Organizational Structure, Culture, and Global Project Management Concepts

Organization Structure

System outlining hierarchy, roles, and responsibilities within an organization.

Purpose of Organization Structure

Defines how tasks are assigned, coordinated, and supervised to achieve goals.

Types of Organization Structure

Functional, Project (Projectized), and Matrix (Weak, Balanced, Strong).

Factors influencing Organization Structure

Size, industry, technology, culture.

Benefits of Organization Structure

Improves efficiency, communication, decision-making.

Organizational Culture

Shared assumptions, values, and behaviors shaping how an organization works.

Root cause of many problems

Often organizational culture, not structure or staff.

Member Identity

Loyalty to the company vs. role/team.

Group Emphasis

Teamwork vs. individual performance.

People Focus

Consider outcomes' effect on people.

Unit Integration

Encouraged to work across departments.

Control

Level of control vs. freedom to make decisions.

Risk Tolerance

Encouragement to take risks and solve problems.

Reward Criteria

Performance-based rewards.

Conflict Tolerance

Freedom to air conflict and criticism.

Means-Ends Orientation

Balance approach to outcome and process.

Open-Systems Focus

Response to change in external environment.

Globalization

Teams working across continents, time zones, languages, cultures.

Globalization - Challenges

Communication barriers, building trust, differing work practices.

Globalization - Solutions

Use collaboration tools, common methodology/templates, more face-to-face/video interaction.

Outsourcing

Contracting out tasks/services to external organizations to reduce costs, access specialized skills, improve efficiency.

Offshoring

Outsourcing from another country.

Why PMs must understand outsourcing

IT outsourcing will continue as companies focus on core strengths.

Virtual Teams

Individuals work across time and space using communication tech.

Advantages of Virtual Teams

Lower costs, global expertise/time zones, better work-life balance.

Disadvantages of Virtual Teams

Isolation, less mentoring, communication issues, weak informal networking, heavy reliance on technology.

Agile Project Management

Iterative, flexible, faster delivery; especially popular in IT.