Hrm/531 Week 9
Chapter 9: Organizational Structure and Design
9.1 Designing Organizational Structure
Discuss the traditional and contemporary views of work specialization, chain of command, and span of control. Describe each of the five forms of departmentalization. Differentiate authority, responsibility and unity of command. Explain how centralization/decentralization and formalization are used in organizational design.
Work specialization: dividing work activities into separate job task whereby individual employees specialize in doing part of an activity rather than the entire activity to increase work output. (helps employees be more efficient. Problems: fatigue, boredom…).
Chain command: is the line of authority extending from upper organizational …show more content…
Unity of command: every employee should report to only one manager. Otherwise, conflicting demands from different managers creates problems.
Span of control: How many employees can a manager efficiently and effectively manage? The span of control determines the number of levels and managers in an organization. Usually, the wider or larger the span, the more efficient the organizational structure is: more cost effective vs. managers no longer keeping track of things leading to declining performance (no magic number. Factors include: proximity of employees to manager, size of organization, skills and abilities of manger and employees, complexity of employee tasks, culture of organization, style of management… Trend towards wider span of control).
Five forms of departmentalization:
1. Functional departmentalization: grouping jobs according to function (engineering manager, accounting manager, manufacturing manager, HR manager, purchasing manager…)
+: efficiency from grouping people with similar specialties, coordination with functional area, in-depth specialization.
-: poor communication across functional areas, limited view of organizational goals
2. Geographic departmentalization: grouping jobs according to geographic
9.1 Designing Organizational Structure
Discuss the traditional and contemporary views of work specialization, chain of command, and span of control. Describe each of the five forms of departmentalization. Differentiate authority, responsibility and unity of command. Explain how centralization/decentralization and formalization are used in organizational design.
Work specialization: dividing work activities into separate job task whereby individual employees specialize in doing part of an activity rather than the entire activity to increase work output. (helps employees be more efficient. Problems: fatigue, boredom…).
Chain command: is the line of authority extending from upper organizational …show more content…
Unity of command: every employee should report to only one manager. Otherwise, conflicting demands from different managers creates problems.
Span of control: How many employees can a manager efficiently and effectively manage? The span of control determines the number of levels and managers in an organization. Usually, the wider or larger the span, the more efficient the organizational structure is: more cost effective vs. managers no longer keeping track of things leading to declining performance (no magic number. Factors include: proximity of employees to manager, size of organization, skills and abilities of manger and employees, complexity of employee tasks, culture of organization, style of management… Trend towards wider span of control).
Five forms of departmentalization:
1. Functional departmentalization: grouping jobs according to function (engineering manager, accounting manager, manufacturing manager, HR manager, purchasing manager…)
+: efficiency from grouping people with similar specialties, coordination with functional area, in-depth specialization.
-: poor communication across functional areas, limited view of organizational goals
2. Geographic departmentalization: grouping jobs according to geographic