netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Organisational Structure of American Greetings : American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Brooklyn, Ohio[3] and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products (such as wrapping papers and decorations), and electronic expressive content (e.g., ringtones and images for cellphones). In addition to the American Greetings brand, the company owns the Carlton Cards, Tender Thoughts and Gibson brands of greeting cards.
American Greetings is also famous for their toy design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland (now American Greetings Properties). The most-popular copyrighted properties owned by this division include Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears, The Get-Along Gang and Holly Hobbie. American Greetings also holds an exclusive license for Nickelodeon characters.
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CEO
Zev Weiss
2
Chairman of the Board
Morry Weiss
Director
Jeffrey Dunn
2
Director
William MacDonald
4
Director
Michael Merriman
3
Director
Charles Ratner
4
Director
Scott Cowen
4
Director
Jerry Thornton
Intellectual Properties
JM
25
CFO
Stephen Smith
2
COO
Jeffrey Weiss
Wal-Mart Team
RS
CIO
DR
3
Creative & Merchandising, Pr...
Thomas Johnston
Enterprise Resource Planning
EW
Sales & Marketing
JB
Supply Chain
MG
2
Legal
Catherine Kilbane
Human Resources
BM
2
International
JC
Control
JC
manufacturing facility, the work is most likely driven by machines. Certainly, in this environment there will be numerous processes and procedures, but there’s not going to be a great deal of latitude as to what an individual does on the job. It’s a simple matter of following Step One with Step Two, Step Two with Step Three, and so forth.
However, a software company or a video game manufacturing firm will call for an entirely different type of task, entirely different skill sets, with an entirely different type of people executing the work. Herein we find people who are very well versed in computer technology, and they tend to excel in creative and innovative tasks. Their work is not driven by rigid processes and procedures. It is a creative environment. And, in a case like this, obviously the Span of Control would need to be smaller, because a manager cannot oversee as many people when those individuals are granted greater creative latitude.
Span of Control (Tall vs. Flat Organizations)
The Span of Control has a major impact on organizational effectiveness. So let’s take a look at two different types of organizations. We can more easily refer to these as Tall Organizations and Flat Organizations. Figure 5: Tall vs Flat Organizational Structures
Span of Control
Span of Control is simply the number of people who can report to a single manager inside of the hierarchy.
As you can see from the organizational chart in Figure 5, the top half may be called a Tall Organization. Actually, this illustration depicts only four to five levels — in a truly large organization, of course, there will be many more levels. In an org chart for General Motors or Old Bethlehem Steel Company, for examples, there may be as many as twelve,
fourteen, sixteen or more levels between the top of the structure and the lowest level person in the organization.
Because there are so many levels, managers in a Tall Organization tend to have a Narrow Span of Control, which means there are no more than five or six people reporting to any individual manager or supervisor.
In the lower half of Figure 5, we see a so-called Flat Organization. The Flat structure results from substantially fewer levels (five or six levels at the maximum).
In the Flat Organizational Structure, because there are fewer levels, managers tend to have a Wide Span of Control, so there could be as many as ten or twelve people reporting to any individual manager or supervisor, depending upon the tasks involved.
So, essentially, as an organizational structure flattens out, the Span of Control increases. As the organizational structure becomes taller, the Span of Control decreases (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Comparison of Span of Control in Tall and Flat Structures 8
Vertical Complexity:
Contrasting Spans of Control in Functional Structures
We can now look at the most prevalent types of structures and discuss the pros and cons of each. The first structure, which is more in line with the Vertical Dimension, is known as the Functional Structure.
American Greetings is also famous for their toy design and licensing division, Those Characters From Cleveland (now American Greetings Properties). The most-popular copyrighted properties owned by this division include Strawberry Shortcake, the Care Bears, The Get-Along Gang and Holly Hobbie. American Greetings also holds an exclusive license for Nickelodeon characters.
I certify that my modifications are exact
Confirm Cancel
CEO
Zev Weiss
2
Chairman of the Board
Morry Weiss
Director
Jeffrey Dunn
2
Director
William MacDonald
4
Director
Michael Merriman
3
Director
Charles Ratner
4
Director
Scott Cowen
4
Director
Jerry Thornton
Intellectual Properties
JM
25
CFO
Stephen Smith
2
COO
Jeffrey Weiss
Wal-Mart Team
RS
CIO
DR
3
Creative & Merchandising, Pr...
Thomas Johnston
Enterprise Resource Planning
EW
Sales & Marketing
JB
Supply Chain
MG
2
Legal
Catherine Kilbane
Human Resources
BM
2
International
JC
Control
JC
manufacturing facility, the work is most likely driven by machines. Certainly, in this environment there will be numerous processes and procedures, but there’s not going to be a great deal of latitude as to what an individual does on the job. It’s a simple matter of following Step One with Step Two, Step Two with Step Three, and so forth.
However, a software company or a video game manufacturing firm will call for an entirely different type of task, entirely different skill sets, with an entirely different type of people executing the work. Herein we find people who are very well versed in computer technology, and they tend to excel in creative and innovative tasks. Their work is not driven by rigid processes and procedures. It is a creative environment. And, in a case like this, obviously the Span of Control would need to be smaller, because a manager cannot oversee as many people when those individuals are granted greater creative latitude.
Span of Control (Tall vs. Flat Organizations)
The Span of Control has a major impact on organizational effectiveness. So let’s take a look at two different types of organizations. We can more easily refer to these as Tall Organizations and Flat Organizations. Figure 5: Tall vs Flat Organizational Structures
Span of Control
Span of Control is simply the number of people who can report to a single manager inside of the hierarchy.
As you can see from the organizational chart in Figure 5, the top half may be called a Tall Organization. Actually, this illustration depicts only four to five levels — in a truly large organization, of course, there will be many more levels. In an org chart for General Motors or Old Bethlehem Steel Company, for examples, there may be as many as twelve,
fourteen, sixteen or more levels between the top of the structure and the lowest level person in the organization.
Because there are so many levels, managers in a Tall Organization tend to have a Narrow Span of Control, which means there are no more than five or six people reporting to any individual manager or supervisor.
In the lower half of Figure 5, we see a so-called Flat Organization. The Flat structure results from substantially fewer levels (five or six levels at the maximum).
In the Flat Organizational Structure, because there are fewer levels, managers tend to have a Wide Span of Control, so there could be as many as ten or twelve people reporting to any individual manager or supervisor, depending upon the tasks involved.
So, essentially, as an organizational structure flattens out, the Span of Control increases. As the organizational structure becomes taller, the Span of Control decreases (see Figure 6).
Figure 6: Comparison of Span of Control in Tall and Flat Structures 8
Vertical Complexity:
Contrasting Spans of Control in Functional Structures
We can now look at the most prevalent types of structures and discuss the pros and cons of each. The first structure, which is more in line with the Vertical Dimension, is known as the Functional Structure.
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