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Group Case Application 1: A New Kind of Structure

From: Group 6 Due date: 4/5/2021, 11:59 PM

To: Shabab Absarul Islam Sir, MGT 212.10

Names Student ID
Saad Bin Rahman 2031172630
Ashfaq Ahmad 2031567630
Abdullah Al Jabid 2031208630
Fahrin Binte Razzauqe 2031208630
Kaikobad Haque Malick 2012116630

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1. Describe and evaluate what Pfizer is doing with its PfizerWorks.

What David Chain has created is a network organization to help the employees be more productive within a
short period of time. It is smart strategic work. Their organization was broken into different groups where each
group specialized in their work. Each employee was allowed to outsource the support work by using the magic
button which saved them a lot of time. The magic button allows Pfizer employees to shift the support work to
the outsourcing company. This is done by a Pfizer employee giving an online form which describes what they
want to be done by the outsourcing firms. Pfizer work is a boundary less organization.

This helps the employee to concentrate in the company’s core competencies and other works like creating
documents, typing notes, doing research, manipulating data, scheduling meetings can be outsourced. This
strategy by David chain saved many vulnerable times for the employees. Now they can put together a report in
only one month. Before this strategy, it would have cost them extra five months.

2. What structural implications—good and bad—does this approach have? (Think in terms of
the six organizational design elements.)

The six organizational design elements are work specialization, departmentalization, a chain of command, a
span of control, centralization and decentralization, and formalization. Organizational structure is a framework
of a business that illustrates how the business overall connects and organizes the work together. And how the
authority is passed through the organization. The magic button which Pfizer calls PfizerWorks, originally
known as the Office of the Future is where the support work is given to a third party to complete so that the
employees in Pfizer can concentrate on the main objectives of the organization. First, work specialization is the
division of work into separate job tasks. And the new Pfizer structure allows the workers to in specific parts
rather than doing the whole work by one person increasing efficiency and reducing the time-consuming process,
such as Pfizer’s pharmaceutical employees working in their respective field whereas all the support is done by
others. Secondly, departmentalization is where the organization has different departments where employees
with similar work who are specialized are grouped. Pfizer employees decide to process, when employees use
the PfizerWorks the respective department of the employee will be charged implicating that there are many
departments available in Pfizer's and the global company means that there are geographical departments. Chain
of command is which employees will report to whom. In other words, the line of authority that entitles a
manager to direct the work of an employee and expect the orders to be obeyed and the responsibility with the
work. The new Pfizer's structure will be a bad implication to the organization in the element of the chain of
command. Because of the managers pass the support work to the employees and to keep them in check. Also for
performance judgement. They won't be able to judge the employees as the support work of the manager will be
done by PfizerWorks and even if the employees are given the work support work of the managers they can do
the same send the works to PfizerWorks which reduce their responsibility with the work. The span of control is
the number of direct subordinates that a manager can control or manage, as said in the chain of command the
situation is similar here is having a high span of control the managers can oversee the work and performance of
the employee. The span of control is less as the employees mostly perform knowledge work. Centralization and
decentralization. Centralization is where decision-making is in the centre of the organization, the top-level
managers take decisions. Whereas, decentralization is where the low-level managers make decisions. Pfizer’s
low-level managers are also included in the decision making as their knowledge work includes strategy,
innovation, collaborating, and critical thinking. Which shows that the decision-making is decentralized. Finally,
formalization refers to how standardized an organization’s jobs are and the extent to which employee behaviour

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is guided by rules and procedures. High formalization would have a negative impact on Pfizer concerning this
approach because as employees will have little autonomy to decide each time when to outsource their
operations and if they wanted to outsource they would have to take permission from the HR department
everything and this would take a lot of time and cause complications which will have a negative impact on the
organization

3. Do you think this arrangement would work for other types of organizations? Why or why not?
What types of organizations might it also work for?

It is possible that this arrangement would work for other types of organizations. This arrangement would work
only for organizations where the employees have both knowledge work and support work. As seen in the case,
the organization can outsource the support work so that the employees in the organization can focus on the
knowledge work.
Moreover, this type of arrangement would work perfectly for flat organizations. In a flat organization, there is
decentralization and delegation of authority. So the employees are empowered and this motivates them and
makes them feel more involved and responsible. So employees may take decisions of using the magic button to
outsource the support work in order to increase their efficiency. 
It may not work for a type of organization where the employees are proud of their work and committed to the
organization. The employees may think that their organization’s reputation is being decreased and may not like
it. So in cases like these, the arrangement would not work.

4. What role do you think organizational structure plays in an organization’s efficiency and
effectiveness? Explain.

Organizational structure can be defined as the formal agreement of jobs within an organization.
Organizational structure divides work, responsibilities, tasks into specific jobs and departments, and allocates
organization resources accordingly. Most managers, including Pfizer’s senior director, use work specialization
as an important organizing mechanism to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. Work specialization can be
achieved by dividing tasks in the organization into separate jobs with each step completed by a different
person.

Work Specialization allows the employees to work at the more important tasks and what they are better at.
This saves them time and energy as they are not burdened with other works that they are not good at. For
example, through outsourcing support work, employees at Pfizer have saved 66,500 working hours
(approximately). This will allow the employees to work at what they are best at, instead if they had to work at
the support works, that would have taken them more time which would lead to inefficiency. Therefore, now
they are being able to complete tasks that are more important than burdening themselves with monotonous
paperwork. Moreover, organizational structure helps the employees to know what are their responsibilities
involved with work. Having a flexible and functional structure will help to make decisions faster than
nonfunctional structures, which will improve the operational efficiency. 

In addition, having an organizational structure will help the employees to overcome the barriers of
communication resulting in better communication between employees and managers which will eliminate

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duplication of work and reduce employee conflict. Finally, overall all these will add to better performance of
the employees and the organization whole, boosting their effectiveness and efficiency.

Therefore, I think organizational structure plays and important role in an organizations’ efficiency and
effectiveness

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