Unit 5.2: Organizational Strucutres

Organizational structure

Formal interrelationships and hierarchical arrangements of HR within a business -  helps business function more efficiently due to accountability and responsibility

Accountability

•  Who is held responsible for each particular job or task

Responsibility

Who was in charge of certain task

typical structure:

1.  CEO -  responsible for everything

2.  board of directors -  normally a director responsible for each key functional area

3.  middle management -  typically responsible for a team of people and or certain tasks

4.  supervisors and team leaders -  carry out some but not all duties of middle management they're making operational decisions for daily routine

5.  other employees -  they actually do the work

Delegation

The passing of control and decision-making to others

• Everyone saves time but not having to tackle every task on their own

  • Also helps motivate both workers by making them feel like they're important enough to work on something that was delegated to them

• Use SMARTER delegation

  •  specific, measurable,, agreed, realistic, time bound, ethical, recorded

The Span of Control:

refers to the number of people who are directly accountable to a manager

•  deciding which span control to use: MOST

  •  manager, organizational culture, subordinate, task

Wide span control

• fewer layers needed an organizational structure

  •  more cost-effective

 narrow span control

• More layers but also easier communication

  •  smaller teams are more helpful

Line manager

• the person directly above an employee on the hierarchical level

Chain of Command

formal line of authority through which communication orders are passed down in an organization

Bureaucracy

the execution of a tasks that are governed by official administrative and formal rules of an organization

•  have tons of rules and policy standardized procedures and formal hierarchical structures

  •  tend to have a lot of extra paperwork

  •  also hinders any creative action

the principles that govern bureaucratic organization

1.  Continuity: 

2.  Rules and regulations

3.  Hierarchical structures

4.  Accountability

Centralization

1. Decision-making is made by very small number of people

•  don't consult other people

Adv and disadv to Centralization

•  Advantages

  •  quick decision making

  •  better control

  •  Better a sense of direction

  •  Efficiency

•  Disadvantages

  •  extra pressure on senior staff

  •  Inflexible

  •  possible delays and decision making since only one person is making all the decisions

  •  demotivating for employees since they don't have a say

Decentralization

decision making an authority is shared with others

Adv and Disadv to decentralization

•  Advantages

  •  input from Workforce who might have a better understanding

  •  faster decision making since there's more people  to delegate

  •  improve morale

  •  Improved accountability

  •  Teamwork

•  Disadvantages

  •  Costly

  •   inefficiencies due to people arguing

  •  more chance of mistakes

  •  loss of control by seniors

  •  communication issues among all the people

deciding between centralization and decentralization

•  the size of the organization:  larger corporations tend to decentralize is easier 

•  scale of importance for the decision

•  level of risk

•  corporate culture

•  management attitudes and competencies

•  the use of Technology

Delayering

Process of removing one or more layers in the hierarchy to Flat in the organizational structure

•  Widens the span of control

adv and disadv to delayering

•  Advantages

  •  Reduces cost

  •   improves communication

  •  encourages delegation and empowerment

•  Disadvantages

  •  increases anxiety for workers as they don't know if they're going to lose their job

  •  increase his workload

  •  slows down decision making

Matrix Structure

Flexible method of organizing employees from different departments to temporarily work together on a specific project

• Accountability is shared on two managers:  department head and their project manager

• Teamworks is better when they're highly skilled and knowledge in different areas