Organizational Structure of Rio Grande An organizational structure is as individual as the company itself. No one structure is appropriate for every organization. The company must look at their options concerning organizational structure to choose the one that best fits the needs of the company. In addition to the structure, the company must look at organizational functions and organizational design. Rio Grande is an example of how a company must tailor the organizational structure to fit with the culture of the company.
Organizational Structures Rio Grande began by defining the vertical structure of the company. In this they are very different from most companies. Rio Grande is a family-owned business run by the Bell family. These individuals make up the board of directors. They did not want to run their company with the typical hierarchal structure so they developed a structure they refer to as participative management. Participative management consists of a board of directors, a team of business coaches, and functional teams. According to Rio Grande Careers (2011), “associates know that part of their job is to complete and continuously improve the tasks for which they are responsible. Another part of their job is to participate in the management of the company” (A Principle-Based Company). Rio Grande defines participative management as a decentralized organization. In a decentralized organization lower-level managers make the important decisions of the company, in this case the associates rather than the board of directors (Bateman, 2011). The next part of the organizational structure is the horizontal structure. According to Bateman (2011), “the three basic approaches to departmentalization are functional, divisional, and matrix” (p. 287). In a functional organization, the company groups individuals into departments that specialize in