Organizational structure Flashcards
What is organizational structure?
The way in which job tasks are hormally divided grouped and coordinated
What is work specialisation?
The degree to which tasks are subdivided into seperate jobs. Leads to efficiency, but too much leads to stress low productivity poor quality, absenteeism and high turnover.
Nowadays breaks down into technoligy or expertese
What is departmentalization?
How are jobs grouped Function: efficiency by expertise Product or service: more accountability for performance Geographical: Proccess and costumor:
What is chain of command?
Unbroken line of authority within an organization
What is unity of command?
Idea of only one boss, else conflict might occur, dotted lines in reporting etc
Span of control
Number of subordinates a manager has.
The wider with less levels the more efficient in costs
Drawbacks narrow: Expensive, vertical com. more complex, tight suppervision that discourages employees
What is centralization?
The degree to which decisions are made in one place
Explain the benifts of centralization/decentralization
Decentralization: quicker decisions, more people input, less communication errors, more flexible and innovative
centralization: less bad choices
What is formalization?
Degree of standardization
High: uniform output, employees won’t consider alternatives
low: great deal of freedom, flexible innovative, interactive
What is boundary spanning?
Form relationships outside of formally designed groups
Helps formal structures not becoming too ridget enhances creativity
Can be improved by committees etc, jobrotation, or showing overal organizational goals
Internal communication should be strong to be efficient
What is a simple structure?
Low degree of departmentalization, wide span of control authority is centralized to one person. Short lifespan apps or innovative companies or startups
Flexible inexpensive and accountability is clear
If organizations grow you get an overload at the top
Bureaucracy
Very formalized, rules and regulations, tasks are grouped in functional departments centralized and narrow span of control.
it’s highly efficient and only decisionmakers have to be innovative
Conflict between departments and obsessive concern with following rules is a problem
Functional structure
Grouped by similar tasks or specialities.
many organizations use this, allows to become an export quickly. motivates employees because of clear career path.
ridget communications, because of hierarchy
Divisional structure
highly departmentalized based on product, service
clear respo nsibility for activities, usefull for example with two teams in different countries
Matrix structue
combines funcional and product structues
advertising agency.
breaks the unity of command, two bosses, one in functional department other in product management
creates confusion sometimes but is great for indipendant but complex tasks.
virtual structure
outsources major business functions
It’s flexible and cheap (no office/hyrarchy)
drawback: roles goals a nd responsiblities unclear, no shared goals etc had to share information sometimes
What is team structure
Empowered teams, no vertical/horizontal bounderies, no external bounderies with clients.
Participative decisionmaking, 360 degree appraisals.
Usefull since overseas teams can make decisions on their own.
Circular structure
spread vision outwards, managers, specialist, employees
creative entrepreneurs
employees don’t know who is running the show
Downsizing
creating a leaner organization, reduces costs, but has to restructure. Employees attidutes change and get stressed, comp needs to help employees
Innovative strategy
ORGANIC risks rewarded, some mechanical model helps, for communication etc
Cost minimization strategy
MACHINISTIC Tight cost controls, avoidance of innovation, price cutting
Imitation strategy
MECHANISTIC AND ORGANIC minimize risk maximize opportunity for profit, move to new markets after proven.
Bigger org size leads to:
More mechanistic structure
What is environment?
Outside of org. that affects structure. broaden structure to reduce threats Capacity: can it support growth? Volatility: how much instability? Complexity: how much hetrogeneity and concentration?
What is the three dimensional model?
Discribes environment by:
stable>dynamic
Simple> complex
Abundant> scarce
What are institutions
Cultural factors that lead organizations to have similar structures
biggest: regelatory pressure
think of culture: power distance> strong authority
or they just copy
Work specialization and employees
At the start it increases productivity, but too much leads to dissatisfaction and lower productivity
org. should restructure if this happends, not add more supervision
Span of control and employees
no relationship between the two
Depends too much on what people personally like, only managers job satisfaction increases if managers get more employees
Centralization and employees
Less leads to more job satisfaction
Predictability vs autonomy
organizations will select a good fit, because it’s important, also to remain identity
culture and structure
It influences prefered structure, more power distance> more mechanistic structure.
downsizing leads to less career prospects
