Structuring Success: Unveiling the Organisational Framework of Sony and its Operational Implications

Executive summary

In the recent years, the organisational structure is mandatory for the multinational corporate firms in order to improve the efficiency to perform in the market and maximise the organisational values. Through developing the organisational structure, the leaders and the managers try to manage their workforce and give them clear roles and responsibilities to perform efficiently. The aim of the study is to identifying the organisational structure of the organisational and justifying the chosen structure in the workplace. Through this study, it is easy to demonstrate the organisational structure of Sony and evaluating the structure in terms of the operational activities and performance of Sony. Through evaluation and analysis, it is possible to understand the hierarchical structure of the organisation Sony and justifying the chosen structure to run their business internally.

Introduction

The organisational structure is the system which helps to outline the activities at the workplace to achieve the future organisational goals and objectives, the activities can include the roles and responsibilities of the employees, and the organisational rules which are effective to develop effective strategic planning where as per the organisational structure, the employees try to maintain organisational hierarchy to fulfil the aims and objectives of the firm (Ahmady, Mehrpour and Nikooravesh, 2016). The aim of the study is to analyse the organisational structure and evaluating the structure to achieve future objectives of the firm. The study provides a scope to identify the organisational structure of Sony and evaluation the structure to assess the reason of developing the structure in the workplace. The organisational structure of the organisation is effective to define the ways and activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, where the firm can be able to develop proper strategy to maximise the organisational values and run the organisational activities in long run.

Background of the organisation

Sony is the Japanese multinational conglomerate cooperation, providing and diversifies products including consumer electronics, films, TV, music system, computer hardware, telecommunications equipment and semiconductor as well as video game. In addition to this, the company is also efficient to provide efficient services to the customers such as insurance, banking, credit finance, advertising agency, network services and financial services, where the company is successful to meet the expectations of the customers. The company is efficient to follow the organisational structure and run the operational activities efficiently. The company is also efficient to generate revenue in the last year which was approximately $80 billion as well as the net income of the company in 2019 was ¥916.2 billion (Sony, 2020a).

The company is also successful in managing the employees and the total numbers of employees in the last year was 114400, where the employees are well trained and they are efficient to follow the organisational structure to fulfil the aims and objectives of the firm. The purpose of Sony is to fill the world with emotion, through the power of creativity and technology. The values of the company are dreams and curiosity, diversity management, managing integrity and sincerity and managing sustainability to create values for the social communities as a whole (Sony, 2020c).

Organisational structure of Sony

The organisational structure plays a crucial role in the workplace, where the seniority can be managed well and the employees can develop proper hierarchy to manage the workplace and work as per their roles and responsibilities (Ahmady, Mehrpour and Nikooravesh, 2016). There are different departments in the workplace, which further develops clear roles and responsibility and provide clear dies to the employees to flow their roles and fulfil the organisational aims. The Sony cooperation has the balanced matrix organisational structure, where the corporate structure is primarily based on the business functions and the product and service types, so that different departments of the organisation can perform together to maximise the organisational aims and objectives. There are functions based group and the business type division, where the company is efficient to develop proper organisational structure (Sony, 2020d). As per the functional based group, there are different functions through which the company aims at developing the structure and the functions are such as,

Finance

Research and development

Legal compliance and corporate social responsibility management

Manufacturing and production

Logistics and procurement

Engineering

Sales and marketing

Human resource and general affairs

On the other hand, the business structure is also effective at the company, where the company has different divisions to manage the customers, and the segments of the organisational structure of Sony are such as,

Storage media business

Imaging products and solution business

Picture business

Music

Home entertainment and sound business

Mobile communication business

Energy business

Hereby, both the structure of the organisation provides clear roles and responsibilities at Sony to perform better and encourage the employees to contribute positively in managing the organisational values and principles (Sony, 2020e).

Justifying the organisational structure

The above mentioned organisational structure is effective for the organisation Sony, where the company has developed clear structure to provide proper information to the employees so that the staff members can have clear responsibility to perform efficiently in the workplace. The functional structure is appropriate for the organisation, where the company is able to develop different departments at the workplace to create suitable working process (Strese et al., 2016). The employees are efficient to manage the organisational hierarchy and improve the working practice to maximise their contribution in the organisation. In this regard, the organisational structure of Sony is effective to run the operational activities and improve the organisational performance as a whole (Madi et al., 2018). The organisation is structured this way, so that the management team of different department can run the operational activities efficiently. The production and manufacturing team is efficient to perform better and develop creative electronics products for the customers.

The sales and marketing department is also efficient to manage the customer’s service and serve the consumers efficiently with proper support and giving assistance and technical support (Shimagaki et al., 2016). In addition to this, the organisational structure of Sony is effective to manage the operations and engineers where the products logistics management and distribution network are beneficial to distribute the quality products across the globe as well as the engineering team are efficient to support the customers and develop quality and technological advanced products for maximising the organisational values (Kodama, 2018). The organisation mainly focuses of managing technical up-gradation and ensures creativity and innovation in designing the products and services and in this regard the above structure of the organisation is beneficial to manage the operational activities and fulfil the aim and purpose of the company.

The above mentioned organisational structure of Sony is also effective, where the employees can manage hierarchy and contribute in managing the organisational practice and developing the organisational culture. The legal department is also efficient to manage the legal compliance and ethical practice, so that the organisation can be established sustainably in the market across the globe. The organisational structure of Sony is therefore effective to manage the organisational ethics to run the business sustainably across the electronic manufacturing sector around the globe. The legal department is also responsible to manage the corporate social responsibility, where the company is successful to create values for the social communities by maximising their responsibility and providing green environmental footprint. As per the functional structure of the organisation, it is possible for Sony to improve the performance of the firm and establish the organisation successfully (Shimagaki et al., 2016). The structure of Sony has developed as per the functional areas, which is important to have better control over the operational activities and manage the workload of the workplace, where the employees can manage their roles and responsibility in different departments.

The organisation Sony has also developed proper hierarchy, so that seniority can be managed and the employees can manage their workload with the help of senior colleague. There are different departments in the organisation, where the employees are efficient to manage the activities and fulfil the aim of the departments as well (Ahmady, Mehrpour and Nikooravesh, 2016). Executive development and scope of expansion are other benefits, for which Sony has developed such kind of structure to perform better in the market across the international nations. Specialisation of work is also another advantage for which Sony has developed the organisational structure according to the functions of the organisation, where the company can improve their research and development activities as well as increase the efficiency of the employees according to their personal expertise and department wise working responsibilities (Strese et al., 2016). Hereby, the above mentioned structural development of Sony is efficient to perform better and establish the business efficiently with clear organisational structure, where the employees can be clear about their roles and responsibilities in the workplace and improve their performance by utilising the organisational resources.

Conclusion

Organisational structure is hereby beneficial for the multinational corporate brand to follow suitable formation of the roles and responsibilities and develop different department to run he operational activities efficiently. The organisation Sony is efficient to develop effective organisational structure according to the functional areas of the business, which further provides a scope to the company to manage the employees and give them clear roles and responsibilities in different departments. The department wise work at Sony further improves specialisation and efficiency of the employees to perform better and maximise the organisational values in long run. Sony focuses on developing functional based organisational structure, where it is beneficial to have proper standardisation of the organisational activities, greater communication, appropriate management of economies of scale, proper utilisation of the organisational resources, enhancing the organisational capabilities and performance and improving efficiency of the staff.

Reference List

Ahmady, G.A., Mehrpour, M. and Nikooravesh, A., 2016. Organizational structure. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230, pp.455-462.

Kodama, M., 2018. Apple versus Sony: strategy transformation by capabilities congruence through asset orchestration: Driving Congruence in Capabilities. In Sustainable Growth Through Strategic Innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Madi, S.A., El Talla, S.A., Abu-Naser, S.S. and Al Shobaki, M.J., 2018. The Organizational Structure and its Impact on the Pattern of Leadership in Palestinian Universities.

Shimagaki, J., Kamei, Y., McIntosh, S., Hassan, A.E. and Ubayashi, N., 2016. A study of the quality-impacting practices of modern code review at sony mobile. In Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion (pp. 212-221).

Strese, S., Meuer, M.W., Flatten, T.C. and Brettel, M., 2016. Organizational antecedents of cross-functional coopetition: The impact of leadership and organizational structure on cross-functional coopetition. Industrial Marketing Management, 53, pp.42-55.

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