National Culture In Peter Blau's Theory Of Organizational Structure

Does size of an organization affect is complexity is the question at hand. In Peter Blau’s case, the size does increase the complexity of a firm. However, due to this connection, economies of scale will not be automatic (Tolbert & Hall, 2009, p. 46). In fact, his contributions to the theory of organizational structure is that as the organization grows, a need for specialized individuals is noted, hence, giving rise to greater complexity as well as the need to span managerial control (Tolbert & Hall, 2009, p. 46). In a small organization, there are not an ample amount of people to foster specialize; as each member should carry out a variety of jobs. As the number of individuals rises, specialization becomes more realistic. Concurrently, increases …show more content…
Explain how this phenomena are amplified in multinational organizations. National cultural does affect how organizations are structured in all types of settings. For illustration, consider the national culture in Germany verses the culture in the Mexico. Are the businesses inside the countries structured the same? In some cases they are, however, in others they are not. The German culture is based upon task oriented, tight structures and rules, avoidance of uncertainty, timeliness, separation of personal and business life and direct communication (Schroll-Machl, 2007). On the other hand, Mexico, is characterized by looser structures and rules, and a strong interconnection between personal and business life, and a vast completion of job by one individual ("Introduction to the Mexican," 2014). Both cultures are similar in that they share the characteristics of being timely and direct with communication. In either case, how they make decisions will be based on how they view the environment in which they reside, thus particular structural arrangements will be implemented (Tolbert & Hall, 2009, p. 62). With the characteristics of the German culture, one would suspect to see a more centralization and formulation, rule observation, tight job codification, and rule observation, specialized workforce, which follows a functional vertical …show more content…
This article directly relates to our module in a few ways. First, this article notes that when a work group is very small a structure may not be warranted, but in a larger organization decisions have to be made about assigning responsibilities of various functions ("Organizational Structure," 2015). This is directly related to Peter Blau concepts which describe as organizations grow the need for more specializing and formalization is required, however, in smaller firm the reduced number of employees does not allow for the need for specializations or formulation (Tolbert & Hall, 2009, p. 46). Next, the article talks about how the structure of all companies is unique in some regards, but all organizational structures develop or are consciously designed to enable the organization to accomplish its work. This correlates with the overall premise of our module in that culture shapes the organizations structure. For illustration, both the material factors which include size and technology, ideational factors such as internal and external components, as well as, institutional pressures influence the organizational structure (Tolbert & Hall, 2009, p. 66-67). Finally, the article discussed the future of firms which involves joint ventures, alliances and other inter-organizational efforts. This relates to the module