The report is a discussion on management and organizations in the context of renowned social gaming company, Rovio Entertainment Corporation. The company is a developer, distributor and publisher of video games headquartered in Finland. In the year 2003, the company took to the game development for mobile phones and is known for the creation of Angry Birds franchise. The report commences by providing a brief introduction about the company along with identification of its organizational structure. There is discussion on the management approach used by the company and an analysis of its organizational culture. The report also discusses about the company’s innovative objectives for strategic management.
About the Organization
Rovio Entertainment Corporation initially known as Relude or Rovio Mobile represents a Finnish entertainment company that develops, publishes and creates games for mobile devices and acts as the brand licensor in different categories of consumer product and entertainment (rovio.com 2018). The company is known for its Angry Birds brand that begun as a popular game for the mobile devices since the year 2009. The company not only produced multiple games for mobile phones but also produced a movie on the Angry Birds that had an opening across fifty countries. Rovio Entertainment Corporation also holds the license of the Angry Birds brand for the consumer products and other content for entertainment. The company however has its headquarters in Espoo, Finland with operations in the Sweden, China, United States and United Kingdom.
The company operates as the part of the video gaming industry having a market value of $1.06 billion (rovio.com 2018). In the year 2003, three friends of Aalto University School of Science took part in a competition sponsored by HP and Nokia for the development of mobile games. The victory of the trio against the multiplayer game known as the King of the Cabbage inspired them in setting a company known as Relude that later became known as Rovio Entertainment Corporation.
Organizational Structure of the Company and its Influence on Functionality
Organizational structure represents how the activities like coordination, supervision and the task allocation remain directed towards achieving the goals of the organization (Mullins 2016). Thus, it is necessary for an organization to be not only flexible and efficient but also caring and innovative for the achievement of competitive advantage.
The organizational structure of a video gaming industry like , Rovio Entertainment Corporation, consist of Project director, producer and manager who presides over the game designing and programming team, quality control and the audio team(Gil and Warzynski 2014). The organizational structure also comprises of teams that takes care of press release and marketing, information technology (IT), marketing and press release, recruitment and human resource and administration.
Figure: Organizational Structure of Rovio Entertainment Corporation
Source: (Nagle and Müller 2017)
The organizational structure can improve an organization’s functionality by (Jones and Jones 2013):
Modern Management Approach for Improving Organizational Functionality
Rovio Entertainment Corporation can adopt the System Approach for improving the functionality of the organization. The System approach views management as an organized entity made of subsystems integrated into an orderly totality (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). The approach depends on generalization where everything is interdependent and inter related. A system comprises of the related and the dependent element that forms unitary whole through interaction. In other words, a system represents assemblage of the parts or things that leads to the formation of a complicated whole. This approach comprises of hierarchy of subsystems. For instance, a firm is considered as system comprising of subsystems like marketing, finance, accounting and production.
The organizational systems have boundaries that determine the internal and the external parts. However, a system cannot exist in the vacuum and receives material, energy and information from the other system as the inputs (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). The inputs then undergo the process of transformation within system and leave the system as the output to the other systems. Organizations represent dynamic system since it remains responsive to the environment. It is also vulnerable to the change in the environment.
According to system approach, the attention solely remains towards the effectiveness of overall system instead of effectiveness of sub systems. This approach also considers the interdependence of sub systems (Vandeveer and Menefee 2010). Therefore, in applying the system concepts it is not only the organization that is taken into account but also the performances and objectives of the different departments. The system approach comprises of the special and general systems. The special management system consists of the analysis of information, organizational structure, control mechanism, job design and planning while the general system is an approach towards management that primarily involves formal organizations. Systems theory is beneficial to the management of the organization since it focuses on achieving the required objectives and helps in viewing the organization as open system.
Analysis of Company’s Culture Based on Handy’s Cultural Framework
Charles Handy’s cultural framework is classified into power culture, role culture, task culture and support culture (Russo et al. 2013).
Power Culture: In this culture, subordinates left with hardly any option and strictly follow the instruction of the supervisor. Here, the employees have no liberty in expressing or sharing their ideas or views in open forum but follow the instructions of the supervisor.
Task Culture: This culture motivates the individuals with specializations and common interest in forming a team. Each team comprises of close to four to five people where each of the team members needs to make an equal contribution and thereby accomplish the tasks in the most innovative manner. .
Person Culture: Organizations with such type of culture have employees who work only for money and never remain attached to the organization. Moreover, in such cultures employees never take a decision in favor of organization.
Role Culture: This represents a culture where each employee remains delegated to the responsibilities and roles according to their educational qualification, specialization and interest.
Rovio Entertainment Corporation follows a power culture that leads to its on-going success. Power culture in video gaming industry is like a spider’s web with all significant spiders sitting at the centre (Graham, Ashworth and Tunbridge 2016). This implies that the vital members of the organization sit at the centre surrounded by the widening circles of the influence and the inmates. In this type of culture, the closeness to the spider’s web describes the influence of an individual. Organizations having this type of culture respond instantly to the events but remain hugely dependent on ability of the employees at the centre for determining the continued success. Such organizations will attract politically minded and power oriented people who can take risk and do not place higher rating on security.
Analysis of Innovative Strategic Management Objectives
These include:
SWOT Analysis
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Strength 1. The game offered by the company is available as a free version so it will remain at an advantageous position compared to the other games sold for money. This will enable every single user in trying the game since it does not cost much 2. There is reduction in the cost of the production considering the fact that the games offered remains available for free. Further, the usage of the social media for achievement of goals of the company through promotion of games of the company is something to be achieved for free. |
Weakness 1. The game is available only for smart phones so people who like playing games by other means like a personal computer(PC) would not be available for playing the game 2. There exists a limited budget which implies that the games offered by the company will have lesser promotional opportunities compared to the games with stronger budget as they might get promoted via the magazines and the television. On the other hand, the games offered by the company under discussion will have promotion through cost effective social media |
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Opportunities 1. Although the game is successful but the company can earn some money through addition of advertisements. 2. Up gradation of the game and selling it across the web will put forward an opportunity for the company in starting to earn money from such games |
Threats Presence of similar types of games across the web can accuse the company of copyright issues. Therefore, the company needs to make sure to be careful and have a unique selling aspect that differentiates its games from the competitors. |
Conclusion:
The report ends by critically analyzing the innovative strategic management objectives through the SWOT framework. Through the report one can not only understand the cultural framework adopted by Rovio Entertainment Corporation but also the modern management approach that the company can adopt in improving the functionality. The report also puts forward an organizational structure and how that helps in facilitation of its functionality. The company through its focus on human rights, environmental rights, labor issues, consumer safety and protection of privacy strives in doing good to the world thereby fulfilling the expectation of the employees and the customers.
References:
Gil, R. and Warzynski, F., 2014. Vertical integration, exclusivity, and game sales performance in the US video game industry. The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 31(suppl_1), pp.i143-i168.
Graham, B., Ashworth, G. and Tunbridge, J., 2016. A geography of heritage: Power, culture and economy. Routledge.
Hill, C.W., Jones, G.R. and Schilling, M.A., 2014. Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
Johnson G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., and Regne?r, P. 2014. Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases. 10th edn Harlow:Pearson
Jones, G.R. and Jones, G.R., 2013. Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Mullins L. J. 2016. Management and Organisational Behaviour 11th edn., Harlow:Pearson
Nagle, T.T. and Müller, G., 2017. The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more profitably. Routledge.
rovio.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.rovio.com/about-us [Accessed 5 Jul. 2018].
rovio.com 2018. [online] Available at: https://www.rovio.com/investors?language=en [Accessed 5 Jul. 2018].
Russo, G.M., Tomei, P.A., Linhares, A.B.J. and Santos, A.M., 2013. Correlation between organizational culture and compensation strategies using Charles Handy’s typology. Performance Improvement, 52(7), pp.13-21.
Vandeveer R. and Menefee M. 2010, Human Behavior in Organizations 4th edn., FT Prentice Hall
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