Organizational Design and Strategy in a Changing Global Environment - Introduction - Functional-level strategy

5 important questions on Organizational Design and Strategy in a Changing Global Environment - Introduction - Functional-level strategy

To gain competitive advantage, an organization must be able to perform functional activities

  1. At a lower cost than that of its rivals so it can charge lower prices for its goods and services.
  2. In a way that allows it to differentiate its products from those of its rivals, by giving them unique qualities that customers desire, so it can charge higher or premium prises.

Functional-level strategy and culture

The development of functional abilities that lead to core competences is also result of the culture that emerges in a function or department. Culture is very difficult to mange, let alone imitate or copy, so a company that has an effective culture has an important source of competitive advantage.

The reason is that the coordination abilities that stem from an organization’s culture emerge gradually and are a product of many factors:

o An organization’s property rights system
o Its structure
o Its ethics
o The characteristics of its top management team
These factors can be combined in many different ways, reproducing another organization’s culture is difficult.
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To develop functional abilities and produce a core competence, it is necessary to choose:

o Property rights
o Functional structure
o Functional managers

The organizational strategy must allow and encourage each function to develop a core competence in lowering costs or differentiating its products form those of competitors.

To gain competitive advantage, an organization needs to design its functional structure and culture to provide a setting in which core competences develop.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

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