Factors Affecting Organizational Design
Although many things can affect the choice of an appropriate structure for an organization, the following five factors are the most common: size, life cycle, strategy, environment, and technology.
Organizational size
The larger an organization becomes, the more complicated its structure. When an organization is small — such as a single retail store, a two-person consulting firm, or a restaurant — its structure can be simple.
In reality, if the organization is very small, it may not even have a formal structure. Instead of following an organizational chart or specified job functions, individuals simply perform tasks based on their likes, dislikes, ability, and/or need. Rules and guidelines are
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Therefore, the older the organization and the larger the organization, the greater its need for more structure, more specialization of tasks, and more rules. As a result, the older and larger the organization becomes, the greater the likelihood that it will move from an organic structure to a mechanistic structure.
Strategy
How an organization is going to position itself in the market in terms of its product is considered its strategy. A company may decide to be always the first on the market with the newest and best product (differentiation strategy), or it may decide that it will produce a product already on the market more efficiently and more cost effectively (cost-leadership strategy). Each of these strategies requires a structure that helps the organization reach its objectives. In other words, the structure must fit the strategy.
Companies that want to be the first on the market with the newest and best product probably are organic, because organic structures permit organizations to respond quickly to changes. Companies that elect to produce the same products more efficiently and effectively will probably be mechanistic.
Environment
The environment is the world in which the organization operates, and includes conditions that influence the organization such as economic, social-cultural, legal-political, technological, and natural environment conditions. Environments are often described as
Having the appropriate structure is vital for an organisation or business to meet its aims and objectives. A business may be structured by:
Organizational Structure Organization structure is the differentiation; that is the way the organisation is differentiated into tasks, responsibilities, departments and hierarchies and the integration (the way the organisation is coordinated to form a unitary whole). It defines how activities in the organization are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims. The structure provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest, determines which individuals get to participate in which decision making processes and thus to what extent their view shape the organization’s actions (Stephen, 1987) United Parcel Services Organization Chart United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS) is the world’s largest package delivery
The relationship between an organization’s strategy and structure are extremely important because it “directly impacts a firm’s performance” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 309). Also, as an organization grows, it should reevaluate the current strategy and structure to ensure that it remains the optimal choice for the organization (Rothaermel, 2013). The four types of organizational structures, listed in order of least to most complex according to Rothaermel (2013), are: (1) simple, (2)
The structure and design of organizations have drastically changed over the last twenty-five years. Organizations develop new goals at the beginning of the year or after the completion of previous goals, and heavily depend on planning to help achieve these goals. Planning is an integral part of organizational success, as upper management receives substantial information on various needs such as risk uncertainty, available resources, employee development, and unforeseen changes in technology (Daft, 2013). Most importantly, successful planning allows management to make effective decisions when unforeseen events arise within the organization. Not participating in planning is equivalent to taking a road trip across the country without a
Organizational structure indicates the company's formal reporting relationships, procedures, controls and authority, & decisions making process. An organisation's strategy is its plan for the whole business that sets out how the organisation will use its major resources. An organisation's structure is the way the pieces of the business fit together internally. It also covers the links with external factors such as partners and other parties. For the company to deliver its plans, the component of the structure must cooperate with each other
An organization must align its strategy and structure to allow itself to achieve performance improvements over time. The four different structures, simple, functional, multidivisional, and matrix, are all suited to allow companies with different strategies to succeed but the company must decide which of these is correct for itself. A small start-up company will overburden itself with excessive cost if it seeks to implement a functional structure because it clearly will not have the talent on hand to create whole departments of HR employees or accountants. On the other hand, a company that grows to become a large multi-national
The structure of an organization is very important because it determines the different roles and how all the departments perform. The organizational structure consists of a group of people that works together to achieve the goals that are implemented.
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.
Organizational Structure is necessary to run any company effectively and efficiently. There are six key elements that a company should be following for success and those elements are as follows:
Defining and identifying an organization structure affects the organization in two big ways – it provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest and it determines which individuals get to participate in which decision making process.
Organisations must organise a structure so that their objectives can be achieved. A company will have different departments and procedures with each one having a special function. All of these organised departments and procedures are linked so the company can run efficiently. For many organisation this can be very complex has they will have offices in international countries around the world.
Organizational structure is a system that consists of explicit and implicit institutional rules and policies designed to outline how various work roles and responsibilities are delegated, controlled and coordinated. Organizational structure also determines how information flows from level to level within the company (investopedia.com, 2017). If one level or department does not undertake its function accurately the entire business suffers, because all the departments interrelated to each other. There are generally four types of organizational 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.
Organizational structure is definitely a must have in an organization. Organizational structure is designed to form and develop clear lines of order to control an organization getting the best use of the organizations resources. According to Mahmud Hasan, some advantages of organization structure are that is easier to control the resources and they can be rationed and allocated to different units to use them at their more productive use at a micro level. Another advantage would be that clearly defined reporting lines make it easy for employees to know whom to report to while reducing redundancies by eliminating extra or unproductive processes. Other advantages are to streamline processes by giving them more focus and adoptive nature, reduce cost because the controlling of various cost control centers are controlled at micro level. Lastly, another advantage is it will help reduce cost because the controlling of various cost control centers are collected at micro level (Hasan, 2010).
At least two different organizational structures are identified, described, and compared in terms of their design principles.