The Virgin Group An insight into the organizational structure and culture

The arrant(a) chemical group An insight into the organisational body social system and burnishIntroductionThe thoroughgoing(a) topic of companies is iodine of the largest business boldnesss in the world. Founded by Richard Branson, the sodding(a) host has established itself into galore(postnominal) diverse facets of the business indus purify. This base analyzes the make-upal structure and goal of the Virgin multitude and how it has helped this face make up such success in legion(predicate) diverse industries. Much of the gloss of the Virgin base is influenced by the personal popular opinions and philosophies of its fo under, Richard Branson, and is one of the reasons for the memorial tablets success. Branson highly determine exclusively of his employees and takes personal justeousness to ensure that his beliefs ar instilled among tout ensemble of them. Branson has created a decentralized structure in the organization by giving his employees the ascende ncy to take decisions thereby reducing bureaucracy. Employees be encouraged to not eternally follow rational procedures and instead think on their protest. This paper ordain prime(prenominal) briefly give an overview of the Virgin convocation of companies and its history and development. The organisational structure and agriculture of the Virgin collection will help the subscriber understand the organizations processes and business practices and how the values and belief system of its come apart has cause its structure and culture. In addition, the reader will learn how the Virgin Group has established itself as a roaring organization based on its structure and culture. The paper will apply some of the theories and concepts from the course hackneyed to the Virgin Group which will help to understand the industrial plant of this organization better. In conclusion, this paper hopes to emphasize the Virgin Groups overall journey with the years and the role that its struc ture and culture has played in its success. approximately the Virgin GroupThe Virgin Group is one of the roughly successful business empires today. This organization has established itself in diverse industries including mobile telephony, retail, music, monetary services, travel, and umpteen more. Virgin has ruled the British market and has expanded universal into other arenas like North America, Asia, Africa and Australia. Starting out as a simple mail-order record retailer in 1970, Virgin has grown into one of the most successful business empires in the world. The Virgin Group has established more than 300 companies, employing around 50000 tidy sum in 30 countries. Its global revenues in 2009 exceeded US$18 billion. (Virgin, n.d.) The majority of the Virgin Groups success has been ascribe to the founder and CEO of Virgin, Richard Branson. Bransons beliefs and philosophies are deeply rooted in the somatic culture of the Virgin Group. This has helped the Virgin Group to flou rish in todays combative business world.History and DevelopmentRichard Branson is the founder of the Virgin Group of companies. When he was a student at Stowe, he published a cartridge holder called Student. The magazine was a success and it encouraged Branson to leave school and try his hand at spic-and-span business ventures. His first target was mail-order records. He found that by putting a single advertisement in an issue of Student magazine, he was able to establish a prospering business with almost no up-front investment and no working capital. The pick up Virgin was suggested by one of his associates who saw the name as proclaiming their commercialised innocence, while possessing some novelty and modest shock-value. In 1971 Branson opened his first retail store on Londons Oxford Street. Virgin then expanded into the arrangement industry and the result was the Virgin record label. By 1983, the Virgin Group was earning profits of 2 million pounds on total revenues of ju st under 50 million pounds. (Grant, 2008) Gradually Branson expanded into other ventures.The Organizational buildingMany assume the Virgin Group to be a multinational, but such is not the case. individually of the 300 odd companies of the Virgin Group operates separately and Branson serves as shareholder, chairman, and public relations supremo. Most of them are operate companies that own assets, employ people, and offer goods and services. These operating companies are owned and controlled by about 20 holding companies. The Virgin Group has a precise hard structure. It has been termed both as a brand franchising operation as well as a keiretsu. (Grant, 2008) However, based on its structure, the Virgin Group can be safely termed as an organization with a keiretsu structure. A keiretsu is a group of organizations, each of which owns shares in the other organizations in the group, and all of which work together to further the groups interests. (Jones, Mills, Weatherbee, Mills, 2 006) Furthermore, such a large organization with a complex structure needs to be organic in order to be able to adapt to changes in its environment. An organic structure promotes flexibility, so people initiate change and can adapt apace to changing conditions. ( Jones et al., 2006)Considering each of the individual companies as a de bankruptment providing a rummy product or service, it is observable that they exhibit product departmentalization. proceeds departmentalization is the division of the departments of an organization based on the type of product or service offered. (Jones et al., 2006) For example, Virgin Mobile offers cellular services while Virgin Records is a music label. However, the structure of the Virgin Group is so complex that it is necessary for it to not just progress to one type of departmentalization. For instance, Virgin Mobile has operations in many different countries like the UK, India and Australia. As such, the type of service varies in each of the se countries. This shows that Virgin Mobile as well as exhibits geographical departmentalization. Geographic departmentalization is the division of an organization based on the geographic location. (Jones et al., 2006) In addition, type of service and products also varies depending on the customer base hence exhibiting customer departmentalization. Customer departmentalization is the division of an organization based on the kind of customers it serves. (Jones et al., 2006) Since the Virgin Group of companies exhibit so many types of departmentalisations, the organization as a whole is said to have a crown of thorns structure, which is a mixture of two or more kinds of departmentalisations. This multi-divisional approach helps the Virgin Group to easily adapt to the cultural, technological and other forces in the region it expands to.The division of labour and the hierarchy is also an master(prenominal) aspect of an organizations structure. The be of levels of authority, the con trol, and the amount of communication are key factors in the proper working of an organization. As mentioned, the Virgin Groups companies operate as separate organizations. The companies are part of a family earlier than a hierarchy. They are empowered to run their own affairs, yet the companies help one another, and solutions to problems often come from within the Group somewhere. In a sense, Virgin is a commonwealth, with shared ideas, values, interests and goals. (Virgin, n.d.) In fact, Branson himself has showd all his employees with the authority to make unsupervised decisions based on their intuition rather than following a chain of command. This leads to the employees having more confidence in them and in the management. Since interaction among all the levels of the hierarchy is promoted, it increases effective communication. This is evident from the fact that Branson in person interacts with employees on a regular basis discussing ideas and receiving feedback. The Virgin G roup expresses self-reliance and effective communication. Virgin has a flat hierarchical structure and this enables vigorous and efficient decision making. The flat structure is one of the reasons that the Virgin Group has been able to expand into new ventures. In addition, a flat structure allows a wide of the markr span of control, and decentralization. Span of control is the number of subordinates a carriage manages directly. (Jones et al., 2006) The decentralized structure of the Virgin Group gives more power in the hands of its employees when it comes to decision making. Decentralization is the delegation of authority to all levels of the hierarchy. (Jones et al.,2006) Branson believes that the employees are the backbone of the caller-out and hence it is important that they have enough battle and authority in decision making.Since the Virgin Group comprises of so many companies, along with a decentralized structure, it should show some signs of organizational bureaucracy. However, Branson has ensured since the startle to minimize bureaucracy as much as possible since he strives to flatten the hierarchy. Bureaucracy is a structure in which people are held accountable for their actions because they are required to act in accordance with rules and standard operating procedures. (Jones et al., 2006) The efficiency of the employees is enhanced under Bransons leadership who emphasises a wide span of control and self management. Bransons scepticism of organizational hierarchy and a form-only(prenominal) structure has contributed to organizational cohesiveness to a great extent. His espousal of this unorthodox strategy rather than traditional business practices and non-traditional structuring of the organization may be the reason for the Groups success.The Organizational CultureMuch of the Virgin Groups culture is influenced by its founder Richard Bransons personal philosophies. Just as his employees are important to him, so are the customers the Virgin Group serves. The ability of the Virgin Group to operate efficaciously with almost a non-formal structure is because of its unique organizational culture. The culture of the Virgin Group reflects Bransons casual nature, his disrespect for hierarchy and formal authority, commitment to employees and consumers and his belief in hard work and responsibility. (Grant, 2008) This influences all of the companies in the Virgin Group and its organizational culture. This in turn, enables the Virgin Group to provide an environment in which talented, ambitious people are motivated to do their best and strive for a higher level of performance. However, even in an liberal environment, a high level of commitment, acceptance of personal responsibility and long hours of work when needed is expected. Performance incentives at Virgin for most employees are diffident but Virgin provides benefits like social activities, company sponsored weekend getaways and impromptu parties. (Grant, 2008) Such an env ironment promotes better relations among the employer and the employees.Virgins unique culture has gradually progressed to where it is today. Virgin describes itself as a family emphasizing its informal but strong belief system and values. Possessing such a culture enables the Virgin Group to have effective coordination among its various departments. Working as a community rather than a corporation, instils the ability to communicate effectively among the many companies in the Group. The Group as a whole works together based on these shared set of values which are continuously strengthened. This is important considering the vast size and complexity of the organization. Following in the footsteps of its founder, Virgin has always maintained the belief that the employees are the biggest force of the organization and as such, should be treated with respect. (Virgin, n.d.) The management cares for the welfare of the employees and allows them to work in a free environment. Because of the se primary beliefs and values, Virgin has been able to compete, thrive, and challenge new business opportunities. As mentioned before, Richard Branson has influenced the culture of the organization the most. He has managed to instil his belief system into all of his employees and this has motivated them to strive to perform better.One of the many strong points in Virgins favour is the fact that it is non-traditional revolutionary even in the manner it does business. Virgin believes in grasping opportunities. Contrary to what many people may think, Virgins constantly expanding and eclectic empire is neither random nor reckless. Each successive venture demonstrates their devotion to picking the right market and the right opportunity. This has proved beneficial to the organization and is one of the many reasons for its success. (Virgin, n.d.)Conclusion found on the analysis of the corporate culture and structure of the Virgin Group, it is evident that it is a highly successful organiza tion most of whichs credit goes to the founder and his values and beliefs. Even though the industry considers much of his methods to be unorthodox, these methods have proved highly beneficial to him and the Virgin Group and have been deemed to be effective. Not many today can dream of venturing into so many diverse industries starting from scratch. If Virgin continues to strengthen its culture and structure, it has the potential to release one of the most successful companies ever.