Contemporary Organisations can be structured in a variety of ways to meet their objectives. With reference to current business practice, academic models and theory, critically examine current influences on organisational structure and design’

The following essay will first attempt to define exactly what is meant by organisational structure before analysing the complex internal and external influences that impact upon the strategy and structure an organisation will eventually adopt to deal with the problems they will face. This will be done using both real life examples as well as the theory that supports it to identify the potential sources of success and failure of which both profit and non-profit organisations should be aware.

Within the business and academic world there are a number of definitions that attempt to define exactly what an organisation is, however for the purposes of this essay it can be seen as
‘a social arrangement for achieving performance in pursuit of collective goals’ Huczynski and Buhcanan (2001) p.5
These goals can vary greatly depending on the exact nature of the organisation, such as whether it is private sector (profit motivated) or public sector (aiming to provide a service to justify...