ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure

Organizational Design and Structure

Organizational design refers to the creation of policies, roles, and routines intended to coordinate activities, motivate employees, and achieve organizational goals. Business consultants and scholars suggest that successful organizational design requires that managers devote attention to both organizational structure and organizational culture. Organizational structure is defined as the formal lines of reporting and authority within an organization. An organization's structure serves as a primary determinant in how groups and individuals within the organization interact to solve problems and perform essential tasks. The most prominent features of an organization's structure are illustrated in its organizational chart.

By contrast, an organization's culture cannot be depicted so readily, since it represents the shared assumptions, values, and unspoken norms existing among organizational participants. Many organizational design experts contend that a positive organizational culture is essential for galvanizing workers and promoting a strong sense of purpose. An organization's culture shapes the so-called informal structure, including patterns of communication, collaboration, and shared responsibility not prescribed by the organizational chart.

The structure of an organization is all the means used to divide the work among independent tasks and whose purpose is to ensure coordination between these tasks. There are five mechanisms of coordination: mutual adjustment, which corresponds to informal communication, direct supervision when a person is responsible for the work of others and the standardization of work processes or qualifications or, finally, results. In the every day of the company, we conduct a series of functions, i.e. do things. Some are routine, some not, some can be automated or outsourced, while others have developed internally by staff with certain skills or knowledge. And, of course, these functions or activities must have a responsible person to ensure that the work is done in a timely manner. Indeed, the structure helps to define what should be done and by whom. Thus, the structure is one of the bases of the organization (or disorganization) of the activities of a company. However, throughout history, different companies have been organized in different ways. Here are the most common structures

A common mistake committed by some entrepreneurs and businessmen when organizing your business is to start drawing a diagram, believing that the resulting diagram IS pretty accurate representation of the organization. This error also commit it, even forcibly, the majority of the mission leaders rushing to formalize some sort of social organization, driven by the almost legally required to use a "model statute" that in no way reflects the enormous variety of objectives resources and work styles that have these organizations. The warning must be very clear: The design of the organizational structure and control mechanisms is the last thing you do; you have gone through the whole process of planning the activities of the company or organization (Bass & Butler, 2009, pp.155-170). Thus, in the first paragraph of the following article quoted Alfred Chandler dicendo that "structure follows strategy." I usually say the same thing with an expression used by the designers: "form follows function", which is perfectly applicable ...