Organizational Structure of Chick-fil-A Essay Example

Structure a company has two departments: Line departments, which line managers have the authority and power, make major decisions about operations and are accountable for those decisions. There are also staff departments, which are the researchers, marketing, accounting, and sales specializations (Bateman, 2011). Because each Chick-fil-A has a private owner, the store operator would be the line department and the corporate office will be the staff department. As defined by Bateman, a Functional Organization departmentalizes around specialized jobs, such as accounting, marketing, and production.

Each Chick-fil-A restaurant operates under their own management; however the marketing, production, accounting, and human resources departments operate from the corporate office (Chick-fil-A, 2011). Since, the structure of an organization dictates how the company will grow, creating a strong foundation will benefit a company in numerous ways. Within any business there are the organizational functions that can create the type of structure an organization will have. A business's functions are the things it does.

Production, sales, and marketing are a few examples Chick-fil-A has within the company. The organizational structure defines the relationship and interactions between the different parts of the company, and identifies how the chain of command runs through the different levels. When money is earned at a fast pace, it opens doors for the company to expand. As the company grows, they begin to hire more employees and they offer new products. Although the growth of Chick-fil-A is slower than its competitors, this has no impact on the financial impact.

Because Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays, executive officers see that more business is brought in from Monday to Saturday. With the strategy, Chick-Fil-A can bring

in a revenu higher than those food chains which are open seven days a week, such as Popeye’s and KFC. Last year the privately owned chain made over $2. 5 billion in system-wide sales from more than 1,600 franchised stores throughout the U. S (Chick-fil-A, 2011). Chick-fil-A store operators work through a plan called standardization.

Standardization occurs when a routine or plan is laid out and is followed with formal guidelines (Bateman, 2011). They also use a form of coordination by plan, which allows the managers to determine how the tasks will be accomplished, and the company stays on track with the goals of the entire unit (Bateman, 2011). Because of the way Chick-fil-A is organized, the span of control on the corporate level is wide and narrow. There are many stores and managerial staff that report to corporate, depending on the situation only a certain person will report to the executives.

Using this method corporate can focus on the franchise and not on each individual shop. Dan T. Cathy may not have structured Chick-fil-A in a traditional, common manner. He is a man who took a risk, and the rewards are profound. Cathy has made a name for Chick-fil-A in a way that no other company can fathom. With the many privately owned stores operating in the United Stated, some would think it difficult to have them run at the same level as the other, but somehow he has.

Chick-fil-A does not have district managers or supervisors that interrupt the daily operations, but they do have a strong foundation that continues to work. Dan Cathy and his father are looking to

grow the company when the time is right, and they are, as of the present time, researching the benefits of going global.

Reference

1. Bateman, T. S. , ; Snell, S. A. (2011). Management: Leading ; Collaborating in a Competitive World (9th ed. ). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
2. Chick-fil-A. (2011) Company History. Retrieved from http://www. chick-fil-a. com/Company/Highlights-Fact-Sheets