Organisational design: Know your organisation

Scenarios for Week 5 Graded Quiz

Scenario 1
You are the owner/manager of 8 high-end fitness gyms that are located across Singapore, and
you want to develop a more strategic approach to HRM that is aligned with the new organization
structure that you have decided on. Up until now, you were organized in a divisional structure,
with each of the individual gyms run as a profit centers by gym directors who had a lot of
autonomy, and ran their gyms as if they were a local standalone business. You noticed that each
gym director had their own personal approach to things which caused inconsistencies in service
levels, even though the customers that each of your gyms attract are very similar in terms of their
needs. The autonomy of the gym directors also made it difficult to introduce standardized training
methods and classes that will better enable you to differentiate your brand based on your
particular approach to training. And, finally, you are convinced that you can get better deals on
cleaning, maintenance, and equipment by negotiating these centrally, instead of through the
individual gym directors. So you have decided to move to a functional structure that better
enables you to standardize your processes, and also gives you a scale advantage in procurement.

As part of your new functional structure have decided to employ a highly experienced personal
trainer to head up a centralized pool of personal trainers who can operate across any of the 8
gyms if, when, and where needed. The new Director of Training in charge of the personal trainer
pool needs to develop cutting edge personal training methods and group classes, and ensure that
all of her personal trainers can consistently and safely deliver them. This unique, cutting-edge
approach to personal training and gym classes will enable you to differentiate your company from
the competition, so it is very important to get this right. Personal trainers who can be trained in
the new unique training methods are relatively easy to find, but they do represent your high-end
brand, so it is very important that they are highly professional and service-minded.

The new organisation structure does not leave any room for your former gym directors. Instead,
you are going to employ receptionists who are there to open and close the gym, deal with new
gym enrolments, client enquiries, and personal trainer bookings insofar as these are not arranged
online. These receptionists need to be professional, service-minded, and organised. And finally,
you have decided to hire a specialist in gym equipment, who will be in charge of procurement and

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maintenance of all gym equipment, making sure that your company is always in step with the
latest trends, and that all equipment is safe and always in top working order.

Scenario 2
You are the CEO of a company that offers premium private secondary school education under one
highly respected brand across 5 locations: Sydney, Qatar, Johannesburg, Bangkok, and Kuala
Lumpur. You need to ensure that all of the teachers across each of the schools stick to the
standardized teaching method, which is uniquely tailored to each of the main subject areas, and
requires a significant amount of training. It is this teaching method that really differentiates you
from your competition – it is what your school brand has become known for - and parents across
each of your locations are willing to pay a premium for it. Although your schools are known for
their highly effective, standardized teaching method, you also need to ensure that you are
responsive to local needs and requirements, which vary significantly across the different school
locations.

You have decided to use a divisional structure by location, with the principal of each school fully
responsible for their school, including finances, HR, student recruitment, teaching quality, and
local regulatory compliance. Local teachers have a direct reporting line into one of several deputy
principals who report into the principal.

In order to ensure that all teachers can consistently follow the unique teaching methods that the
schools are known for, you have appointed global teaching area heads. These are teaching
specialists who are highly experienced in the teaching methods that the school is known for, and
who have been rotated through different locations throughout their teaching careers at your
organization. They are responsible for ensuring global teaching quality consistency in their
teaching area by training local teaching area heads, documenting and updating teaching methods
based on global monitoring of teaching effectiveness, and organising a bi-annual development
conference that all teachers in their area attend. Local teaching area heads are responsible for
training and monitoring teaching performance of all local teachers in their area. Finally, local
teachers are supported by teaching assistants who don’t require any specialised training.

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