EXAM preparation - People and culture - human capital and structure

9 important questions on EXAM preparation - People and culture - human capital and structure

What is human capital?

The economic value of employees knowlegde, skills, abilities and experience

(structre) What are the three main approaches?

  1. Functional (by department expertise )
  2. divisional (by product, geography of customer)
  3. matrix (by project teams)

So how do you reconize a functional structure and what are the pros and cons?

grouped by function (what people do)
  • PROS:
    • clear chain of command
    • specialist train together
    • easy to know who to ask
  • CONS
    • departments become silos
    • not my department mentality
    • slow communication across departments
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So how do you recognize divisional department

grouped by who/where you serve
  • geography (Amsterdam, Rotterdam)
  • product (Hotel rooms, meeting rooms, recreation)
  • customer (leisure guest, business guest, families)

And what are the pros and cons of a divisional department?

  • PROS:
    • each division focuses on specific guest, locoation, product)
    • faster decisions (les bureaucracy)
    • can customer service per division
  • CONS:
    • duplicate resources (each divisions needs own staff)
    • harder to share knowledge across divisions
    • more expensive

What is the key difference between functional and divisional departments?

key difference form functional is that each division is like a mini-company with its own resources
In a divisional structure, each division operates almost like its own company, with its own departments (marketing, finance, HR, etc.).
In a functional structure, the organization operates as one whole company, with departments grouped by function across the entire organization.

How do you recognize the matrix structure?

employees report to TWO bosses
  • departement manager
  • project manager

What are the pros and cons?

  • PROS
    • flexible - create teams as needed
    • people learn form other departments
    • great for complex projects/ events
  • CONS:
    • confusing
    • Who did I listen to first
    • needs mature, experienced, employees

Coordination = getting different departments to work together. Without coordination you:

Information doesn't flow, not my department mentality and service failiures

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