Nokia Case Study

Case Study 13.1

What form of departmentalization has Nokia relied on throughout most of the past 3 decades? Why have these forms of departmentalization been adopted?

Nokia has gone through many changes over the past three decades, the organizational structure has changed, the products they offer has changed and they became the market leader in regards to selling cell phones during the late 90s. Nokia started out as a simple structure offering products such as televisions, audio equipment, and rubber tires. As they grew they began to offer more products and became a functional structure. In 1999 Nokia sold the consumer electronic business because it was doing very well and focused on the cell phone division. Nokia became team based and a matrix as far as departmentalization is concerned. In 2003, they converged with photography, games, music and other multimedia products and became a divisional structure based on multimedia divisions. In 2006, they merged with Siemens and became a network structure. Nokia has covered all six aspects of departmentalization over the past three decades. The company was able to change with the times and changing products and remain very successful. Recently, Nokia is making changes to become more centered around smart phones and smart devices to keep up with the times and what the public wants. The latest structure is a matrix structure that offers similar products to compete against Apples iPhone and similar products.

Evaluate Nokia's changing organizational structure against the changing characteristics of the external environment over this time. Has the structure mostly contributed to Nokia's success or been a hindrance to it?

Nokia's ability to change with the times has kept them in the market and successful. In the early 90s the started to change and focus on cell phones and multimedia products and they were smart enough to sell off their electronics division when they saw that was not doing as well as other...