Impact of Structure on Organizations

Organizational structures have changed greatly in the last fifty years. Whereas most organizations were once rigid and centralized, most organizations are now taking advantage of flexible and decentralized structures. These new structures have affected the standard relationships between employees and managers. Additional layers of management have been created which blur the lines between the functions of managers and the functions of employees. Employees have become decision makers, and some managers barely have any authoritative power. Subsequently, these changes to organizational structures have impacted organizational strategies. This too, expounds upon the increased power of the employee and the reduced authority of the manager. The changes in organizational strategies make use of the dispersion of power in order to reduce costs and enable additional safeguards within these organizations.

The structures that subscribe to different organizations play a major role and determine how information flows throughout an organization as well as the reporting structure within the organization. In most organizations, the decisions are made within the upper management realm, but in other organizational groups, the responsibility of making decisions are distributed within their own group. The end factor for the most part amounts to a lateral structural arrangement where a variety of branches work together in accomplishing a universal organizational goal rather than functioning as separate groups or units. Lateral structural arrangements give a way to coordinate and correspondence between broadly diverse viewpoints inside an organization, and all the more regularly changing the way of

The relationship between organizational structure is not simple and straightforward; there is support for both the top-down and bottom-up approach. There has been evidence that shows that “hierarchically-controlled structures… might have different effects on process and output” (p. 123)”. The authors argue that when considering implementation style, integrated structure may create too many veto points which can delay implementation. Three structures are described as positively impacting implementation: single state agency requirement, inclusion of nongovernmental units or designation of a lead agency.

There are two types of responsive organization that is the mechanistic organization and the organic structure. The characteristic of mechanistic organization is it is centralization. The decision making is concentrated on top management. The next characteristic is standardization, the task must be standardize and formalized so that the task can carry out smoothly. While, the characteristic of organic structure is decentralization, when the environment is unpredictable and dynamic, the complicated decision making will involves lower level managers. Therefore, the decision making power assign to lower rank so that they

Centralization can be explained by that “authority to make important decisions lies towards the ‘head’ or centre of an organization” (Cummings, 1995), the decision-making actions are usually done by the top managers in hierarchical pyramid. While Decentralization, on the contrary, aims on raising employee empowerment and let the ‘low level’ manager engages in decision-making. In the modern market circumstances, most of the firms adopt centralization as the structure of firms. However, a hierarchical structure with a top manager, department managers, is this structure guarantees high productivity so that many of firms in market choose to use centralization as their structure?

Control: second main factor will be the control over management decision-making because as we move towards a bigger structure the control over the decision making decreases as it get divided among the stakeholders.

These leaders have preferences and perspectives that influence their decisions. Additionally, a very important argument is made that organization design is a political process. These two points taken together explain the existence of structural variability in spite of contingency factors. Decision makers are not spectators who simply observe the contingency factors and relay their effects on organizations. They mediate. Decision makers may vary in their responses to contingency factors according to their perceptions, interest or power. Similarly, owners may hold particular, hardly changing perspectives such as the need for power of control irrespective of the obtaining contingency

Managers who are given the power to make some decisions on behalf of the departments head the different structures. However, the overall management and decision making is done at the headquarters. The company has allowed for cultural integration as a means of

Influence of various conditions makes the organizational structure takes different forms and is dynamic. But not forget that the organizational structure is always to fulfil a specific purpose, and that is to ensure an efficient organisation.

The structure of an organization refers to the way in which different departments and sections of the company communicate. Structure relates to the manner in which tasks are divided among the staff and the ways in which upward and downward communication is conducted. The most important elements of a structure are boundaries, centralization, virtual networks, and limits (Pryor, Singleton, Taneja, & Toombs, 2011). The centralization refers to the extent of coordination in the decision-making processes. For highly centralized organizations such as the Coca-Cola Company, decisions are made by a few members who are usually concentrated at the highest levels of the enterprise.

This week in class we went over the concept of organizational structure, which to my understanding is the level of hierarchies, the division of departments and the communication across these hierarchies and departments within organizations. In terms of ensuring communication the structure includes a control system to ensure information flows through vertical and horizontal information linkages. The idea of information and control systems are components of organization design. This new learned knowledge helps with the development of my first goal as it is another component of organizational design, allowing me to actually apply it. For example, drawing back to my organization experience with Continental Grand Buffet, the information flowed through a horizontal structure and linkage. This is because there was less stress on hierarchies within the restaurant. We also had greater horizontal communication, in other words we communicated face to face, whether it was the manager with the hostess, the servers, the chefs and even the owners. In addition, we often shared tasks, where just because I was a hostess I could not go and assist or train one of the servers, and this empowerment that existed within the restaurant reflects that horizontal information linkage, where we had greater unity and information and communication travelled through the many different ‘divisions’.

The most important things to run a business smoothly is an appropriate organizational structure in order to manage workers effectively, have maximum productivity and achieve the objectives set by the company. The structure of an organization including the method that an

An organizational structure defines the scope of acceptable behaviour within an organization, its lines of authority and accountability, and to some extent the organization's relationship with its external environmental aspects. More specifically, it shows the pattern or arrangement of jobs and groups of jobs within an organization and yet it is more than an organizational chart. The organizational structure pertains to both reporting and operational relationships, provided they have some degree of performance.

A decentralized structure is one that empowers middle managers by taking control away from top managers and allowing the middle managers to make decisions for themselves. Managers at high levels give lower-level employees the responsibility to make

The influence of factors on organizational structure and their impact on the organization has been in focus by researchers since many years. This paper reviews the literature and analyses the factors that influence the structure and design of organizations. Organizational structures are mainly grouped as functional and divisional structures on the basis of functions or jobs. The most important and powerful tool for enhancing performance in an organization is the organizational design although there is no perfect or unique design. Organizational change occurs when a company makes a shift from its present state to a desired state, which is necessary in today’s competitive environment.