Individual project

Knowledge gained from the group research on IPF

Under supervision of
Dr. Rami Al Asadi

Written By
Abdulla Mohamed Ahmed AlAmeri P09000533
 This particular research project uncovered the inter-linked dimensions of organizational

theory and how it applies to a company specializing in human resources services. It highlighted

the effect of the current challenges facing organizations such as globalization which expanded

the competition held within each business domain that led to the emergence of a new trend

focusing on facilitating the access to data and thus to respond faster and more accurate. It also

widened the diversity which should be under consideration among internal and external

shareholders. While preparing the research few concepts were unveiled differentiating between0

family owned, multinational, profit and nonprofit corporations.

IPF, as a matter of internal talent and organizational structure, has well-developed

systems in place that accept inputs from the external environment such as job boards and

traditional media sources. This information moves through a series of processes (transformation)

such as screening, to ultimately achieve making the job offer. This is accomplished through its

position in the formalization stage by having well-detailed job roles and, sometimes, rather strict

employee and behavioral policies.

Through the preparation of the research I've read deeper into the eleven dimensions of the

organization design represented by formalization, specialization, hierarchy of authority,

centralization, professionalism, and personnel ratio as structural dimensions while the size,

technology implemented, the environment, goals and strategies, and the culture makes the

contextual dimensions. Specialization of individual job roles were quite apparent, within a

moderately centralized organization, supported by the high volume of individuals (10) who

report directly to the Operations Manager. This should be considered an effective and very

necessary organizational structure amid an external environment that is best classified as being

quite unstable and not homogeneous. It is a both a homogeneous and heterogeneous external
environment where external elements are often dissimilar, especially in areas of recruitment due

to the diverse nature of job-seeking demographics with unique lifestyles, values and personal

skills. At the same time, IPF is dominated by mechanistic make-up since it does not extend

beyond a specialized task of placement services and has not extended into multiple business

functions. However, rarely does IPF have the luxury of predictability as the job candidate pool is

always being refreshed by new talent with individual personalities and professional capabilities.

This heterogeneity seemed to be the primary foundation for its high level of specialized job roles

as well as the mostly-centralized structure that governs individual reporting to superiors. It would

not function well, if it had a horizontal structure since there is little need for ongoing team

philosophy commonly found with organizations where innovation and ingenuity are needed to

respond to externalities. One key learning from this research was that decentralization would be

more relevant and workable in an organization that dealt less with human inputs, but instead

stable external inputs such as more stable finance and investment. Human behavior makes the

external environment at IPF in need of elements of organic organizational structure that must be

flexible and responsive to uncertainty without losing its independence in job roles.

The company has an absolute need for four different research analysts, each specializing

in their own recruitment goals and market research objectives. In order to excel at the

organization’s mission to exceed in satisfying its broad client base, ongoing creation of customer

satisfaction surveys are necessary that must be uniquely developed for individual (and highly

varying) client needs. Without having structured the organization to be flexible and customer-

service oriented, with its organic structural elements, it would likely produce survey outputs that

failed to meet the organizational mission for excellence. Another key learning taken from the

research is that the low level of dependency between job roles currently placed on IPF makes it
virtually impossible for a strictly organic organizational structure to exist and still produce

quality outputs.

“As environmental condition moves from static to dynamic, uncertainty increases”

(Hicks, 2008, p.6). At IPF, most elements of actual business function remain static (it identifies

and places talent using structured assessment systems). There is not widespread need for

innovative and dynamic responses, therefore the organization can have somewhat rigid policies

in place that tend to remain stable over time without influence from an ever-changing external

environment. If the organization were structured and classified as being largely organic, these

policies would eventually begin to break down as innovation and managerial creativity became

the norm simply to remain competitive and meet goals for improving customer satisfaction.

It was learned through the research how highly dependent on the external environment

the organization actually is prior to reaching a stage of maturity (elaboration). At this stage in the

organizational life cycle, “extensive rewards are tailored to product and department”

(myweb.cableone.net, 2005, p.24). At IPF, the company was forced to remove some of the job

rewards associated with individual role accomplishment that were directly related to the external

economic recession. At the same time, the company was forced to alter policies that put more

controls over employee behavior and give rather strict regulations regarding performance versus

discipline. Even though for IPF the environment remains largely stable, in order to reach the

final stage of the life cycle where reputation-building and rewards become more complex and

widespread, there must be less dependency on the external environment to make that a reality.

The research identified that even in a mechanistic organizational structure, where there is

a great deal of static predictability, higher levels of rewards evolution and team-based
organizational ideology are directly impacted by external factors rather than through internal

efforts. In absolute review of the entire research project, IPF seems well-positioned for further

growth and the fulfillment of its organizational goals with a sound organizational structure and

ability to control employees whilst giving them the flexibility to respond to uncertain external

demands.
References

Hicks, Christopher E. (2008), Understanding and designing military organizations for a complex
dynamic environment. U.S. Army War College. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?
AD=ADA479710&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf (viewed August 15, 2010).

Myweb.cableone.net. (2005), Organizational Theory and Analysis. George Fox University.

http://myweb.cableone.net/DLHOFF/Boise38/Class_Info/PPTS/Overheads_4_3_09_20_05.ppt
(viewed August 14, 2010).