¶ … emergence of collaborate workplaces. Organizations are increasingly moving toward collaborative models instead of competitive models, which have an effect on how the physical work environment is designed to achieve the goal of collaboration (Mardesich, n.d.) Workplace flexibility and physical environments are important because they impact productivity, as well as a worker's ability to collaborate, share ideas, and innovate (Mardesich, n.d.). The typical cubical or multiple office environment is being changed by many organizations by providing only half walls and other open working areas to increase communication and collaboration between staff.
The working environment has a fundamental impact on human resource functions such as recruitment, retention, productivity, and ultimately on the organization's ability to achieve its business strategy (Mardesich, n.d.). Poorly designed offices may hamper an organization's profitability, through losses in productivity and by not attracting and retaining the right employees (Mardesich, n.d.). Workplace design should address physical and technological needs of workers with a goal of improving productivity and worker satisfaction (Mardesich, n.d.). Companies are also increasingly environmentally friendly and desire to create working environments that reduce waste and use sustainable products. Part-time telecommuting and sharing of workspaces are other ways companies can reduce waste and carbon emissions by having fewer employees commuting to work on a daily basis.
2. Discuss...
The Coca-Cola Company's organizational structure is most likely an international division structure (Business Insight, 2010). International division structures represent a more evolved form of organizational system because of the incorporation of specialized divisions for acting in foreign markets (Business Insight, 2010). The organization by division, as a rule, is based on one of the following criteria: production (product or service); product specialization (targeting specific groups of consumers); or consumer specialization of serviced territory (a regional specialty) (Business Insight, 2010).
The main advantages of international division structure are that it provides greater flexibility and quicker response to changes on the environment of the enterprise, aides in expanding the companies' borders, and the separate offices around the world become "profit centers" actively working on improving efficiency and quality of production (Business Insight, 2010). This key advantage for this type of structure is that it provides for the management of a diversified enterprise with a staff of hundreds of thousands in geographically remote units (Business Insight, 2010).
The disadvantages of international divisional structure are that a large number of managerial levels exist between workers and the managers of the production units, usually 3 or more levels and between…
