Starting with its general structure,I would say that Gap Inc. is more of a flat structure than a tall structure. This is because Gap Inc. only features two levels of management. Since it is a flat structure organization, it has a wide span of control for the top level management,Glenn Murphy.This would also benefit the firm since this way communications are easier in between employers and employees.
By looking briefly looking at the chart we can assume that GAP Inc. has used a variety mix in building its base of structure for the firm. For example, it divides its structure based on its product, HR and Finance. We see that they separated the HR and the finance sector out as a separate department. I think that this would be a good decision for GAP Inc. since finance and its accounts would be more organized by grouping them all together in a group to calculate and departments can be compared easily by the statistics. But I would suggest that the firm should put the Human Resource department into each subordinate departments like the marketing, below the CEO.This because each department may have different styles of staff and it is best for the HR department to truly understand the employees when making HR decisions. Therefore, it would benefit the company if the HR went into the other product-based departments. Additionally, the company divided its subordinates as product base with brands that are under GAP (Banana Republic and Old Navy etc.) and GAP itself (North America). These product based departments resemble somewhat of a matrix structure of a firm because the multi-skilled people from different knowledge backgrounds get together to create the final product for the brand.
Personally, I would be say that GAP Inc. is a decentralized company. Although we could only see a few members in the organizational structure, we know that the ones at the second level of managements are all head of a department of brand. Therefore, it is obvious to not have daily decision making often put on in the highest levels of hierarchy.
The formal group of GAP Inc. should be doing fine with its product sales, but not so well with its internal stakeholders.This is because if the HR department doesn't get into the department, they will not know what exactly the department needs, confusion would be created and may create stakeholder conflicts.
