C&C Grocery Store Reorganization

1. Before C&C’s reorganization, why was its performance poor?

To examine the poor performance before C&C’s reorganization, it’s essential to look at the structural and contextual dimension in the organization. Through this approach it’s possible to reveal what the problems are, and where in the organisation the problems arises. (Daft, 2010:20)

C&C’s structural dimensions before the reorganisation

Through the structural dimension the internal characteristics of C&C. First of all the hierarchy of C&C was tall, whereas the spans of control were narrow. The organisation was centralized, as the authority to make decisions was kept at the top-level. The centralisation of responsibility and the many levels of hierarchy and the narrow spans of control have left the middle manager with a lack of control. We assume that a high level of formalisation in the organisation was needed, to regulate the behaviour of the employees through procedures, instruction and rules in a formal way due the high level of hierarchy. Moreover the hierarchy in the organisation tended to generate a high level of formalisation, which make the control high, and centralises the decision-making power. Because of the factors above, each department where too separated, which unfortunately affected the collaboration between the departments in a negative way. These difficulties seemed to led to inefficiency, as the information flow throughout the organisation is slow, which disturbs the level performance.

C&C’s contextual dimensions before the reorganisation:

The contextual dimensions gives an insight of C&C as a whole. Goals and strategies in general are defining the purpose and the comparative advantages of an organisation. When a company shows poor performance this is expression of unachieved goals. C&C had strategies at the time, but how come the strategies failed in achieving the goals? We believe that problems in the strategy provoked in the implementation of the strategy – whereas it is...