Sample research paper on functional area interrelationships

– Primary reasons for the organization’s existence
Riordan Company is a manufacturing company that produces plastics. The key customers of Riordan are the other companies that manufacture aircrafts, appliance and automotive parts. They also supply their products to the department of defense and beverage manufacturers. It is a global company with its headquarters in San Jose. A mission statement is a message that the company states in order for the stakeholders to see. The mission is aimed at guiding the decisions, strategic plans and any other action of an organization (Brabet & Klemm, 1994). It is also used as a tool for measuring the performance of an organization against it. If the organization make decisions that are aligned to the mission and vision of the organization. The mission of the company is to become the leader in plastic manufacturing and offering plastic related solutions to the current customers and expand the market share. There are plans and strategies in place for the organization to achieve this mission. The company has come up with innovative technology to ensure that it meets the new business opportunities as well retain its current clients.
The vision and mission of Riordan are about the company core functions of plastic manufacturing, the employees and the vision of the future for the company. This means that the main reason for existence of the company is to be the best manufacturers and the best employer in the plastic industry. The company is aimed at supplying its products to many countries worldwide. The key focus is on manufacturing plastic materials which provides the much needed solution. The focus of the company on retaining of the employee through its mission and values is to ensure that it has a competitive team in placing itself as a global leader in plastic manufacturing.
– Organizational structure employed
An organization structure is very important because it affects the behavior of the management and the entire team. A vertical chain of command creates a flow of bureaucracy in an organization. This is because there is a step up that one has to consult before acting or issuing out any directions. The main purpose of the organization structure is to link different departments where specific activities are carried out in an organization (Child, 1972). The departments or sections work together in the process of achieving the goals and mission of the organization.
Manufacturing companies have traditional organization structure that almost all of them follow. Hierarchical organization structure is what is being used by the Riordan manufacturing company. The structure has the Board of Directors who is the top organ of the company and is not concerned with the daily operations of the company. They normally meet whenever there are critical issues to be discussed. The board is where the Chief Executive Officer CEO reports to. Chief Operation Officers COO is also part of traditional hierarchical organization structure. They are in charge of operations in the organization and report to the CEO. Departmental heads and the employees are other important part of the organization structure.
The organization structure of the company ensures that there is delegation of activities at each level where a given person is responsible and accountable for the activities of that level. There is delegation of power and coordination of activities. There is another dimension of the organization structure; which is control. Control is monitoring, concerning and recovery of functionalities of the organization. The key positions of the hierarchical model of Riordan manufacturing company are the CEO, the COOs, head of departments and the overall one which is the board of directors. Chief operations Officers (COOs) are responsible for their respective operation departments to ensure that the company operations are aligned with the strategic plans. They are leaders of different sections with specific activities. The chief executive officers are concerned with the strategic plan and smooth coordination of different sections. They receive feedback and issue commands directly to the COOs. The COOs work with the heads of departments in ensuring that tasks are accomplished based on the strategic plans. Quality assurance department is one of the key departments for Riordan Company because it emphasizes on quality products.
– Steps of the collaboration process among the functional areas
Functional areas in a manufacturing company are very important. This is because the quality service of one functional area affects the next or all other department. It is difficult to tap the knowledge and abilities that each employee has in a given functional areas. Communication is very important in coordination of the functional areas. There are several avenues in which an organization can evaluate the ability or what each employee thinks in terms of the operation of an organization. To ensure that there is clear coordination among functional departments, tools such as web conferencing, desktop videos, virtual workspace, blogs among others are being implemented. They are being used to strengthen cooperation and coordination between different functional areas of manufacturing organization. This means that different functional areas can interact and exchange information through desktop video, web conferencing among other communication tools.
Another process of enhancing collaboration among different functional areas is to come up with a structured approach. This is a phase referred to performance phase where web tools can be utilized in the implementation of this process. This approach will ensure that the organization shifts from the traditional strict organic and opportunistic efforts to an approach that is more structured and aimed at furthering the collaboration. This means that functional departments will not only be collaborating with the aim of achieving a given performance or output but ensure that there is increased interaction among the areas. Structured approach aims at bringing objective collaboration that goes beyond technology collaboration to the employees and process components of the organization.
Moving away from individual collaboration to group collaboration is also another process that ensures success in the functional areas. There should be a mechanism to cultivate the collaboration process. This is because there may be only few employees who are willing to collaborate with other departments. The support from the leaders ensures that company collaboration among departments is cultivated (Song, Montoya‐Weiss & Schmidt, 1997).
– Lateral collaboration and vertical collaboration within the organization
Lateral collaboration in the Riordan manufacturing company will be a relationship between COOs leading different functional areas or head of department collaborating to achieve a given goal. On the other hand, vertical collaboration can be between the CEO and the COOs of the company in the process of coming up with decisions or accomplishing a given task. In this organization. Head of departments can also collaborate with their employees in doing a given task. This means that lateral collaboration is the relationship among employees who are that the same level in the organization structure. Vertical collaboration is between employees who are at different level in the organization structure such as senior manager and the junior manager working together.
The chief executive officer of Riordan company can collaborate with quality assurance and relationship chief operation officers in the process of coming up with plans to maintain the quality of the product image to the stakeholders. This is a vertical collaboration. The chief operation officers of different departments can also come together to ensure that the areas which the head are offering quality product.

Collaboration plan

Collaboration action plan for Riordan Company
Vision (state the vision of collaboration)
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Priority issues (what are the most important issues to handle)

Priority 1
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Priority 2

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Priority 3

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Mission (come up with mission of collaboration)

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Goals (set collaboration goals)

Goal 1
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Goal 2

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Goal 3

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Set strategies of how to accomplish the goals (develop strategies)

– Identify the key stakeholders and their roles needed to achieve the organizational goals
The key stakeholders of Riordan manufacturing company are the investors, employees, customers, the government or regulators and suppliers. The local community in which the company operates is also very important. Company investors are important because they offer financial support to the company for its operations. The regulators ensure that the company adheres to the regulations and it is also protected from unfair competition. Regulators also ensure that quality products are allowed on the market giving the company an opportunity to fairly compete with other quality products. Employees are the key driving force of the company’s mission and vision. They enable the organization to achieve its missions and goals. Employees are also representatives of the company in the society. They are the beneficiaries of the organization hence community responsibility strategy is achieved. Suppliers are of two types, those who bring in raw materials and other products procured by the company and those that transport the products of the company to different stores. Investors meet in different forums such as annual general meetings in the process of making key decisions of the organization (Deng, Yeh, & Willis, 2000).
There can be an enhanced collaboration among the stakeholders through open channel of communications. This means that an organization can be driven by transparency, fairness, responsibility and accountability. The full disclosure of financial and non-financial status of the organization ensures that the company stakeholders collaborate effectively.

Work cited

Brabet, J., & Klemm, M. (1994). Sharing the vision: company mission statements in Britain and France. Long Range Planning, 27(1), 84-94.
Child, J. (1972). Organizational structure, environment and performance: the role of strategic choice. Sociology, 6(1), 1-22.
Deng, H., Yeh, C. H., & Willis, R. J. (2000). Inter-company comparison using modified TOPSIS with objective weights. Computers & Operations Research, 27(10), 963-973.
Song, X. M., Montoya‐Weiss, M. M., & Schmidt, J. B. (1997). Antecedents and Consequences of Cross‐Functional Cooperation: A Comparison of R&D, Manufacturing, and Marketing Perspectives. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 14(1), 35-47.
Simatupang, T. M., & Sridharan, R. (2002). The collaborative supply chain. International Journal of Logistics Management, The, 13(1), 15-30.