Organisation Theory and Design

The environment of Aquarius Advertising Agency is somewhat hostile. This is mainly because other agency specialists are bypassing the Account Executives. And the main reason why the agency hired Account Executives is to oversee that clients have what they need from the agency, and have the account closed. Since specialists are bypassing the executives, the executives will have no clue as to what is happening to an account given to him by the agency to take care of. If the situation continues, the agency may find itself operating without Account Executives. This makes the environment of the agency uncertain and unstable. Since the goal of every in-house specialist is to have his or her idea bought by a client, the goal of the agency, as a whole can never be met. From the case study given, it is stated that the agency want to increase the flexibility to meet changes and co-operation between departments responsible in giving clients their advertising needs. If the specialists can have the decency to follow the rules in engaging with clients, the agencys goal is met. Future goals of the agency cannot be met should the current situation continue. Culture today is fast changing. The turnover that Aquarius Advertising Agency has experienced is an evidence of the fast-changing trend. Researchers must find better ways to present ideas that clients would like to see. Researchers must know how to harness new technologies in order to meet the demands that the agency is facing. And they must do it fast (Craig and Douglas, 1999), even though the agency wants to slow down its response time to change, or face the consequence of losing a client to other agencies that are adapted to our changing culture. Having an adaptable and co-operative firm would be best. The agencys size is medium. It may give potential clients the idea that the agency will not be able to meet what they need because of the firm size. But since the agency size is medium it will be easier to make core changes in the organisation of the firm. Should the agency plan for an expansion of the firm; it should be done while the firm is undergoing re-organisation. This is to lessen the decline in performance of employees after the re-organisation (Greve, 1999). Technological advances should be looked upon by the agency in order to produce and express better ideas of its in-house specialists. These new technologies should be harnessed and improved to meet what the agency needs. It should also be suited to cover what a client need. So, the agency may have to tailor-suit a technology for a specific client. But by doing so, the agency can attract new clients, simply because they showed how much they are willing to do to please a client. To answer the second question, most of these contextual variables are met with disapproving marks. It is because even the research specialists who should be looking for new ways to improve the agencys presentation of proposals are trying to get in touch with their client. Also, since the account executives feel that they are being undermined in the firm, they will not be satisfied with what they do. The accomplished feeling that they should feel if they closed an account are not met. These feelings are also because of what the specialists of the firm are doing.

The goal of each person working in the firm should be secondary to what the firms goal is. Each employee should be aware that they are working in a firm where team effort is very much welcome. They are not supposed to undermine the authority of others just because they think that they are on top. The rules and protocols that are made by the firm's management should be followed and not just memorised. Also, the agencys future aim is to slow down its response time to cultural changes. This can affect the quality of the agencys products. Instead of slowing down, they should try to innovate and be at pace with culture and technology. The agency should try to make strict policies to be followed to please the account executives. This should make the agencys working environment cooler than what it is. For the specialists, the agency should try to provide skill development sessions or seminars. The sessions would be basically a peace offering for stricter policy imposed on them. A new organisation chart has been made For the third question, Aquarius Advertising Agency has at least four choices in re-organising its firm. These are: the Functional Structure, Divisional Structure, Matrix Structure and the Horizontal Structure (Baker, 1999). A functional organisation structure will enable in-depth knowledge and skill development; it will also enable the organisation to accomplish functional goals and it will answer the organisations aim to slow down its response time to environmental changes. But this structure is best only for a firm with few products and it will not solve the firms present problem of poor co-ordination and co-operation between departments (Baker, 1999; Duncan, 1979). A divisional organisation structure suited to fast change in unstable environment, it will also lead to client satisfaction since product responsibility and contact points are clear, it will also give high co-ordination across functions, and provides adaptability to differences in products, regions, and clients (Baker, 1999; Duncan, 1979). But like the functional structure it also has its downfall. A divisional structure can lead to poor co-ordination across product lines and eliminates in-depth competence and technical specialisation (Baker, 1999; Duncan, 1979). Based on Frank Ostroff (1999) and Richard Draft (1998), a horizontal structure will give flexibility and rapid response to changes in customer needs, it will also directs the attention of employees toward the production and delivery of value to the customer, it will also give the employees a broader view of organisational goals and it will promote a focus on teamwork and collaboration to meeting objectives. But horizontal structure lessens skill growth of its employees, and the organisation may have problems with its management, since this structure will lessen the power or authority of its managers (Baker, 1999). A matrix structure as adapted from Duncan (1979) can achieve co-ordination necessary to meet dual demands from customers, it offers flexible sharing of human resources across products, it also provides both functional and product skill development of employees and is best applied to medium-sized organisation with multiple products. But if not well explained to employees what this structure is, it can cause frustration and confusion to participants who will be under this structure, it also means that participants should improve their interpersonal skills. It will also be time consuming because it involves conflict resolution sessions. It will also need great effort to maintain power balance within the agency (Baker, 1999). But in spite of the dilemmas that the agency will have to face a matrix structure would surely bring out the efficiency of its employees. It is due to the fact that under a matrix structure, they would be having more than one

boss. That would mean more than one person to answer to (Abraham, 2002). This structure can also improve the current environment that the employees are in. Since only the account executive can communicate with clients, the firm can be assured that no under the table talks between unauthorised personnel can occur. A matrix structure would be suitable to a medium-sized company (Baker, 1999) like Aquarius. Since, there are fewer people involved, and to ensure that everyone is doing their job well, a matrix structure should be adapted. And since the re-organisation of the firm is aimed to increase flexibility and co-operation among the agencys specialist, the suggested structure would be suitable. For every project, the agency will form a team that will be responsible in satisfying the clients needs. The team would also be responsible in coming up with ideas that would capture the clients trust in the firm. Each team will compose of an account executive, a research specialist, an art specialist, and creative personnel. They will be headed by the account executive. The research specialist will be the one to look into what the project needs to be better than other agencies; the art specialist will be the one to give actualisation to ideas given by the creative personnel. However, the creative personnel and the other members of the team will not be allowed to communicate with a client, unless the account has been closed and the project will progress. The team will only be made if an account has been entered into the firm. Otherwise, they will be a member of their respective departments. In the suggested structure, it will be noticed that only two divisions are interacting until the closing of an account. But interaction between all three divisions will be seen when schedules for the production are made. Although the secret correspondence between clients and specialists cannot be immediately eliminated, a more strict policy implementation should be done. And anyone who violates any policy, especially regarding unauthorised communication with clients should be reprimanded or acted upon by the management.

Aquarius Advertising
FINDING THE BALANCE The Aquarius Advertising Agency is a middle-sized firm that offered two basic professional services to its clients: 1) customized plans for the content of an advertising campaign, e.g., slogans, layouts, and 2) complete plans for media such as radio, TV, newspapers, billboards, magazines, etc. Additional services include aid in marketing and distribution of products, and marketing research to test advertising effectiveness. Its activities are organized in a traditional manner. The formal organization is show in Figure 1. Each of the functions includes similar activities, and each client account is coordinated by an account executive who acts as a liaison between the client and the various specialists on the professional staff of the Operations and Marketing divisions. The number of direct communications and contacts among clients, Aquarius specialists, and Aquarius account executives is indicated in Figure 2. The sociometric data were gathered

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by a consultant who conducted a study of the patterns of formal and informal communication. Each intersecting cell of Aquarius personnel and the clients contains an index of the direct contacts between them. Although an account executive is designated to be the liaison between the client and specialists within the agency, communications frequently occur directly between clients and specialists, and so bypass the account executive. These direct contacts involve a wide range of interactions such as meetings, telephone calls, emails etc. A large number of direct communications occur between agency specialists and their counterparts in the client organization. For example, an art specialists working as one member of a team on a particular client account are often contacted directly by the client's in-house art specialist, and agency research personnel have direct communication with research people of the client firm. Also, some of the unstructured contacts often lead to more formal meetings...

Aquarius Advertising Agency

CASES FOR ANALYSIS ~ AQUARIUS ADVERTISING AGENCY 1. Analyze Aquarius with respect to the five contextual variables. How would you describe the environment, goals, culture, size, and technology for Aquarius? ANSWER: Aquarius is a middle-sized firm operating in a relatively unstable environment, particularly because in the industry it was common to lose or gain clients quickly because of consumer behavior changes or product innovation, sometimes with no advance warning. The technology is predominantly nonroutine because of the emphasis on creativity and art. The structure is functional with fulltime integrators who provide horizontal linkage. The goals of the firm are to be creative and to satisfy customers. 2. Design a new organization structure that takes into consideration the contextual variables in the case and the information flows in Exhibit 3.22. ANSWER: You may give students a hint of the general approaches that could be taken: One approach would be to treat account managers

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as project managers; another general approach would be to design a product structure with departments reporting to each account executive. Ask students to draw their specific alternatives on the board. A hybrid form of structure would be one specific possibility, with account executives reporting to client group vicepresidents (comparable to the "product" form), and most functional departments such as research, media, merchandising, copy department and art department reporting to each of the account executives. The functional heads who would still report directly to the president would probably be legal counsel, finance, and personnel. The structure matches the uncertainty of the environment, and would enable the organization to allow for unit or customerdriven adaptation to changes. There is high coordination across functions relative to any given customer's account, necessary for the projects being designed. The emphasis is on client satisfaction with vertical and horizontal Read more: http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2008/08/aquarius-advert.html#ixzz1h3p9EYrM

Agency
1. Analyze Aquarius with respect to the five contextual variables. How would you describe the environment, goals, culture, size, and technology for Aquarius? Aquarius Advertising Agency would be considered a middle-sized firm operating in a relatively unstable environment. Mostly because in the advertising, TV, radio, newspapers it is common for a mid-size company to lose or gain customers quickly because of consumers behavior changes or product improvement, all of the above can take place sometimes with no prior warning. The technology is largely non-routine because of the emphasis on creativity and art. The structure is practical with full-time integrators who provide horizontal linkage. The goals of the firm is to be inventive, resourceful, ingenious but yet original and to satisfy their customers, and do it better than anyone else can and possibly gain more clients. 2. Design a new organization structure that takes into consideration the contextual variables in the case and the information flows.. PRESIDENT LEGAL

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COUNSEL FINANCE PERSONNEL AE V/P CLIENT GROUP ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE RESEARCH AE MEDIA AE MERCHANDISING AE AR/COPY DEPT.

3. Would a matrix structure be feasible for Aquarius? Why or why not? A matrix structure could be feasible for Aquarius Advertising Agency it isnt undoable. But, with there being a potential for rapid environmental change in an advertising agency as well as

uncertainties a matrix structure wouldnt be the best form to follow. A matrix will be valuable only when the experienced managers are willing to be team players and not violate their authority functional or product in the complex violation of unity of command that occurs by design. Without taking these above steps into account the MATRIX STRUCTURE would only hurt the company instead of help. The best suggestion would be to reinforce the integrative capability of the account executives while it is in its functional...