Organizational structure Flashcards
Organizational structure
Levels of management and division of responsibilities within a business
Delegation
Giving tasks to specific people
Chain of command
Structure of an organization which allows instructions to be passed down from senior levels of management to lower levels
Span of control
The amount of people receiving orders from a single manager
Line managers
Direct authority over subordinates in their department
Staff managers
Advisers that provide support to line managers and the board of directors
Decentralized management structure
Many decisions are not taken at the center of the business, but are delegated to a lower level of management
Centralized management structure
Decisions are made at the center or higher levels of management
Forms of decentralization
- Functional (Specialist department making decisions)
- Federal (Dividing decisions into different production lines)
Organization chart ADV
+ Show how everyone is linked in an organization
+ Individuals can see their own position in the organization
+ Shows the relationship between departments
Short chains of command vs long
SHORT
+ Communication is quicker
+ Top-level managers less remote from lower levels of the hierarchy
+ Feel more independent, therefore more job satisfaction
- More work for individual managers
- Difficult to maintain control
LONG
+ Less overwhelming work for individual managers
+ Easy to keep control over people’s work
- Expensive
- Orders take long to reach their target
ADV of delegation
FOR MANAGER
+ Managers can’t do all jobs by themselves, so distributes the workload
+ Less likely to make mistakes
FOR WORKER
+ Work becomes more interesting and rewarding
+ Employees feel trusted
