Understanding the structure of an organization plays a vital role in laying the blueprint for how a company will be managed and organized. It provides a well-defined framework that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each employee in a particular company. It shows how each employee interacts and works one another in achieving the goals of a company. In other words, organizational structure is a reflection of the working relationships that govern the workflow of the company. It has a profound effect on a company’s structural dimensions, which includes formalization, specialization, hierarchy and centralization. This essay will describe the structure of my current work organization, characterize the structural dimensions, and explain in detail how effective that design is for my organization in today’s world.
Current Structure
I currently work at a university in the DC metropolitan area. With 37,000 students, 25,000 jobs, and 13 different colleges and schools, the hybrid organizational structure is most conducive to the framework of this university. The current structure encompasses functional and divisional structural designs. According to Harris and Raviv (2002) in a functional organizational design, also known as a U-form (unitary), activities are grouped together by common function from the bottom to the top of the organization. In other words, individuals are grouped together on basis of their common expertise and experience. For example, I work in the Research Compliance Office for the university, as a Research Compliance Analyst for the Institutional Review Board. This office is responsible for reviewing and approving research studies that will be implemented at the university. The employees who work in the offi...
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... is the most conscious choice and necessary as the organization will face different phases of growth and performance levels and it will need to adapt itself to the unplanned, unexpected, and disruptive changes” (Zatarain 2012).
Conclusion
In university, a hyrid organization is most effective. It encompasses both the functional and division organizational designs. This allows every division and department autonomy in the formalization, specialization, hierarchy and centralization dimensions of the university. It allows employees, at all levels, to provide vital input regarding the operation of the university. It creates an environment of inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness. It helps build the foundation of teamwork and collective decision making. Employees feel empowered knowing that they are contributing to the mission and vision of the university.
Organizational culture is a reflective view of the inner workings of an organization. This culture reflects hierarchical arrangements as it pertains to the lines of authority, rights and obligations, duties, and communication processes. Organizational structure establishes the manner in which power and roles are coordinated and controlled amongst the varying levels of management. The structure of an organization is dependent upon their goals, objectives, and strategy. Determining organizational structure best suited for an organization is generally found within the six key elements of organizational structure and choosing those to implement those best suited for the organization. The six key elements include:
The Person-Organization Fit which forms the basis for this discussion is an equally useful concept which has been used over time to cr...
At present XYZ Medical Center uses functional structure (Borkowski, 2009) for their organization operation, with employees working in various departments based on their roles and responsibilities. The staff increases productivity by sharing their experiences and supporting each other (Borkowski, 2009)....
In their 2005 book, Understanding and Managing: Organizational Behavior, Jennifer George and Gareth Jones define organizational structure as "the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate and work together to achieve an organization's goals." A logical consequence to an organization's structure is the resulting culture, which George and Jones further define as "the set of shared values, beliefs, and norms that influences the way employees think, feel, and behave toward each other and toward people outside the organization." Finding the right structure for one's organization is vital to its strength and longevity. Appropriate structures are commonly found by trial and error; most continue to evolve as the organization enters different stages of its existence. Structures are defined and redefined in accordance with the organization's strengths and weaknesses, maximizing one while attempting to decrease the other. Over the course of change of structural eras', so too will the culture change.
Organizational structure is one of the three key organizational assets that could contribute to the effectiveness of operations of any organization (Zheng, Yan and Mclean 2009) It is joined together by different flows of information, decision processes, hierarchy of authority, specialization and working materials. (Enz 2009; Mintzberg 1980) Furthermore, it also determines the operating workflow, control of information, decision-making in the organization and the line authority (Mintzberg 1980). The facets of the organizational structure, the relationships that exist within it, and how the business processes (Bititci et al 2011) are controlled, determine the managerial style that should be utilized in addition to the strategies the organization could implement. Going further, a company’s organizational design and the parts that constitute it are seen as a contributing factor to superior performance, which ultimately provide an organization with competitive advantage over its competitors. (Enz 2009; Zheng, Yang, and Mclean 2009)
Organizational structure can be defined as the “formal arrangement of jobs within an organization” (Robbins & Coulter, 2009, p. 185). Having a defined and unified structure helps employees work more efficiently. Jacques Kemp, former CEO of ING Insurance Asia/Pacific, realized this need early on in his role. The company had been performing well and recently acquired another insurance company to become “one of the largest life insurance companies in Asia-Pacific” (Schotter, 2006, p. 4). However, Kemp’s proactive personality led him to seek out ways to achieve more efficient coordination between the regional office and business units (Robbins & Coulter, 2009). Kemp noticed that “most business unit managers did not even know the current corporate standards” and he began searching for a way to manage the managers (Schotter, 2006, p. 5). ING Insurance Asia/Pacific’s organizational structure was mechanistic and fairly well structured, but for a company that had recently been involved in a major acquisition and was divided across 12 geographically dispersed markets there was a great need to tweak this structure to unify the company (Schotter, 2006). If I had been in Kemp’s position as CEO, I would have made modifications to the organizational chain of command, formalized business processes, and used technology to stimulate collaboration amongst the region to help this company overcome organizational design challenges.
The three perspectives can be compare and contrasted by using the organization structure which is the social and physical structure. Social structure is defined as connection and interaction between employees each department in an organization whereas physical structure is the actual layout of organization (Lecture slides, week 4, 2014, structure, culture and design). The social structure concept is developed by Max Webber for the purpose of looking through the division of labor, hierarchy of authority and corporate rules and procedures (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2009, p.103). Therefore, from a modernist perspective, it is clear that, structure differentiates through characteristic such as a flat or tall organization structure. Tall organization structures are those with divisions of labor through having many vertical hierarchy levels from top to bottom with only a few departments. Tall organizations on the other hand are those structures with a big number of divisions while having less hierarchical levels (Lecture slides, week 4, 2014, structure, culture and design). Modernists believe ...
An organization structure can be defined as the analytical arrangement of tasks, duties and roles and responsibilities with the aim to achieve the predetermined objectives of an organization. It also helps to coordinate among the individuals in the organization by deciding who will work under whom. This is interpersonal relation between individuals and the jobs assigned to them. Organisation structure can be classified into two categories:
Gibson, J.L., Ivancevich, J.M., Donnelly, J.H., & Konopaske, R. (2009). Organizations: Behaviors, structure, processes (13th ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Organizational structure within an organization is a critical component of the day to day operations of a business. An organization benefits from organizational structure as a result of all it encompasses. It is used to define how tasks are divided, grouped and coordinated. Six elements should be addressed during the design of the organization’s structure: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, spans of control, centralization and decentralization. These components are a direct reflection of the organization’s culture, power and politics.
In order for one to evaluate and identify with the diverse business structures, he/she must be aware of the meaning and standards that makes that structure. Various businesses functions in different ways as the world is full of technology and new structures, company cultures and new ways in which companies are run. In order to fully grasp the concepts of Organizational structure and culture in the movies, I will use the Movie Up in the Air and The Devil Wear Prada movies to analyze a business scenario from them.
Organizational structure is the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that work can be performed and goals can be achieved. Good organizational design helps communications, productivity, and innovation. Many organization structures have been created based on organizational strategy, size, technology, and environment. Robbins and Judge (2011, p. 504) listed three common structures: simple, bureaucracy, and matrix. In this post the author will describe the matrix structure, and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
The idea of change is the most constant factor in business today and organisational change therefore plays a crucial role in this highly dynamic environment. It is defined as a company that is going through a transformation and is in a progressive step towards improving their existing capabilities. Organisational change is important as managers need to continue to commit and deliver today but must also think of changes that lie ahead tomorrow. This is a difficult task because management systems are design, and people are rewarded for stability. These two main factors will be discussed with reasons as to why organisational change is necessary for survival, but on the other hand why it is difficult to accomplish.
In modern days, organizational architecture plays a key role in order to allow companies to get success in the market. Organizational architecture, also known as organizational structure, defines as a structure that where the specific company whether works roles, decision making or responsibility are centralized, delegated or coordinated. The organizational structure also identify how the information from level to level within the company. IKEA is one of the international famous firms that designs and produces home furniture such as bed frames and desks. The company also is the leader in retailing furniture and has become the largest furniture retailer over the globe. Therefore the structure of a company is an important factor to achieve a rapidly growth. This paper aimed to describe the IKEA’s organizational architecture and provide analysis that whether any recommendations or changes have to make based on current information.
Organizations must operate within structures that allow them to perform at their best within their given environments. According to theorists T. Burns and G.M Stalker (1961), organizations require structures that will allow them to adapt and react to changes in the environment (Mechanistic vs Organic Structures, 2009). Toyota Company’s corporate structure is spelt out as one where the management team and employees conduct operations and make decisions through a system of checks and balances.