Organisational Structures Flashcards
Hierarchy
Level of management in any organisation from highest to lowest
Functions of an organisational structures
Describes every job in an organisation
Describes the responsibilities of each employee
Describes how each job is related to other jobs
Chain of command
The structure in an organisation which allows instructions to be passed down from senior management to lower levels of management
a hierarchy that outlines who reports to whom, as well as the roles each person has within the organization.
Span of control
A feature in the organisational structure where it is the number of employees working directly under a manager and for which a manager is responsible for
Delegation definition and advantages (for workers and the manager)
Passing down tasks down to someone lower in the hierarchy, balancing the work load for both the manager and the employee
Advantages for the manager
- less work, managers can focus of managerial tasks and less likely to make mistakes
- easier to measure the success of the task when its done by someone else
Advantages for the worker
- the work is more interesting and rewarding
- the worker feels more important and feels like they are trusted
- delegation may help trains he employees for more difficult tasks in the future
Delayering
When an organisation removes a layer
Centralised organisation
Keep decision making firmly at the top of the hierarchy amongst the most senior management
Centralised organisation Advantages
Consistent decisions
More experienced decisions are made
Easier to implement policies/rules
Centralised Disadvantages
Slow decisions
Less creativity
Branch managers are demotivated
More layers, might increase costs
Danger of losing a key decision maker
Decentralised advantages
Communication faster
Good way of training. And development
More motivation with staff managers
Decentralised organisation
Decision making is spread out to include more junior/lower level managers in the hierarchy
Decentralised organisation disadvantages
Inconsistent decisions
Less experience
Harder to control costs
Not necessarily looking to the long term future direction of the business
Tall organisational structures features
Long chain of command
Smaller span of control
Flat organisational structures features
Large span of control
Less layers
Tall organisational structures advantages
More chances of promotion
More supervision/support
