media management. International Journal on Media Management, 4(2), pp. 105-117.
Gotsis, G. & Grimani, K., 2016. The role of servant leadership in fostering inclusive organizations. Journal of Management Development.
Nair, R. S. & Sivakumar, V., 2020. Does Inclusive Leadership Reduce Emotional Dissonance Among Teachers?–Investigating the Mediating Role of Psychological Empowerment Climate and Organizational Justice. Sony Corporation organizational structure Global Journal of Management And Business Research.
Schwartz, T., 2010. The productivity paradox: How Sony pictures gets more out of people by demanding less. Harvard Business Review, Volume 64, pp. 55-59.
Winnubst, J., 2017. Organizational structure, social support, and burnout. In: Professional burnout. s.l.:Routledge, pp. 151-162.
Yasuaki, Ô., 1999. Sony out to reinvent itself. Japan Quarterly, 46(3), p. 47.
