(Solution) 5C001 Organisational Performance and culture in practice

Briefing paper Questions

(AC1.1) Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different types of organisation structures, including the reasons underpinning them. Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section.   Word count: Approximately 500 words
Divisional Organisational Structure This is defined as a system used in an organisation to group staff into specific segments in terms of their products/services produced and not in line with job description (CIPD, 2024). This is as illustrated in the following; Figure 1: Example of Divisional Structure Source: AIHR (2024) In Saudi Arabia, Riyad Bank operates through a divisional organisation structure.
The advantages of this include;
Flexible and adaptable– With banking sector has significant changes, this structure enables prompt responding to changes. The bureaucratic tendencies are not in place which hinder success of decision making.
Increased innovation– Riyad Bank is very innovative as part of their active operations. This is since every department in the divisional structure could test fresh ideas, driving innovativeness and customising their customers management.
The disadvantages of this include;
Less cross-functional collaboration– In the divisional structure, people work in isolation and reduced communication success. The siloed strategy impact sharing of knowledge, innovativeness and Riyad Bank implementing best strategy.
Resources duplication– In Riyad Bank, they have different departments including sales, finances and marketing which means resources being duplicated in the different departments. According to Saiti and Stefou (2020), divisional structure is most appropriate to use when large organisations producing multiple goods work in different locations. This is also applicable in an organisation offering broad range of demographics working best with the divisional organisation structure.
Matrix Organisation Structure
This is identified as a tyle of structure where the leaders are reporting to many leaders (Raziq et al., 2020). This is used in maintaining open-based communication amongst different teams and creation of more innovative products and services. The organisation structure is as illustrated in the following; Figure 2: Matrix Organisation Structure Source: Demianchuk et al. (2021)
An example of an organisation using this structure is Alinma Bank in Saudi Arabia.
The advantages include;
Improved collaboration– By embracing a matrix structure, people possessing varying skill sets are brought together. In Alinma Bank for example, this harness collaboration and cross-functional communication skills.
Efficiently allocating resources– In Alinma Bank, matrix organisation structure attracts broad talent pool. This is by assigning resources informed by relevance hence efficient and project results achieved.
The disadvantages on the other hand entail;
Role confusion– According to Xu et al. (2020), with many leaders and management functions in place, there occur role confusion.
Conflict over priorities– There is a potential of contributing to staff possessing competing priorities (Demianchuk et al., 2021)). In Alinma Bank for example, this occur in areas of resources allocation, conflicting deadlines in place and objectives differing.
This method is more appropriate when the large and multi-project organisations are relocating their employees during and where they are needed. Also, an organisation operating different subsidiaries in various locations, this method is most appropriate to be used.
(AC1.2) Analyse connections between organisational strategy, products, services and customers. Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section.   Word count: Approximately 400 words
Organisation Strategy In this report, King Saud Medical City (KSMC) is the organisation of focus. Since 1956, the organisation has been offering Riyadh population with healthcare services (KSMC, 2024).
The organisation strategy include;
Care provision– KSMC main strategy is provision of care to the Saudi Citizens. Through this strategy, patient-centric healthcare -based services meeting needs of their entire patients (KSMC, 2024a). Human Resources–   Another KSMC organisation strategy is attracting, developing and retaining employees in the healthcare institution. The rationale of this is ensuring that the organisation is competitive in this business environment.
Link with organisation strategic goals and objectives
An organisation operate in a specific economic landscape which influence the need for carefully studying the market as part of organisation strategy (Moktadir et al., 2020). The organisation strategy set for engaging and maintaining customers are informed by the link. Depending on the economic landscape, maintaining relevance and increasing market share is possible by altering their strategies based on the needs. For example, in KSMC, one of their strategic goal is to offer distinctive and interdisciplinary education opportunities for their future healthcare leaders (KSMC, 2024a.). Through this strategy, they are able to achieve excellence and humane healthcare to their patients to enrich an environment for their leaners and employees. Also, they are in a position of fostering research and innovation meant for supporting KSMC vision and serving needs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 
Link with organisation strategic goals and Products/Services
For the identified strategies, their link to strategic goals and objectives is informed by economic landscape and implementation methods (Ramadan et al., 2022). In order to understand this link, Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis can be used. This tool identify how the organisation strategy enhance management of industry rivalry, buyer power and suppliers power. KSMC strategy of care provision is achieved through makings sure their products are addressing strategic direction fortifying competitive position by customising value proposition to gain loyalty. The outcome of this has been the organisation providing high quality products and services hence ranked as a leader in KSA medical sector. Further, with KSMC majorly being a service sector organisation, their focus is how original they are in delivery of customer’s needs, quality level and costs factors.
Through an appropriate alignment, the overall services provided have improved experiences in entirety hence organisation profits and market positioning (Patterson, 2020). It is possible for an organisation to achieve a leverage on competitive advantage through distinguishing itself from their competitors by offering unique and high-quality services. This is the case in KSMC where their clients satisfaction and loyalty is increased cultivating sustainable relations. This similarly has a positive implication in increasing performance of an entity and sustainable operations. The services with a direct implication on strategic goals are similarly achieved.  
(AC1.3) Analyse external factors and trends impacting organisations to identify current organisational priorities. Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section.   Word count: Approximately 450 words
For evaluating the external factors, PESTLE Analysis tool can be used (CIPD, 2024a). This is by evaluating the politics, economy, social, technology, legal and environment.
The factors impacting KSMC and their priorities include;
Increase in interest rates
nAdopting the definition of Eggertsson et al. (2023), interest rates represent amount charged borrowers by lenders being a percentage of the principal amount. Therefore, the interest rates are an expression of a percentage of the overall amount of money borrowed or saved over a specified amount of time. For example, in Saudi Arabia, the interest rates are at 6.21% pa in April 2024 as opposed to 6.22% pa in the previous month.  Hence, owing to the continuously changing interests rates, they have a direct implication on the organisation operations. According to Rothert (2020) the rationale of this is that the interests rates have a broad implication on how people in an economy are willing to spend their resources. In a long-term basis, this has a direct implication on pricing and inflation which evidence costs of products increasing and purchasing power of money falling.
Priority–  Due to the increased interest rates, the priority for KSMC would be expansion. Expansion strategy would be informed by the need for sourcing KSA government increased facilitation in terms of financial support. The KSA government supports public sector organisations in expanding their operations. This is as opposed to relying on external financiers.
Impact on Inflation
According to Mandeya and Sin-Yu (2022), inflation represent long-term based increase in costs of services and goods owing to the devaluation of the currency. Despite of the inflation being a bad thing, it often regarded as an appropriate occurrence for entrepreneurs.  In Saudi Arabia for example, in 2022, the inflation rate was at 2.47% (Macrotrends, 2024). This was a 0.59% decline from 2021. In 2023, the inflation rates were recorded to have reached 1.6% in the month of January in an annual basis as opposed to similar period of time in 2023 at 3.4%.  For KSMC, they are directly impacted by the policies which are being put by the government in limiting the implication of the inflation.
Priority– Amidst the inflation, KSMC priority is implementing contraction policy as part of their operations. This is a strategy for lowering the government spend or the rates of monetary based expansion by central bank for combating rise in the inflation. For the medical services offered, they have reduced their costs with 10% for reducing spend amount.
Social Factors
A significant social factor is the Millennials and Gen Zs taking action in driving change they expect to be seen in the world. According to Deloitte (2021) they are increasingly engaged, concio0us input in ensuring they spend their resources in the organisations. KSMC is affected since 67% of the Saudi Population represent the Gen Z and Millennials.
Priority
Restructuring the operations of KSMC is the priority. This is to ensure that they accommodate all the generation which is an advantage. The cons of this include being costly to restructure and long-term basis.  
(AC1.4) Assess the scale of technology within organisations and how it impacts work. Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section.   Word count: Approximately 350 words
Generative Artificial Intelligence
For people practice professionals, the generative AI is used as a tool of formulation of new job postings influenced by skills profiles, keywords, or old postings (McKinsey, 2024). Also, by application of generative AI, it is possible adapt postings informed by context and drafting individualised interactions with different candidates. In the report findings, it hypothesised that the application of Generative AI largely influence with 20% on the talents acquisition, recruitment and onboarding.
Robotics
For people practice professionals, this is used in the form of robotic process automation. According to Siderska (2020) this is use d in empowering the different HR teams for allocating immense time and energy for strategic decision making process. Also, this is popularly used to foster meaningful and appropriate human connections and priority on the entire wellbeing of the staff. To support the application of robotics, Klenert et al. (2023) report hypothesised that upto 14% people professional roles have been replaced by robots. This is with 47% of the entire jobs being improved by application of robotics. Moving into the future, the report equally hypothesised 30% of entire people practice professional roles would be replaced.
Use in Organisations
In KSMC, the main benefit of using Generative AI is to revolutionalise different areas of operations (Ooi et al., 2023). This is starting from having a streamlined operations meant to foster creativity and personalisation in their education and healthcare areas. For risks, this would lead to fraudulent activities and reputation damage of KSMC.     The appropriateness of application of robotics is to contribute to success of KSMC in their automated tasks. The outcome of this is KSMC improving efficiencies and productivity while lowering costs of operations (De Backer & DeStefano, 2021). However, for challenges, using them in KSMC, there would be wrongful action owing to inappropriate programming.
Use in Working Practices
Since KSMC has multiple operations in their workplace, Generative AI can lead to automation of all their tasks. This is while freeing up employees capacity for prioritising new tasks with tasks made easy for individuals and creating time (Deloitte, 2024). The challenge of this include less creativity and innovativeness. This is since KSMC lead to overreliance with Generative AI, hence lacking personalised output.
For robotics, this has a direct implication in workplace precision and speed in creating faster production in workplace and improving quality control scope. However, they lack adaptability and flexibility hence effects on KSMC achievement of their needs.          
(AC2.1) Explain theories and models which examine organisational culture and human behaviour. Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section.   Word count: Approximately 350 words
Charles Handy  Model
The basic assumption of this theory is that motivation of employees in a particular organisation culture is informed by existing standards, behaviours and values (CIPD, 2023).
The key features of this theory include;
Power- In some entities, this feature include power remaining in hands of less individuals and only authorised for effective decision making. According to Handy (2020), the key feature of this is enjoying specialised privileges in workplace.  In KSMC, their leadership teams are involved in delegating roles to employees. 
Task Culture- The key feature of this is that teams are developed for achieving their markets or solving core issues in the organisation. The different members in a team make their contributions in an equal basis while accomplishing their roles innovatively.
Person Culture- There exit specific entities with their employees feeling that they are more instrumental than the organisation. In this organisation, they adopt a culture identified as person culture (Abdala et al., 2021). This is not evident in KSMC as it is informed by the view that people are more person centric as opposed to collaboration with rest of organisation.
Role Culture- The key feature of this factor is that employees functions are informed by what they are specialised with, qualifications and interests. In KSMC operations, decision is by the employees for their best practice. To understand organisation behaviour by people practitioners, motivation and engagement of the employees is best informed by their characteristics. For instance, in KSMC, this can inform on the organisation structure used in the organisation.
David rock’s SCARF Theory
This theory of human behaviour identify motivation and satisfaction of the employees as being informed by their status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness and fairness (Campbell et al., 2022). Therefore, the key features of this include;
Status- All individuals need a feeling of being appreciated, competency, acceptance and admired. Certainty- Being predictable and managing confidence as a best future practice is essential for ensuring a psychological safety feeling.
Autonomy- There is a need for avoiding maintaining a high-level involvement in other people daily work functions.
Relatedness- Lacking appropriate relatedness lead to a feel of isolation and loneliness. This is while reducing creativity, commitment and collaboration.
Fairness– Honesty and openness on all dealings is essential for enhancing all employees satisfaction in an organisation. The importance of this model for people practice professionals understanding human behaviours is ensuring an understanding of all people around them. Prior taking any action, priority should be on personal needs by managing threats and rewarding them based on expectations.     
(AC2.2) Assess how people practices impact on organisational culture and behaviour. Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the reference box provided at the end of this section.   Word count: Approximately 350 words

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