1. Introduction
An organization is defined as a group of people who work together in an organized way for shared purpose. When people come together, they can either compliment one another or potentially create conflicts and disagreements in the course of pursuing common objectives with their differentiated experiences, perceptions and knowledge.
Managing an organization involves putting a structure to the business so that managers can manage, supervise and coordinate its people and organization’s performance. A structure serves as a framework for the purpose of outlining clear operating guidelines in order to keep the organization functional. It defines the hierarchical lines of authority, establishing job roles and responsibilities, details communication channels to determine how information should flow within the organization. A well-fitted organizational structure will have positive impacts on both its employees’ and its performance.
2. Organizational Structures
Organizational structures exist in two basic forms, the organic and the mechanistic, each contrastive of another (Burns & Stalker, 1961). Measured by four main elements of an organization’s characteristics; standardization, formalization, role specifications, and centralization of its operating unit, the time taken and frequency of future activities and change implementations are also taken into consideration.
Seen in Appendix 1, the diagram depicts the four elements an organization can structure itself.
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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 refers to the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that its work can be performed and its goals can be met. According to USA their structure states in order to provide clear alignment and focus for the planning process of USAA’s organizational structure, a planning team was assembled with strategic-thought leaders to author a strategic market outlook.
The company is geographically located in most major united states locations. It employs a hierarchal organizational design. One of the contributing factors to its success is the company’s success in providing a dining experience for its customers that excel in choices, price, customer service, and serving size. The company is known world-wide for its delicious cheesecakes with the key factor being the variety.
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 the framework around which the organization is organized, the underpinnings, which keep the coalition functioning. It 's the operating manual that tells members how the organization is put together and how it works. More specifically, structure describes how members are accepted, how leadership is chosen, and how decisions are made (Nagy, 2014). With lives in their hands, hospitals have to function very precisely, executing high-quality services every hour of every day. Organizations that have this sort of requirement usually take on a vertical organizational structure (Feigenbaum, 2015). This type of structure has many layers of management, with most of the organization 's staff working in very specific, narrow, low-authority roles. The numerous layers of management are designed to make sure that no one person can throw the system off too much. This structure also ensures that tasks are being done exactly and correctly (Feigenbaum, 2015).
According to Miles et al. (1978, p. 547), an organization is both its purpose and the mechanism constructed to achieve the purpose. It means that the concept of organization is embracing both goals and all the elements that represent unique combination. Miles et al. (1978, p. 553) draws the conclusion that structure and the processes taking place inside the organization are closely aligned; it is hard to speak about one without mentioning the other. It is important to understand the conclusion drawn by Miles et al. (1978). It illustrates how the
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.
Aside from educating a manager through formal training in managing an organization through change, there are many ongoing activities that will increase a manager's awareness and aid them in supporting a more complex organizational structure as it develops. A company's organizational structure is a road map of its communication patterns. A well-designed structure can also make it easier to identify inefficiencies and new problems as the organization grows. Reviewing the organizational structure on a regular basis will help ensure that the organization set up for optimal growth well into
Manager’s of an organization has to use structure to help the company run efficiently. “The five types of organizational structures are functional, divisional, matrix, team-based, and virtual network” (Draft, 2013, p.316). Functional structure in an organization that is developed by grouping departments by the skills, level of knowledge, activities done daily, and the resource used. “This structure places specific departments from the bottom to the top” (Draft, 2013, p.318). For example, specific departments such as: human resources, accounting, engineering, and manufacturing are placed at the top, while there are mostly seen at the bottom in other organizations. While common functions such as; people, facilities, and other resources are combined together as a single department instead of being divided into multiple departments.
The mechanistic view of an organization began with the industrial revolution. The view is a reflection of society's radical change from a rural agricultural base to one more impersonally based on centralized urban industry employing great numbers of people. The first changes began in the late 1600's and early 1700's with rudimentary machines replacing manual labor or accomplishing things not previously possible because of size, weight, or sheer numbers. The greatest industrial growth was during the 1800's period, which was exponential at its end and the outset of our century.
An organization, put in simple terms is a group or assembly of people working alongside one another to achieve common goal or objective through a division of labor and or responsibilities. Business organizations in free market economies are formed to provide services or deliver goods to ultimate consumers for profit. Generally speaking, people form an organization because it provides a means of using individual strengths within a group to achieve more than can be accomplished by the aggregate efforts of group members working individually.
The structure of an organisation is built in order to achieve the distinct tasks by the labour and coordination between teams to provide goods and services. Organisational structure is selected in order to have a basic work and consistency according to the situation. The most foremost factors in an organisation are skilled labours, mutual understanding among the fellows and direct control to frame a good result. A good structured organisation results in quality production, which can be taken into peoples consider through marketing. When an organisation tracks in a solid structure, management plans and tasks can be easily constructed and executed. In this essay, I have been explained about the concept of Mintzberg five
Organisation for its to exist, need Objectives, Strategies and sometime not necessary Structure. Mullins and Christy (2013) emphasised the importance of Strategy, Structure and Culture. The overall function and direction of an organisation is determined by the nature of its strategy. Strategy links structure, the process of management and applications of organisational behaviour. Structure provides the framework of an organisation and its pattern of management. It is by means of structure that the work of the organisation is carried out. Some structure is necessary to make possible the effective performance of key activities and to support the efforts of staff. The manager needs to understand the importance and effects of corporate strategy and organisations structure (Mullins and Christy, 2013).
2. There are different types of organisational structures. Two of them are Organic and Mechanistic.
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. (Investopedia, 2017) , It determines the guidelines of activities such as task distribution, coordination, and supervision to reach and achieve organizational objectives. The organization can be structured in various ways, depending on its objectives.