Twitter has introduced a product-based divisional organizational structure to foster more innovation, cross-functional collaboration, and efficient decision making. Organizational structure refers to the division of labor as well as the patterns of coordination, communication, workflow, and formal power that direct organizational activities. It formally determines what activities receive the most attention as well as financial, power, and information resources. For example, Twitter's new structure dramatically shifts power and resources from functional group executives (engineering, technology, etc.) to product group executives. It also focuses employees around the development and success of its products rather than around their own specialized knowledge. Furthermore, Twitter's product structure makes it easier for employees with diverse expertise to coordinate with one another through informal communication because they are grouped together, not in separate silos.

           The topic of organizational structure typically conjures up images of an organizational chart. Organizational structure includes these reporting relationships, but it also includes other features that relate to work standards and rules, team dynamics, power relationships, information flow, and job design. The organization's structure is an important instrument in an executive's toolkit for organizational change because it establishes new communication patterns and aligns employee behavior with the corporate vision. Indeed, one global survey of 7,000 business and human resources leaders in 130 countries reported that organizational design was their firm's most important trend or priority to improve human capital (leadership and corporate culture were second and third most important, respectively).

 

Twitter, Inc.'s organizational structure was described at the beginning of this chapter. What coordinating mechanism is likely most common in this organization? Describe the extent and form in which the other two types of coordination might be apparent at Twitter.

"Organizations are more likely to succeed when they have an adaptive culture." What can an organization do to foster an adaptive culture?

Socialization is most intense when people pass through organizational boundaries. One example is your entry into the college or university that you are now attending. What learning and adjustment occurred as you moved from outsider to newcomer to insider as a student here?

Employee resistance is a symptom, not a problem, in the change process. What are some of the real problems that may underlie employee resistance?