Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Creating a Flexible
Organization
What Is an Organization?
– Organization chart
• A representation of the positions and
relationships in an organization
– Chain of command
• The line of authority that extends from the
highest to the lowest levels of the organization
Job Design
• Job Specialization
– The separation of activities into distinct tasks
and the assignment of different tasks to
different people
• The Rationale for Specialization
– The “job” of the organization is too large for one person to accomplish
– A worker learning only a specific, highly specialized task should be able
to learn to do it efficiently
– Workers do not lose time switching from one operation to another
– Specialization makes it easier to design machinery to assist those who
do the job
– Specialization makes it easier to train new workers
Departmentalization
Departmentalization by Function
• Grouping jobs that relate to the same activity
(marketing, production, etc.)
• Small and newer organizations tend to base their
departmentalization on function
• Disadvantages
– Slows down the decision-making process
– Focuses attention on the department and not on the
organization as a whole
Departmentalization by Location
• Grouping activities according to the defined
geographic area in which they are performed
• Advantage
– Allows the organization to respond to localized demands or
requirements
• Disadvantage
– Complexity of administration and control in many locations
Departmentalization by Customer
• Grouping activities according to the needs of various
customer populations
• Advantage
– The capability to deal efficiently with unique customer groups
• Disadvantage
– Larger-than-usual administrative staff
A Matrix Structure
A structure that combines vertical and horizontal lines of
authority, usually by superimposing product
departmentalization on functional departmentalization
Source: Management, Sixth Edition by Ricky W. Griffin. Copyright © 1999 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Adapted with permission.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Added flexibility • Chain of command
conflicts
• Increased productivity
• May take longer to resolve
• Higher morale problems and reach
• Increases in creativity and solutions
innovation • Personality clashes
• Personal development of • Poor communications
team members • Undefined individual roles
• Unclear responsibilities
• Difficulty in determining
how to reward individual
and team performance
Delegation
Assigning part of a manager’s work and
power to other workers
– Responsibility
• The duty to do a job or perform a task
– Authority
• The power within the organization to
accomplish an assigned task.
– Accountability
• The obligation to accomplish an assigned job or
task
Decentralization of Authority
• Centralized Organization
– Authority is concentrated at the upper levels of the
organization
• Bureaucratic Structure – a management system based on
a formal framework of authority that is carefully outlined and
precisely followed.
• Decentralized Organization
– Management consciously attempts to spread
authority widely in the lower levels of the
organization
• Organic Structure – a management system founded on
cooperation and knowledge-based authority.
• Ambidextrous Organization
– Combines organic elements, which are
needed for creativity and the initiation of
change, with bureaucratic elements, which
are needed for efficiency.
• Innovation Departments
• Venture Teams
• Idea Champions
• Organizational Height
– Flat organizations
• Have wider spans of management and fewer levels
• Require managers to perform more administrative tasks
and to spend more time supervising subordinates
– Tall organizations
• Have narrow spans of management and many levels
• Have higher administrative costs (more managers)
• May distort internal communications during passage of
the communications through the multiple levels of
organization
Line-Staff Conflict
Corporate Culture
The inner rites, rituals, heroes, and
values of a firm