MORG4038 Management and Organisations For King Digital Entertainment L

Using reliable information from own independent research on the company “King” and knowledge of effective management and organisational practices, learnt on the module, carefully address the following tasks:

 

Task 1
Introduce the organisation.

(Consider including details such as; what the organisation does; its scope and scale; the industry it operates in; its market value; when and how the organisation was created)

 

Task 2
Identify the organisational structure of the company and analyse how this structure facilitates its functionality

(Consider including relevant definition of terms and, where possible, useful diagrams)

 

Task 3
Suggest one modern management approach that could be used in the company to improve its functionality.

(Consider modern management approaches such as situational, contingent, systems etc.)

 

Task 4
Using Charles Handy’s cultural framework, identify and analyse the relevance of the company’s organisational culture to its on-going success.

(Consider including relevant definition of terms)

 

Task 5
Critically analyse two innovative strategic management objectives of the company

Answer:

Introduction:

The report aims at providing an insight into management and organizations in the context of a video gaming industry that generated huge revenue of close to £ 3.35 billion in the economy of the United Kingdom.  The company under discussion is King Digital Entertainment Ltd, also known as King, popular as the founders of Candy Crush Saga. King represented a prominent interactive entertainment company in the world of Smart phones. The company led to the development of over 200 fun titles and offered games enjoyed across the world. The popularity and the sustenance of the company attributes to its efficient leadership and managerial practices.

About the Organization 

King Digital Entertainment Ltd is a part of the video gaming industry that develops games for web especially for Smartphone, Windows 10 and Facebook (king.com 2018). The company earned fame after the release of the popular and the most financially successful game Candy Crush Saga in the year 2012. Riccardo Zacconi led the company since the company was co-found. The company has developed over 200 fun titles and offered games enjoyed across the world. The franchise of the company includes Candy Crush, Pet Rescue, Farm Heroes and Bubble Witch.  

The games designed by the company have a broader appeal thereby allowing the people in playing for the moment and picking it up sometime later. The games put forward by the company is synchronized across the platforms thereby allowing the players in switching seamlessly between platform and devices thereby helping in continuing the game from where they are left so that they can be played at any time and on any of the devices. The games are available free and they come with social features for enhancing the experience of the players. The company generated annual revenue of $1.88 billion in the year 2013 of which Candy Crush alone accounted for $ 2.5 billion (king.com 2018).

Organizational Structure and How the Structure Facilitate Functionality 

An organizational structure helps in defining the allocation of the activities such as coordination, task and supervision directed towards the achievement of the organizational aims (Ashkenas et al., 2015). In other words, organizational structure represents the perspective or the viewing glass via which people observe an organization and its ambience.

The organizational structure of King Digital Entertainment Ltd is usually made of artists, designers, animators and programmers. Each of the teams will consist of several managers whose function remains in easy flow of communication across the team. The development teams include the audio team, technology team, pitch team and a separate department for quality assurance and publishing. The non-development teams include the human resource and recruitment, IT, finance, administration, legal, finance, marketing and public relations. The role played by the senior management lies in the maintenance and development of relationships for facilitating acquisition newer contracts and development of business strategy for ensuring the profitability of the company.

The organizational structure facilitates the functionality in the following manner (Camison and Villar-López 2014):

• It portrays the foundation for the standard routine and procedures of the company
• It determines the individuals who participate in the process of decision-making and the extent to which their views shape the actions of the organization.

Task 3

Modern Management Approach for Improving Functionality of the Company

Adoption of the contingency approach can lead to the improvement in functionality of King. The contingency approach refers to the management theory that put forward suggestions implying that the most ideal management style depends on situational context and hence adopting a rigid and single style becomes insignificant in the longer term (Wu et al., 2014). The contingency managers typically pay attention to both situation and his/her own style and make efforts for ensuring there is efficient interaction between both. This particular management approach is in contrast with the other approaches of management in the sense that individual and personality determines the predicting patterns of the management and the responses to the given situations. The uncertainty and environmental change, work technology and the organizational size are identified as the environmental factors influencing the effectiveness of varied organizational forms (Stock, Six and Zacharias 2013). As per contingency perspective, the stability in the environments ensures mechanistic structures that emphasize formalization, centralization, specialization and standardization for achieving consistency and efficiency. The predictability and certainty also permits the use of rules, procedures and policies in guiding the decision making for dealing with the problems and the routine task.

The contingency theory proves to be beneficial for the organization due to its potential of learning from the specific situations and using such lessons in the management of a similar kind of future situation (Miner 2015). This management approach also leads to the development of the ability in adapting to the external changes and pressures. This approach also leads to the development of leaders possessing skills in the multiple areas. Thus, the contingency approach to management also known as the situational approach puts forward an assumption that there exist no universal answers since the people, situations and organizations changes and varies over the time. Therefore, the ideal thing to be done depends on the complexity of a variety of internal contingencies and critical environment.

Task 4

Organizational Culture Based on Handy’s Framework 

According to the cultural framework of Handy, four classes of culture include Power Culture, Role Culture, Task Culture and Person Culture (Hays 2016). King Digital Entertainment Ltd follows a power culture for the determination of its ongoing success. In the organization with power culture the power culture, the power concentrates on the hands of only few individuals the influence of which remains spread out throughout organization. The power culture however follows certain regulations and rules and the employees are judged based on their achievement rather than how they act and do the things. A consequence of the power culture remains in quicker decision making even when the decisions do not have alignment with the long-term organizational interest (Berkenkotter and Huckin 2016).

In other words, Handy compares power culture to the web a spider with all the important spiders occupying the centre. Organizations with such cultures not only respond quickly to the events but they also depend on the abilities of the people representing the centre for continued success (Claeye 2014). This will enable attracting the people who are politically minded and power oriented to undertake risk without rating higher security. The key power base in this culture remains in the control of the resources and the problem lies in its size. This type of culture finds difficulty in linking various activities and retaining control although there is a central financial control. This culture relies on the individuals heavily instead on the committees. Organizations with power culture appear to be abrasive and tough and whose success remains accompanied by the lower morale and the higher turnover as the individuals either opt or fail out of competitive atmosphere (Hogan and Coote 2014). The employees working for such organizations should be able to anticipate the expectations from the power holders and acting accordingly. Although power culture represents a strong culture but it can quickly turn toxic and result in dictatorship if not anticipated properly.

Task 5

Innovative Strategic Management Objectives of the Company 

The innovative strategic management objectives refer to those objectives that determine the competitive advantage to a company. The two innovative strategic management objectives of King Digital Entertainment Ltd include (Wheelen et al., 2017):

• Directing the company towards winning by offering franchises of games like Pet Rescue, Bubble Witch, Candy Crush and Farm Heroes along with ensuring an  encapsulated idea of a bite sized entertainment
• Providing inspiration to the people through value creation since the company is undeniably one of the successful gaming company for the mobile devices. The company presently possesses three out of the top ten games on App Store with close to 356 million monthly users generating close to $1 billion profits.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths · Holds position in the global market · Possess a dedicated fan base · Acts as a leader in responding to customer demand · Sole focus on the research and the development through discrete campaigns · Popularity of games like the Candy Crush	Weakness · Narrowing down competitive base · Lack of  innovation relating to the current internet protocol ( IP ) · Longer release window for further future expansions and newer titles  · Dependence on the other game brands for ensuring growth · Existence of streamlined market with close to 75 percent of the revenue from mobile channels · Stagnancy in the global sales
Opportunities · Further developments in mobile gaming facilities · Enhanced uptake of the mobile and online gaming · Expanding into different mediums for entertainment · Implementation of pay games in mobiles · Acquiring the popular and the smaller IP	Threats · Change in customer demand for the games · Existence of other companies who blends the genres of the games · Existence of the pirated, private and the illegal servers

Conclusion:

The report ends by throwing a light into management and organization in the context of the video gaming industry, King Digital Entertainment Ltd. The report commenced by introducing the organization and touching onto its every detail. The report also put forward a diagrammatic representation of the organizational structure along with a mention of a management approach, cultural framework and innovative strategic management. The company has offered games like Candy Crush that accounted for close to 97 million people on a particular day with 67 percent of the money spent by the players. The company occupies amongst the ten popular grossing games on Google Play, Facebook and the Apple App Store.

References:  

Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T. and Kerr, S., 2015. The boundaryless organization: Breaking the chains of organizational structure. John Wiley & Sons. 

Berkenkotter, C. and Huckin, T.N., 2016. Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognition/culture/power. Routledge.

Camisón, C. and Villar-López, A., 2014. Organizational innovation as an enabler of technological innovation capabilities and firm performance. Journal of business research, 67(1), pp.2891-2902.

Claeyé, F., 2014. Managing nongovernmental organizations: culture, power and resistance (Vol. 16). Routledge.

Hays, P.A., 2016. Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy. APA Books.

Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014. Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1609-1621.

king.com (2018). [online] Available at: https://discover.king.com/press_releases/king-gives-social-casino-gaming-royal-treatment/ [Accessed 28 Jun. 2018]. 

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Stock, R.M., Six, B. and Zacharias, N.A., 2013. Linking multiple layers of innovation-oriented corporate culture, product program innovativeness, and business performance: A contingency approach. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(3), pp.283-299.

Tran, Q. and Tian, Y., 2013. Organizational structure: Influencing factors and impact on a firm. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3(2), p.229.

Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.

Wu, T., Wu, Y.C.J., Chen, Y.J. and Goh, M., 2014. Aligning supply chain strategy with corporate environmental strategy: A contingency approach. International Journal of Production Economics, 147, pp.220-229.