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Mechanistic versus Organic Organisational Structures.

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In this vast growing global economy, organizations are often confronted

with increasing instability due to continuous changes in technology, an influx of

competition and rapidly changing customer needs. With respect to this it is imperative

that organizations respond to required or forced changes to their environment if the firms

existing goals are to be achieved.

With this in mind, organizations turn to management to combat the budding problem, through organizing. Organizing involves the structuring of the resources of the organization in order to achieve its objectives. This structuring includes:

*Dividing tasks into jobs (Adam Smith 1700 's).

*Assigning jobs.

*Clustering of jobs into units, departments etc. to form the shape of …show more content…

2) Completely free and informal 3) Vertical and horizontal as needed to get the job done.

*An informal and constantly changing pattern of authority as roles of the organization tries to reshape itself to address new problems and tackle any unforeseen possibilities.

*Responsibility of employees to the whole task confronting the organization.

*Authority is invested in the employees with the appropriate knowledge, skill and expertise.

This type of structure features a decentralized approach to management. Decentralization is where there is a delegation of authority to lower levels of the organization, where more emphasis is placed on employee skills and capability and the atmosphere is a more comfortable and amiable for the employees to work. However, where the actual decision making should be done by the higher levels of management depends upon the organization and the circumstances surrounding the problem that has arisen.

The organic design structure also gives rise to the divisional approach where departments are grouped together to attain the specific goals of the organization whether it be a specific product or service provided by the organization. This approach is based mainly in large corporations who provide products or services for different markets or geographical locations and each department must be self sufficient. With this approach managers would not be delayed in

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