Mgt 230 - Miron Corporation

Miron Corporation

Bart Ford

MGT/230

December 10, 2012

LaStacy Whitman

Abstract

Organizational structures play an active role in any business. This article will bring to light different structures, how they relate to one another, and reasons for success within the structures as-well-as other factors involved in an organization's management.

Miron Corporation

Miron is a privately owned construction business originated and headquartered in Wisconsin. The organization received "Wisconsin's 75 Company award as-well-as being named Builder of the Year by The Daily Reporter for being a forward thinking, fast growing company." Also Miron is listed as "94th among all general contractors in the U.S. and among the top 10 construction companies serving the Midwest by Engineering News Record".

Miron's organizational structure follows the horizontal structure. Departmentalization is found within this function, and more defined within this can be found a matrix organization structure.

Departmentalization is the process by which subdividing an organization into smaller groups takes place. Matrix organization is defined as "An organization composed of dual reporting relationships in which some managers report to two superiors- a functional manager and a divisional manager" (McGraw-Hill/Irwin).

Miron employs the matrix organizational approach by first using its project managers to obtain firsthand knowledge from a job site than those managers send information back to their bosses who in return gather the information and send it to their direct superiors.

Before, during, and after this approach Miron has their higher level of managers collaborate with the information on different ways to advance the company. Remaining innovative and effective in its daily operations is the core of the organization.

The matrix has some downfalls but is very effective for Miron. One downfall is lower-level employees are not permanently stationed with the project manager consistently. Going from one job to the next the manager's employees will change and thus his intelligence gathering will change accordingly.

This occurrence is not always a bad thing. Project managers get to identify with different employees on different projects and get to hear many new ideas about the same issues the organization faces. Other structures closely related to the matrix include functional and divisional, both found within the horizontal structure.

Functional form has tendencies for managers to lose focus on tasks outside their department and ultimately lose focus on the organization's goals. Also managers tend to become specialists in their departments and are less likely to become generalists in the organization.

Functional forms have their place in business but in the case of Miron's organization it would tend to fragment the business. Miron is constantly pursuing innovation and change, and if it were to use functional form it could have problems identifying new products and creating innovation in its practices of staying current with change in building procedures.

Divisional forms are also closely related with the matrix form. Miron comes very close to representing this form by how it operates its job sites. Each site has a specific timeline for completion and its own financial burden and expectation for completion. Outside these two factors Miron remains within the matrix guide.

Miron operates its many job sites around the world independently of other forms of organization diversification. It remains steadfast to innovation