Virgin Group

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE

 

 

 

 

     Virgin Australia is owned by the virgin group. The Virgin group is a multinational company which has complex structure, because it has 300 odd companies, and each of its companies operate separately. (Essays, UK, 2013) They hire their employees, provide their services and products, and control by themselves. (Essays, UK, 2013) For this complex structure, each companies of the virgin group share ideas and values, and hold other companies’ share, to work together and make interest together. (Essays, UK, 2013) Moreover, to deal with this structure, they come out with an unusual organizational structure – an organic approach for this big group. (Essays, UK, 2013) "Organic organization is an organisation characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge."(Williams & McWilliams, 2013)  Thus the Virgin Australia is a member of the Virgin group, it might also adapt the organic approach to handle its organizational structure. The founder- Richard Branson claims that the Virgin group do not need chain of command and want to reduce organizational bureaucracy. (Kimchee88, 2010) Also Branson believes that employees are the biggest asset for the company. (Virgin, 2015) Therefore, Virgin Australia uses staff authority and decentralization. Employees in Virgin Australia have the authority to make decisions and are able to communicate without vertical structure. Thus making employees more confident in management and decreasing the organization hierarchy and the gap between different levels. (Essays, UK, 2013) Without the chain, decentralization makes the communication more effective, employees can make decisions faster and more effectively, and flexibly to make changes. (Kimchee88, 2010) Besides, decentralization can increase employees’ knowledge of the workplace. (Kimchee88, 2010) Also it shows Virgin Australia’s flat organization. It seems that there are not many rules and procedures to control employees’ behavior and problems. Additionally, there are not more rules and standards to control employees, employees should be able to have self-control management through the decentralization For an organic organization, there can be job enlargement and job enrichment, because Virgin Australia gives employees opportunities to make decisions and complete different tasks within a particular job. For example, the pilots need to make decisions when there is a problem during the trip. Maybe the airplane is out of petrol or having other issues. Another example for attendants, attendants’ job is not only to provide serve the drink or meal during the trip, but also needs to be salespeople to sell products, such as, duty-free products. The reason for the Virgin group to adapt organic approach is that they have to be flexible to deal with company’s environment which is frequently changing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

     Virgin Australia has an executive team which includes the company’s top managers, such as, the CEO, CFO CCO and others. (Virgin Australia,2015)They all have their own specific skills to deal with different problems. For instance, the Chief Customer Officer could have customer needs to handle, and Chief Financial Officer needs to deal with the company’s financial problems. The goal of the team will be the whole company’s goal. There are 12 members in the team. Also for the executive team, it is seldom having the problem about social loafing, everyone in the team has his/her duty and job. Although there no social loafing, nevertheless there might be problems with team conflict. Team members are top managers in their specific field, thus people will have different ideas with managing and operating the company.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information at: http://www.virgin.com/about-us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reference list:

 

- Cogmap. (2015). Virgin Australia Outline | Cogmap | The Organization Chart Wiki. Retrieved from http://www.cogmap.com/outline/virgin-australia?ver=4&vt=0 

 

-Essays, UK. (November 2013). The Virgin Group An Insight Into Organizational Structure And Culture Business Essay. Retrieved from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/business/the-virgin-group-an-insight-into-organizational-structure-and-culture-business-essay.php?cref=1

 

- Kimchee88. (2010). The Virgin Group: Executive Summary the Virgin. Retrieved from http://zh.scribd.com/doc/27898308/The-Virgin-Group-Executive-Summary-the-Virgin#scribd

 

- Virgin. (2015). People are your biggest assets - Virgin.com. Retrieved from http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/people-are-your-biggest-assets

 

- Virgin Australia. (2015). Virgin Australia Group Executive Team | Virgin Australia. Retrieved from - http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/about-us/company-overview/virgin-australia-group-executive-team/

 

-Williams,C. and  McWilliams,A. ( 2013) MGMT: (2nd Asia Pacific Edition), South Melbourne   Vic.: Cengage Learning