Star Model Reflection

Galbraith’s text is one of the most insightful readings of this course. This reading is important because it gives a breakdown of the various components that make a successful organization. In the star model, he explains that there are five main policies that go into the design of an organization; strategy, structure, process, rewards, and people. My personal experience reading and understanding these five policies was interesting because I can make connections between all five with real-life organizations, including those I have worked for and those I have interacted with in other ways. Consistently a reflection of my understanding of these components of an organization and how they are applied in various real-life organizations is significant.

One of the components of the star model is strategy. In my understanding, a strategy is a scope and direction that a business wants to take. For instance, a business must decide the type of customers they want to serve and the types of goods they want to serve in order to achieve success. According to Galbraith (2002), strategy determines the business’s direction. By determining the strategy, an organization will be able to determine the specific activities they want to perform to achieve it. After understanding the concept of strategy, I tried to analyze various businesses and understand what their strategy is. For example, I have realized that Walmart, the biggest retail company globally, has been able to achieve its success with the strategy of providing quality products at low prices. With this strategy, the business is able to attract low-income groups to shop at their stores.

Another component of the organization is structure. According to Galbraith (2002), the structure determines the organization’s decision-making power. I understand structure as the way in which the leadership of an organization is set up. For example, in some organizations, there is a Chief Executive Officer and various functional managers whose leadership is set up in a hierarchy structure. Therefore, in such a system, the CEO has the central decision-making power in collaboration with the other managers. I believe that every organization has a particular decision-making structure. For example, in the organizations where I worked, there was a hybrid structure in that there was a hierarchy of leadership in the company and various departments with different managers. As employees, we had to answer to the departments as well as the central power of the company.

The third component of an organization that Galbraith has discussed is the process. The process determines the flow of information within the organization. I understand the processes as the manner in which the systems of the organization are set up. For example, an organization can have a bureaucratic process where strict rules and regulations must be followed to achieve something. Most of the government agencies I have interacted with have such a system. In order to get something done by government officials, there are some processes that have to be followed, such as filling out forms and delivering them to a specific office. I understand this as a process, as Galbraith (2002) is trying to explain.

An organization is also affected by rewards. I understand rewards as the payment given to employees for their contribution to an organization. Rewards help to inspire the right kind of behaviors (Galbraith, 2002). Motivation plays an important role in the success of an organization. Motivation is the desire to work and achieve certain goals (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). This desire is enhanced by various factors, including the rewards one gets from their work. Based on personal experience, I think that rewards are essential for productivity to be achieved. I once worked for a private contractor who did not take rewards seriously. He would delay his employees’ payments and fail to give any form of motivational bonuses to encourage people to work. As a result, most of the employees, including myself, were not very motivated to work. This shows how important it is to motivate employees.

Galbraith (2002) also explains the importance of choosing the right people for the organization. An organization is only as good as the people that make it. I believe that an organization that is made up of ethical people will be more likely to have an ethical culture. One that has skilled people will have a higher chance of having better quality production. Thus, it is important that an organization recruits the best workforce and develops the people it has. I believe this is why a majority of organizations take the recruitment and hiring processes seriously.

In conclusion, the star model presents a simple yet insightful way of understanding the factors that make up a good organization. Reading this text has enabled me to deeply analyze the organizations I interact with to understand the various components that make them up. Most importantly, I now understand the various things I must pay attention to if I were to develop my own organization.

References

Galbraith, J. R. (2002). The Star Model: In Designing organizations: Strategy, Structure and Process and the Business Unit and Enterprise Levels.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

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U01a1 Reading Reflection Paper 1

Note: Complete this unit’s first discussion before you start working on this assignment.

Overview

The most important first step in mastering the ideas and practices of organization design is to read for conceptual understanding. Galbraith’s text is a seminal work in the field and an excellent place to start learning organization design. During the first five units of the course, you will be asked to write on each week’s assigned readings in a reflective assignment paper. Writing these papers should take you a step further in thinking about, learning from, and applying the ideas covered in the readings.

The unit readings provide an introduction to organization design and cover Galbraith’s star model. Your reflective paper assignment asks you to show your understanding of what you have read and to add your own thoughts and experiences. Completing this assignment will help you apply your new knowledge of organization design.

Instructions

Reflect on the unit readings. For this paper and the rest of the reflective papers in Units 2 – 5, demonstrate that you remember, understand, and can apply the readings to real-world examples.

Submission Requirements

Your paper should meet the following requirements:

Star Model Reflection

• Written communication: Written communication should be free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA format: Resources and citations should be in current APA format. Be sure to include title and reference pages.
• Length: 3 typed pages, double-spaced pages, not including the title and reference pages.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Resources

Reading Reflection Paper 1 Scoring Guide

Due Date: End of Unit 1.
Percentage of Course Grade: 2%.