There are many historical theories that have contributed to decisions around corporate culture and structure, with just a couple highlighted in chapter eight.

Ultimately, an organization has to choose the best corporate design or structure and related culture that will support business goals. As noted in your text, a business needs to be flexible and adaptable to respond to environmental/external forces, however, this can be difficult in large scale businesses where workers may be reluctant to change.

I think COVID highlighted some of the businesses that were more challenged in this regard, given that a flexible/adaptable business with the right leaders in place should be able to adjust to economic/government forces. I think the businesses that may have folded during COVID had their corporate structure/culture and leadership tested and may have otherwise and eventually succumbed to whatever outside forces did not support an inflexible and possibly poorly led business.

Think about various businesses that exist and/or that you’ve worked for or want to work for. What do you know about the organization’s chain of command, division of labor, whether or not the company puts employees interests over general (group/team) interests, employee participation in decision making, how the business departmentalizes (by product, function, customer group, geography, process), etc. Based on the information covered in this chapter, will you try to look more deeply in to the structure and culture of an organization of interest? What will you look for?