Management & HRM Summary
Chapter 9 – Organizational structure and design:
9.1. Organizing activities:
A company processes:
- External factors (that affect the organization should be taken into account and any
adjustments necessarily made, depending on the choice of strategic management process)
- Internal factors (involving individual staff members, machines and other tools must be taken
into account.
Structuring involves the creation of an organizational structure in which people and resources are
optimally utilized to reach an organization’s objectives.
Organizational structure: define tasks, competencies and responsibility and sets out the pattern of
relationships between position.
9.2 Task Division and coordination:
Task division is the splitting up of activities into separate tasks that are then either assigned to
individuals or to other units such as departments. A reason for task division could be increasing
productivity and lower the costs (Productivity is the number of accomplishments in a given time), it
makes it also easier to mechanize processes.
Vertical differentiation are cost considerations that simple activities are passed down to a lower
hierarchical level.
Vertical task division figure 5:
- Different levels, vertical differentiation
- Social aspects, monotonous work (doing the whole
day the same thing), motivation
- Creating hierarchical levels, control, management
Effect
- Costs, management, social appeal
Horizontal task division figure 6:
- Splitting up task of the same level
Bring consistencies between various tasks, two main
forms:
Internal differentiation (mostly small organisations)
- Searching for tasks that have something in common
- Functional division
Internal specialisation (mostly bigger organisations)
- Involves grouping activities carried out by a unit on the basis of the end result
, Management & HRM Summary
- They may also be concerned with product (different product units A, B and C), market (Retail
and wholesale), geographic (Europe, Asia and America) division of tasks
The choice between internal differentiation and internal specialization will depend on the
organisation’s given situation. Small organisation’s almost always chose internal differentiation. As
soon as a organization has reached a certain size and also manufactures and sells different products,
there will be some basis for internal specialization.
, Management & HRM Summary
Internal differentiation:
Advantages:
- Efficient use of the manpower available because it can be put to use in a greater number of
activities, creating greater capacity
- Higher skills levels and more efficient routines
- Greater opportunities for automatization
Disadvantages:
- Coordination problems due to splitting up the work processes
- Repetition and monotony
- Little flexibility for individuals since they have perform a limited number of processes each
Internal specialization:
Advantages:
- Greater guarantee of efficient coordination between the various steps of the work process
- Shorter communication lines and faster problem-solving
- Less monotonous work
Disadvantages:
- Less efficient use of resources as a consequence of inevitable duplication
- Reduction in expertise in relation to technical know-how
- Fragmentation skills due to the broader range of work processes undertaken by each person
In larger organizations, various specializations might be grouped under a particular section of the
organization:
Job
descriptions:
Task content, authority, responsibilities, level within the organization, relationships with other
organizational members and the nature of the position.
9.3 Authority, responsibility and delegation
A job consist of tasks, authority and responsibilities.
By dividing work horizontally, tasks, authority and responsibility are split up across the hierarchical
level of that organization.
