When the company personnel coordinate all external and internal relationships.

When they
are the points of contact for various entities and stakeholders of the organisation. When the
decision-making authority is distributed to all such personnel who handle these relationships.
This flatter, less hierarchical, decentralised, and flexible organisational structure is called a
network organisational structure.

The key components of such a reliable structure are:

 Open communication channels

 Reliable personnel within the organisation and reliable partners on the outside

 Distribution of decision-making authority

The main idea behind the network organisational structure is the social structure. This
structure can include both formal and informal relationships. At a company level this may
project to a situation in a car manufacturing company. One person coordinating with the
design department and then subsequent outsourcing of the fabrication of the part to an
external contractor. Then the same person also coordinating with assembly to procure the
parts on time. Now then this gets multiplied a few more times with different personnel
coordinating for different category of parts. Then there would be one person in assembly
coordinating with all of the people and the same could be the case in the design team. All of
these people form a node in an entire network of different people doing different tasks.

The advantage of a network structure is that it is more agile as compared to a traditional

organisation. E.g. if one of the contractors mentioned above is at risk of not keeping up with
scheduled supply then the person in charge could by his own accord bring in a new
contractor. Network structures encourage communication that is less siloed. The information
flows freely. There is more opportunity for innovation. And since the structure is decentralised
there occurs a bottom up flow of ideas and decisions.

The flip side of this network structure is that allocation of accountability may turn out to be a
problem and this certainly will turn out to be a problem if the external partners are not reliable.

Congruence Model Analysis of Microsoft Skype

Company Profile
Skype is an IT application, which offers a common platform to communicate worldwide. It has
actually broken the barriers of gaps and offered the convenience of real time communication.
By using Skype, a person can chat with a person who is million kilometres away from him and
that too without any cost. The main aim of this organization is to fabricate the barriers of
distance and provide world a podium to communicate with voice on the web. Moreover, it also
aims to provide either free communication or communication at least cost.
Congruence Model

Environment: Factors such as technological change and competition that are external to the
organization challenge Skype because the core technology is becoming a commodity item.
The service is available from many competitors which means that consumers are increasing
less willing to pay for the tool. As the price of VoIP in general declines, it becomes less likely
for skype to recoup its costs. Another external challenge is the environment with Microsoft. It
has been speculated that Skype was purchased in order to ensure that Google or Facebook
did not purchase it instead. Thus, the competitive environment of Microsoft affects gravely to
the current environment of Skype.

Strategy: Skype's strategy at first glance appears to be cost leadership. It allows Skype users
free unlimited talking. However, when we consider the competition of Skype, such as Google
Talk service we realize the strategy of Skype is differentiation. Skype uses features to
differentiate its services from those of its competitors. It allows voice and video
communication, allows instant messaging, file transfer, and videoconferencing. It has also
strived to improve the quality of its video images. The generic strategy of Skype is
differentiation.

Individuals: One of the key individual functions that enhances the performance of Skype
limited is the role of the chief executive officer. He ensures that all the operations and process
of the business entity are in line with the vision, mission and goal of the company. He
oversees implementation of the new strategies and technologies in order to address the ever-
changing preferences of the market segmentation. In order to this, it is necessary to have
information about the market and the industry. This would allow the company to adopt
competitive advantage and thus economies of scale

Tasks: It is critical for Microsoft to retain the top talent at Skype as there are a few people
within the company who have been the drivers of technology and branding effort. Without
those people it is feared that the Skype will be less competitive. However, this is just one area
where Microsoft contribute to the success of Skype. There are many different factors
contributed by Microsoft that affects the success of Skype. Microsoft also has a lot of talented
people in its employee who are continuously working toward the technological development
and marketing of skype.

Culture: the culture at Microsoft Skype is exemplified by the term” One Microsoft”. Having a
collaborative culture, Microsoft act toward joining forces to positively impact the world. It
shows in how we connect with each other in and out of the office, and in how we bridge global
communities through curiosity, innovation and constant growth.
Output: At the organizational level, Skype offers a wide range of products and services to its
users like free online video chat, phone calls, instant messaging, transfer of vital documents,
video conferencing, voice mails, call forwarding, etc. All these services make Skype popular
among young scholars, as they can discuss their problems with professors, business
professionals, and associate with their business deals via Skype.
The company categorizes its products on the basis of users, i.e. the purpose of the usage
like, some users use Skype for casual communication and some use it for business purpose.
For this, customized services are designed for them. Besides this, company also segregates
the users on the basis of mode of usage services like some users are paid users for premium
services and others are non-paid users, which avails the free services of the Skype.

Conclusion: The congruence of the output is high because activities at the individual level
determine the output at group level and thus influences the overall production activities at the
organization level. High level of congruence allows the company to make high revenue and
profit levels.