6.3 Improving Org Design And Managing HR Flow Flashcards
What is the HR Flow?
The HR lifecycle of employees from the point of recruitment to leaving the business.
What influences the structure of a business?
Size of the business.
Type of business.
Management and leadership styles.
Competitive environment.
What does the organisational structure show?
How people and management are organised in a business.
Define span of control.
The number of employees a manager is responsible for.
What are the advantages of a narrow span of control?
Allows closer supervision of employees.
What is a disadvantage of a narrow span of control?
More layers in the hierarchy may be required - higher costs as pay for managers.
What are the advantages of a wide span of control?
Gives subordinates a chance for independence.
Less managers required - reduced labour costs.
Describe a tall/centralised structure.
Many layers with narrow spans of control.
Describe a flat/decentralised account.
Wide spans of control.
Encourage delegation.
More responsibility given to middle managers.
What are the advantages of a tall structure?
More opportunities for promotion - can be motivating.
Faster decision making.
What are the disadvantages of a tall structure?
Communication takes longer.
More layers - more staff - higher costs.
What are the advantages of a flat structure?
Staff given greater responsibility - motivating.
Improved communication.
Fewer layers - less staff - lower costs.
What are some disadvantages of a flat structure?
Fewer opportunities for promotion.
Less direct control - less consistency across locations.
What are functional organisational structures?
Employees are organised based on roles and functions e.g. marketing, finance etc.
What are the advantages of functional organisational structures?
Specialisation - increased efficiency.
Effective with centralised structure.
What are the potential issues with functional organisational management?
There may be conflict/little communication between departments.
Less flexible - slower to adapt to change, competitive disadvantage in a dynamic market.
What is a product based organisational structure?
Business organises teams around different products.
Each team has own marketing, operations and finance department but HR usually centralised.
What is a strength of product based organisation?
Useful when products are diverse or have unique characteristics - therefore requiring special management, focus expertise in each area, increases chances of product being successful.
What is a weakness of product based organisation?
May lead to duplicate functions/respurces - higher costs.
What is regional organisation?
Organisation is divided into different geographic regions e.g. continents.
What is an advantage of regional organisation?
Local adaptation - able to tailor strategies to what will be most successful in specific regions - meet customer demands and improve customer satisfaction.
May possible flaws can be reduced by centralised HR and finance departments.
What are the disadvantages of regional organisation?
May lack communication between regions.
Inconsistency of products.
What is a matrix structure?
When employees report to both a functional manager and a project manager.
