Chapter 6: Organization and Teamwork

Organization Structure

a framework that allows managers to divide responsibilities, ensure employee accountability, and distribute decision making responsibility.

Organizational Chart

a visual representation that shows how employees and tasks are grouped, line of communication and authority flow

Core competencies

activities and characteristics of a business that is central and vital to a business that makes them stand out from competition giving them a competitive advantage

Work specialization

also called division of labor refers to dividing a business process into smaller parts allowing for each group to focus and be responsible on their part boosting efficiency and allowing for employee to develop expertise in the area.

Chain of command

refers to the pathway of authority flow from one management level to the next.

Span of management

also called span of control refers to the amount of employees one under one manager. (wide or narrow)

Centralization

the concentration of decision making authority at the top of an organization (CEOs and executives)

Decentralization

refers to the delegation of decision making authority to the lower level employees

Agile Organization

a company which structure, policies and capabilities allow for employees to adapt and respond quickly to changing business environments from market changes, customer needs and technological advancements.

Ways to organize a workforce

• Departmentalization

  • Functional Structure

  • Divisional Structure

  • Matrix Structure

  • Network Structure

Departmentalization

refers to grouping employees within an organization based on function, matrix, division or network

Functional structure

grouping employees according to similarity in expertise, skills and resource use.

Divisional structure

refers to the grouping of department based on customer segments, product lines or geographic region

Matrix Structure

refers to a structure that assigns employees to both a functional group and project team (use of functional and divisional patterns together) whereby employees report to multiple managers (functional manager for area expertise and divisional manager for project )

Network structure

also referred to as virtual organization it means individual companies are connected electronically to perform a task for a small headquarters organization (collaborating and working with others)

Ways to organize teams

• Problem-solving team

• Self-managed team

• Functional team

• Cross-functional team

  • Task force

  • Commitee

• Virtual Team

Team

refers to a unit of two or more people that work together towards achieve a common goal with shared mission and responsibility.

Problem-solving team

refers to a team that find ways to improve efficiency, quality and work environment.

Self-managed team

refers to a team which members responsible for an entire process or operation

Functional team

refers to a team which members come from a single functional department based on company vertical organizational structure.

Cross-functional team

refers to a team that is comprise of members from different functional departments (eg task force and committee)

Task force

refers to a team from several different departments that a temporarily brought together to address a specific issue.

Committee

refers to a team that is designed to deal with regular recurring tasks often address specific issues and give recommendations and take action on behalf of the board of directors (may become permanent part of an organization). Example Audit Commitee, Finance Commitee and Executive Commitee

Virtual team

refers to a team that uses communication technology that brings together employees from distant locations to achieve goals.

Advantages of working in teams

such as higher quality decisions, increased diversity of viewpoints, flexible and responsiveness, reduces stress and internal competition

Disadvantages of working in teams

such as inefficiency, groupthink (team members agreeing with leader and not stating their own views), excessive workloads, structural disruption and diminished individual motivation

Characteristics of Effective Teams

such as clear sense of purpose, open and honest communication, creative thinking, accountability, focus, decision by consensus (reach a point of agreement that reasonably satisfies each member), fairness in decision making, stay on track and manage conflicts constructively

Stages of team development

Forming (initial stages members get to know each other) → Storming (conflicts and disputes arise different views and opinions) → Norming (establishing rules, norms and guidelines promotes unity and cohesion → Performing (collaborative and effective work towards a goal leveraging each others knowledge and expertise) → Adjourning (task is completed and team disbands or continue with a new project)

Team Member Roles

• task-specialist role

• dual role

• non participator

• socioemotional role

Task-specialist Role

refers to the focus of task accomplishment over human needs (if all members are like this social needs wont be met)

Dual Role

refers to the focus of both task accomplishment along with human/people needs. this is good as it strikes a balance with task and socioemotional roles

Nonparticipator

refers to contributing minimal effort in task and people need of team also known as a distraction and dead weight to the team

Socioemotional Role

focuses on people need rather than getting work done if all members are this way it will lead to inefficient work and lack of progress.

Team Development

Cohesiveness (a measure of how committed team members are to their team goals) and Norms (the standards of conduct that guide team behaviour)

Team Conflicts

Constructive conflict (team members collaborating and using problem solving and creative thinking to solve issues) and Destructive conflict (not addressing more important issues this destroys morale of teams or team members leading to division and polarization of team)

Sources of Team and Workplace Conflict

1) Structural: permanent aspect of doing business

• Competition for promotions into higher positions

• Competition for resources, such as project budgets, equipment or staff

• Disputes over values such as company responsibilities to society or employees

2) Situational: based on temporary forces

• Disagreements over project goals

• Conflict between individual goals and team goals

• Workload and work life imbalances

• Resistance to changes

3) Interpersonal: stems from personal choices, personality type and behaviours

• Poor communication

• Unprofessional behaviours

• Cultural differences

• Personality clashes

Solutions to Team conflict

• Communication (effective communication and express self)

• Openness (no holding back on opinions and ideas)

• Research

• Flexibility

• Fair play

• Alliance

• Proactive attention (both social and task needs)

Unstructured Organization

refers to an organization that does not have a conventional structure but instead combines talents needed from the open market (heavily uses the network and virtual organizational concepts)

Potential Benefits of Unstructured Organization

For companies:

• Increased agility- Companies are able to respond and create oppurtunities faster and move on when needed

• Lower fixed costs- lowers operational costs as fewer full time employees are needed

• flexible capacity management - firms can easily increase or reduce capacity quickly and with less trauma

• Access to star talents - firms are able to hire top talents that is too expensive to retain or unwilling to work full time.

• Benefiting from competitions - firms are able to stage competition in talent markets to see who can come up with the best solution to problems

For Workers:

• Performance-based evaluation: only thing that matters is completing the job

• Freedom and flexibility - more flexibility in choosing which projects they want and how much they want to work

• Access to more interesting and fufilling work - workers are able to do work they cannot with a fixed full time position

Potential Challenges of Unstructured Organizations

For companies:

• Complexity and control issues - workers often have competing demands on their time and managers do not have as much control as they do with full time employees (incentives etc)

• Uncertainty - firms may not be sure if the talent they need are availalbe when needed

• Management sucession: hiring and employing temporary hires does need leave time and oppurtunities for grooming future executives and mangers

• Accountability and liability - lacks the accountability of structured organization and is hard to distribute work among multiple independent parties creating liability concern.

For Workers:

• Uncertainty - workers are not sure when their next project will be

• Loss of meaning and connection - independent workers dont get the same feeling of working together for a larger shared purpose like full timer do

• Diminished loyalty - these workers do not have the sense of an organization looking out for them and rewarding them for efforts beyond contractual obligations.

• Career development - without full time employment to guide support and train them workers are left to fend for themselves and to sharpen their skills at their own pace and expense

Taskbot

a software agent that can be assigned to complete a variety of tasks in an app or business system

Robotic process automation (RPA)

refers to a software capability that does knowledge work. Example Payroll processing and invoice processing