Organisational structure Flashcards
What are levels of hierarchy?
The number of layers of authority within an organisation.
What are spans of controls?
The number of subordinates reporting directly to the manager. A manager director has a span of control.
The balance between levels of hierarchy and spans of control determines whether a business organisational hierarchy is flat or tall.
What are tall structures?
Managing director Directors Managers Supervisors A tall structure with a narrow spans of control will enable managers to keep close control over the activities of subordinates.
What are flat structures?
Chief executive
Team leaders
Operatives
Flatter structures with wider spans of controls give junior employees greater independence in their working lives.
What is delayering?
In recent years companies have tended to try cut cost by removing layers of hierarchy, thus has led to flatter organisational structures. Communication needs to pass through fewer layers.
What are the advantages of delayering?
Improves competitiveness by reducing wage costs.
Greater responsibility for junior employees- may motivate them.
Communication is easier, may lead to new ideas and perspectives.
What are the disadvantages of delayering?
Experience and knowledge in the middle may be lost.
Employees may fear future changes could cost from their jobs.
Higher training costs
May lead to heavy workloads for senior management.
What is centralisation?
Majority of decisions taken by senior management at the top.
Rapid decision making.
What is decentralisation?
Greater authority to junior management
Higher motivation, performance and loyalty
Reduce workload for senior management and managers.
Junior employees please get experience.
Can help them gain promotion
improved communication
What is a matrix structure?
Contains teams of people from various sections of a business. These teams will be created for the purpose of a specific project.
What are the advantages of matrix structures?
Individuals are chose according to their needs of the project.
Able to view problems in a different way as specialists have been brought together in a new environment.
Project managers are directly responsible for completing the project within the deadline.
What are the disadvantages of matrix structures?
Conflict of loyalty between line managers and project managers over resources. Two managers go report to.
Struggle to prioritise tasks.
Teams have a lot of independence can be difficult to monitor.
Costs can be increased if more manager are created through the use of a project teams.
