Fmf Vertical Coordination

ÅF is a consulting and engineering company based in Stockholm, Sweden mainly operating within the fields of energy, industry and infrastructure (ÅF, 2017). The company has its core markets in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. However, through the upcoming organizational restructuring, ÅF is determined to further its international expansion and become a leader in new markets. As it will be explained later, the restructure, scheduled for the upcoming year, indicates potential communication and coordination issues (Bolman and Deal, 2017), which in turn could create interdivisional turbulence.

From a structural perspective, ÅF’s organization seems to have a divisionalized configuration. According to Bolman and

111). Hierarchy is fundamentally intertwined with human nature (Leavitt, 2003, 2005) which in turn constitutes vertical coordination necessary to all organizations. For ÅF, vertical coordination is implemented for the business strategy and rules and policies of the company as a whole (ÅF, 2016). However, successful companies with complex tasks integrate forms of vertical coordination and communication blended with lateral (Bolman and Deal, 2016). The executive managers’ meetings, once per month, are an illustration of the implemented lateral

One of the major principles of the human perspective is the investment in people, with research suggesting that motivated employees empower the organization by providing competitive advantage (Pfeffer, 1994). In line with the research, ÅF has put great focus on investing in its employees by providing learning and development opportunities (ÅF, 2016). In order to maintain its growth and be competitive at the global market, ÅF has mandatory educational programmes to keep its employees updated and aware of global change and sustainability. ÅF has their own ÅF academy which is an internal educational platform that offers a variety of courses in order for employees to advance their careers (ÅF, 2016). Furthermore, ÅF put effort on hiring the right people and to keep them, another principle of the human resource frame (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Instead of the regular hiring process through recruitment agencies or advertising, IT specialists were hired through an internet based problem- solving quiz (ÅF, The List,