Basic Challenges of Organizational Design

Classifying the authority - Once the departments are made, the manager likes to classify the powers and its extent to the managers. This activity of giving a rank in order to the managerial positions is called hierarchy. The top management is into formulation of policies, the middle level management into departmental supervision and lower level management into supervision of foremen. The clarification of authority helps in bringing efficiency in the running of a concern. This helps in achieving efficiency in the running of a concern. This helps in avoiding wastage of time, money, effort, in

1) Authority-Power that people consider legitimate, as rightly exercised over them; also called legitimate power.

“An organizational structure defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated” (Robbins and Judge, 2007, p. 583). The six key elements that Robbins and Judge explain that managers need to address are; work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization and decentralization, and formalization. Coming from a military background, I find it easy and effective to bring in a strong chain of command. Robbins and Judge (2007) define chain of command as “an unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports to whom” (p. 542). This chain of command eliminates confusion, keeps employees working on their respective tasks without distracting others with any involvement on certain areas, and can help to break up the cliques. Currently there is a jumbled Sociogram depicting unilateral and bilateral communication throughout the organization. The chain of command can stream line this communication and ensure the right tasks are being delegated and communication can be effectively transferred through the appropriate levels to increase efficiency.

Barbara said “Managers can sit –for hours at a time if they want… You start dragging out each little chore because if the manager on duty catches you in an idle moment he will give you something far nastier to do. So I wipe, I clean, I consolidate catsup bottles…” (22). Hierarchy system is defiantly showing the roots, so to say we are controlled by people of higher rank positions. It is common nowadays to encounter such philosophy, pretty much anywhere we go, any movie we watch, we see the rules are set by people of higher position or rank. It is also interesting how the less you get paid, the more work you invest. And the more you get paid the less work you do. Higher positions require more work, yet it comes with a perk of controlling other, so that can give the luxury of making others do your job which is unfair and has no justice to it. And as a scenario we can take two workers of same position. One worker is fast learner and grows quickly, yet the other one has small difficulties. The worker who is behind most likely will be given the “Dirty Work” and will have twice the work load. It is sort of a battlefield; if I do better and know the work, I can work my way out of

The concept of leadership by authority is when a focus of power is with the manager. People tend to follow people who are seen as powerful. The manager will make the decisions, oversee policies and procedures for achieving goals, work tasks, control of rewards or hand out the punishments.

Structure is the basis through which an organization seeks to create control the direction of an organization. This is completed through clear definitions of the allocation of work, differentiation, and the coordination of having those responsibilities working together towards the efforts of the organization, integration (Bolman & Deal, 1993, pp). Through these methods, the organization is able to devise a division of labor that collaborates to bring about the missions and goals of an organization. The structure that comes about from this can be varied in their rigidness and flexibility it allows, and to an extent this is a great contribution to its success.

Authority represents the power that lies within a managerial position and that gives the manager the right to assign the jobs to his subordinates and to expect that the assigned jobs would be completed by the subordinates. By the virtue of authority, the superiors are empowered to make their juniors and subordinates work. The organizational structure should clearly define the line of authority so that the overlapping actions might be avoided (Mahida).

Allen must consider the distribution of authority. Authority is the organizationally certified right to make a decision. Authority can be distributed throughout an organization or held in the hands of a few select employees. Decentralization is the process of distributing authority throughout an organization. In a decentralized organization, an organization member has the right to make a decision without obtaining approval from a higher-level manager. On the other hand, centralization is the retention of decision-making authority by a high-level manager.

Other common terms for the idea of organizational decentralization include: team self-management, self-management, shared control, distributed leadership (Lambe, Webb, & Ishida, 2009) and holacracy (Robertson, 2007). While these terms may have small differences they all describe the common theme of distributing power across organizations. Several concepts help to explain why decentralization and the encouragement of teamwork throughout an organization are often superior to traditional management structure.

Effective organizational structures define how job tasks are subdivided, grouped, coordinated, and managed. Six key components of organizational structures include division of labor, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization, and formalization (Remme, Jones, Van der Heijden, & De Bono, 2008, p. 79). Each element influence how employees interact with each other to reach organizational goals. Different structures are common in similar organizations among high performing organizations (Reimann, 1974, p. 707). The most appropriate structure will depend on the unique needs and culture of the organization.

An organisation is a defined and stratified entity composed of people, who are united by association (e.g. through employment) toward meeting a specific goal (Business Dictionary, 2017). The foregoing definition lends insight into the existence of diverse roles and responsibilities expected from members of an organisation, which roles interface with supervisory, subservient and inter-personal interactions.

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of the way people interact within groups. Normally this study is applied in an attempt to create more efficient business organizations.(Investopedia.com 2010) Another definition for OB is an action and attitudes of individuals and groups toward one another and toward the organization as a whole, and its effect on the organization 's functioning and performance.(WebFinance 2016b)

The major problem every company encounters is the structure or hierarchy of the organization. Usually, it is in the form of a pyramid and gets narrower as it rises resulting in the few people on the top of the pyramid gets more advantages in the company. But the lower level employees are not given that importance when it comes to the utilization of the benefits provided by the company.

Structure and hierarchy come from how work and the work processes are coordinated together and relating how tasks and coordination of these tasks is to be obtained. When determining the authority in the structure of an organization, there are two major options, centralized and decentralized. A centralized organizational setup is where the authority to make important decisions is retained by managers at the top of the created hierarchy whereas a decentralized organizational setup is where the authority to make important decisions about organizational resources and to initiate new projects is delegated to managers at all levels in the hierarchy. Each choice is made based upon the main goal/task of the organization and what would better fit the organization. Whether work/the

In a centralized organizational structure one individual is responsible for making all the decisions and maintains control of the company by giving direction. While Decentralized organizational structures often rely on several persons with the authority to make final decision for the company’s well being. Some benefits associated with a centralized organization are as follows: Reduction in cost in the work environment, having a focused vision on one common goal and Reduction in conflict. A Few drawbacks of a centralized organization include, No secrecy because all ideas and decisions are conveyed to all, No special attention and Delay in work. Advantages associated with Decentralization are; Huge relief is provided off the top managers, Greater use is made of employees skills and Decision making is left up to educational and well informed people.