3.2a Organisational Structures Practice Questions

Text 2 — Brackenfield Bakes Ltd

Brackenfield Bakes Ltd is a bakery business set up in 2014 by Yusuf Oyelaran. He began with one small bakery and four employees, and made all of the decisions himself. The company now supplies bread and cakes to independent cafés and to two regional supermarket chains. It operates three bakeries and employs 90 people. The organisational structure now has five layers (see Fig. 1).

Supermarket customers often change their orders at short notice. Yusuf has found that requests from bakery operatives have to pass through several people before a decision is made, and a number of orders have been completed late. The Operations Director has suggested removing the layer of six shift supervisors, so that bakery operatives would report directly to the bakery manager at each site. The six shift supervisors would be offered jobs as bakery operatives on lower pay.

Fig. 1 Organisation chart of Brackenfield Bakes Ltd

Text 2 — Thistlebrook Garden Centres Ltd

Thistlebrook Garden Centres Ltd was started in 2009 by Marcus Liddell, who opened one garden centre selling plants, tools and outdoor furniture. The business now owns four garden centres and employs 210 staff. Marcus is the Managing Director.

As the business has grown, Marcus has added extra layers of management. The company now has a tall organisational structure with five layers. Below each Centre Manager are three Team Leaders, and each Team Leader supervises a team of sales assistants.

Team Leaders must ask their Centre Manager for permission before ordering extra stock or giving a customer a refund. Several Team Leaders have complained that decisions take too long, and in 2024 staff turnover among Team Leaders rose to 34%.

Marcus plans to open three more garden centres. The Operations Director, Gwen Arkwright, has suggested removing the Centre Manager layer and giving Team Leaders the authority to make their own decisions about stock and refunds.

Fig. 1 Extract from the organisation chart of Thistlebrook Garden Centres Ltd

Pellow Print Ltd

Pellow Print Ltd prints leaflets, brochures and packaging for businesses in the West Midlands. It employs 90 people at its factory in Walsall.

Until this year, the 72 print operators worked on three shifts. Each shift had a shift manager and two supervisors, and each supervisor was responsible for 12 print operators. Operators reported any problem with a machine to their supervisor, who passed it on to the shift manager.

In March, the managing director, Gareth Pellow, removed the supervisor layer. The six supervisors moved into new roles in the sales team. Print operators now report directly to their shift manager. Experienced operators have been given the authority to stop a machine and fix small faults without asking permission.

Shift managers say they now spend much of their time answering questions from operators, and that some instructions about urgent orders have not reached every operator on the shift.

Pelmarsh Garden Centres Ltd

Abigail Okonjo is the managing director of Pelmarsh Garden Centres Ltd, which owns eight garden centres in the south west of England and employs 240 staff. Each centre has a centre manager, and all eight centre managers report directly to Abigail. Below each centre manager are four supervisors (plants, café, home and gifts, and deliveries), and each supervisor is directly responsible for between five and eight sales assistants.

All selling prices, staff rotas and orders to suppliers are decided by Abigail at the head office in Exeter. Centre managers must email head office for approval before spending more than £100, and they say a reply can take up to a week. One centre manager could not reduce the price of bedding plants during a wet bank holiday weekend, and the plants were later thrown away.

In exit interviews, several supervisors who left said they had "no say in anything". Abigail is thinking about delegating more decisions to her centre managers.

Table 1: Staff turnover among Pelmarsh's supervisors

Year	Staff turnover
2022	9%
2023	14%
2024	21%

Vantage Home plc

Vantage Home plc is a DIY and home improvement retailer with 310 superstores in the UK, France and Spain. It employs 24 000 people. Most shop floor employees work part-time on flexible hours contracts.

Until last year the company had a tall organisational structure with seven layers. Each superstore had a store manager, four department managers and a team leader for every aisle. Instructions from the head office in Leeds were passed down to the stores through 45 regional managers.

Vantage Home has now removed two layers of management, including all 45 regional managers. Store managers report directly to the head of retail operations and have been given the authority to decide staffing levels and local promotions for their own superstore. The chief executive, Dinah Okoro, says the new structure will save £8 million a year in salaries.

Some store managers have said that they now have too much to do.

Tavenor plc

Tavenor plc designs and manufactures smart heating controls that are sold in 22 countries. It employs 2 400 people: 300 at its head office in Bristol and the rest in its factories in Poland and Vietnam.

In 2024, chief executive Marta Rowe removed two layers of management to give Tavenor a flatter organisational structure. Forty-five middle manager posts were cut and smaller factory teams were merged into larger ones. Factory team leaders now report directly to one of Tavenor's four directors. Team leaders were also given the authority to approve spending of up to £5 000 and to order materials themselves. Tavenor spent £180 000 training them for these new responsibilities.

Marta says that instructions now reach factory staff far more quickly than before. However, several team leaders say they are working longer hours and have less time to spend with each member of their team.

Marta is now considering creating 60 new deputy team leader posts, at a cost of £28 000 a year each.

Table 1: Average span of control of a factory team leader

	Before 2024	After 2024
Number of employees	6	15