An organizational structure defines how activities such as
task allocation
Task management is the process of managing a Task (project management), task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals coll ...
, coordination, and supervision are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims.
Organizational structure affects organizational action and provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest. It determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization's actions.
[Jacobides., M. G. (2007). The inherent limits of organizational structure and the unfulfilled role of hierarchy: Lessons from a near-war. Organization Science, 18, 3, 455-477.] Organizational structure can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its environment.
Organizations
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
are a variant of
clustered entities.
An organization can be structured in many different ways, depending on its objectives. The structure of an organization will determine the modes in which it operates and performs.
Organizational structure allows the expressed allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to different entities such as the
branch
A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term ''twig'' usually ...
,
department,
workgroup, and
individual.
Organizations need to be efficient, flexible, innovative and caring in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
[Lim, M. (2017). Examining the literature on organizational structure and success. College Mirror, 43, 1, 16-18. http://www.cfps.org.sg/publications/the-college-mirror/article/1098]
Types
Pre-bureaucratic structures
Pre-bureaucratic (entrepreneurial) structures lack
standardization of tasks. This structure is most common in smaller organizations and is best used to solve simple tasks, such as sales. The structure is totally centralized. The strategic leader makes all key decisions and most communication is done by one on one conversations. It is particularly useful for new (entrepreneurial) business as it enables the founder to control growth and development.
They are usually based on
traditional domination
Traditional authority is a form of leadership in which the authority of an organization or a regime is largely tied to tradition or custom. The main reason for the given state of affairs is that " things have always been that way".Reinhard Bendi ...
or
charismatic domination
Charismatic authority is a concept of leadership developed by the German sociologist Max Weber. It involves a type of organization or a type of leadership in which authority derives from the charisma of the leader. This stands in contrast to two ...
in the sense of
Max Weber's
tripartite classification of authority
Max Weber distinguished three ideal types of legitimate political leadership, domination and authority. He wrote about these three types of domination in both his essay '' The Three Types of Legitimate Rule'' which was published in his masterw ...
.
Bureaucratic structures
![League of Nations Organization](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/League_of_Nations_Organization.png)
Weber (1948, p. 214) gives the analogy that “the fully developed bureaucratic mechanism compares with other organizations exactly as does the machine compare with the non-mechanical modes of production. Precision, speed, unambiguity, … strict subordination, reduction of friction and of material and personal costs- these are raised to the optimum point in the strictly bureaucratic administration.”
Bureaucratic
The term bureaucracy () refers to a body of non-elected governing officials as well as to an administrative policy-making group. Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments staffed with non-elected offi ...
structures have a certain degree of standardization. They are better suited for more complex or larger scale organizations, usually adopting a tall structure. The tension between bureaucratic structures and non-bureaucratic is echoed in Burns and Stalker's distinction between mechanistic and organic structures.
The Weberian characteristics of bureaucracy are:
* Clear defined roles and responsibilities
* A hierarchical structure
* Respect for merit
Bureaucratic have many levels of management ranging from senior executives to regional managers, all the way to department store managers. Since there are many levels, decision-making authority has to pass through more layers than flatter organizations. A bureaucratic organization has rigid and tight procedures, policies and constraints. This kind of structure is reluctant to adapt or change what they have been doing since the company started.
Organizational charts
An organizational chart, also called organigram, organogram, or organizational breakdown structure (OBS) is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs. The term ...
exist for every department, and everyone understands who is in charge and what their responsibilities are for every situation. Decisions are made through an organized bureaucratic structures, the authority is at the top and information is then flowed from top to bottom. This causes for more rules and standards for the company which operational process is watched with close supervision. Some advantages for bureaucratic structures for top-level managers are they have a tremendous control over organizational structure decisions. This works best for managers who have a command and control style of managing. Strategic decision-making is also faster because there are fewer people it has to go through to approve. A disadvantage in bureaucratic structures is that it can discourage creativity and innovation in the organization. This can make it hard for a company to adapt to changing conditions in the marketplace.
Post-bureaucratic
The term of post bureaucratic is used in two senses in the organizational literature: one generic and one much more specific. In the generic sense the term post bureaucratic is often used to describe a range of ideas developed since the 1980s that specifically contrast themselves with Weber's ideal type
bureaucracy. This may include
total quality management, culture management and
matrix management
Matrix management is an organizational structure in which some individuals report to more than one supervisor or leader–relationships described as solid line or dotted line reporting. More broadly, it may also describe the management of cross- ...
, amongst others. None of these however has left behind the core tenets of Bureaucracy. Hierarchies still exist, authority is still Weber's rational, legal type, and the organization is still rule bound. Heckscher, arguing along these lines, describes them as cleaned up bureaucracies,
[Heckscher C. (Editor), Donnellon A. (Editor), 1994, The Post-Bureaucratic Organization: New Perspectives on Organizational Change, Sage Publications] rather than a fundamental shift away from bureaucracy. Gideon Kunda, in his classic study of culture management at 'Tech' argued that 'the essence of bureaucratic control - the formalization, codification and enforcement of rules and regulations - does not change in principle.....it shifts focus from organizational structure to the organization's culture'.
Another smaller group of theorists have developed the theory of the Post-Bureaucratic Organization.,
provide a detailed discussion which attempts to describe an organization that is fundamentally not bureaucratic.
Charles Heckscher has developed an ideal type, the post-bureaucratic organization, in which decisions are based on dialogue and consensus rather than authority and command, the organization is a network rather than a hierarchy, open at the boundaries (in direct contrast to culture management); there is an emphasis on meta-decision-making rules rather than decision-making rules. This sort of horizontal decision-making by
consensus model is often used in
housing cooperatives
A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...
, other
cooperatives
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...
and when running a
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
or
community organization. It is used in order to encourage
participation
Participation or Participant may refer to:
Politics
*Participation (decision making), mechanisms for people to participate in social decisions
*Civic participation, engagement by the citizens in government
*e-participation, citizen participation ...
and help to
empower EmPower is a brand name that refers to three different power outlets available on commercial airlines:
* 15-Volt, 75 Watt DC connector (now called EmPower Classic by the vendor)
* 5-Volt, 10 Watt USB power-only jacks
* 110-Volt, AC power jacks (some ...
people who normally experience
oppression
Oppression is malicious or unjust treatment or exercise of power, often under the guise of governmental authority or cultural opprobrium. Oppression may be overt or covert, depending on how it is practiced. Oppression refers to discrimination ...
in groups.
Still other theorists are developing a resurgence of interest in
complexity theory and organizations
Complexity theory and organizations, also called complexity strategy or complex adaptive organizations, is the use of the study of complexity systems in the field of strategic management and organizational studies. It draws from research in th ...
, and have focused on how simple structures can be used to engender organizational adaptations. For instance, Miner ''et al.'' (2000) studied how simple structures could be used to generate improvisational outcomes in product development. Their study makes links to simple structures and improviser learning. Other scholars such as Jan Rivkin and Sigglekow, and Nelson Repenning revive an older interest in how structure and strategy relate in dynamic environments.
Functional structure
A functional organizational structure is a structure that consists of activities such as coordination, supervision and task allocation. The organizational structure determines how the organization performs or operates. The term "organizational structure" refers to how the people in an organization are grouped and to whom they report. One traditional way of organizing people is by function. Some common functions within an organization include production,
marketing
Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...
, human resources, and accounting.
This organizing of specialization leads to operational efficiency, where employees become specialists within their own realm of expertise. On the other hand, the most typical problem with a functional organizational structure is that communication within the company can be rather rigid, making the organization slow and inflexible. Therefore, lateral communication between functions becomes very important, so that information is disseminated not only vertically, but also horizontally within the organization. Communication in organizations with functional organizational structures can be rigid because of the standardized ways of operation and the high degree of formalization.
As a whole, a
functional organization Functional organization is a type of organizational structure that uses the principle of specialization based on function or role.
It allows decisions to be decentralized since issues are delegated to specialized persons or units, leaving them th ...
is best suited as a producer of standardized goods and services at large volume and low cost. Coordination and specialization of tasks are centralized in a functional structure, which makes producing a limited number of products or services efficient and predictable. Moreover, efficiency can further be realized as functional organizations integrate their activities vertically so that products are sold and distributed quickly and at low cost. For instance, a small business could make components used in production of its products instead of buying them.
Even though functional units often perform with a high level of efficiency, their level of cooperation with each other is sometimes compromised. Such groups may have difficulty working well with each other as they may be territorial and unwilling to cooperate. The occurrence of infighting among units may cause delays, reduced commitment due to competing interests, and wasted time, making projects fall behind schedule. This ultimately can bring down production levels overall, and the company-wide employee commitment toward meeting organizational goals.
Divisional structure
The divisional structure or product structure consists of self-contained divisions. A division is a collection of functions which produce a product. It also utilizes a plan to compete and operate as a separate business or profit center. According to Zainbooks.com, divisional structure in the United States is seen as the second most common structure for organization today.
Employees who are responsible for certain market services or types of products are placed in divisional structure in order to increase their flexibility. Examples of divisions include regional (a U.S. Division and an EU division), consumer type (a division for companies and one for households), and product type (a division for trucks, another for SUVs, and another for cars). The divisions may also have their own departments such as marketing, sales, and engineering.
The advantage of divisional structure is that it uses delegated authority so the performance can be directly measured with each group. This results in managers performing better and high employee morale. Another advantage of using divisional structure is that it is more efficient in coordinating work between different divisions, and there is more flexibility to respond when there is a change in the market. Also, a company will have a simpler process if they need to change the size of the business by either adding or removing divisions. When divisional structure is utilized more specialization can occur within the groups. When divisional structure is organized by product, the customer has their own advantages especially when only a few services or products are offered which differ greatly. When using divisional structures that are organized by either markets or geographic areas they generally have similar functions and are located in different regions or markets. This allows business decisions and activities coordinated locally.
The disadvantages of the divisional structure is that it can support unhealthy rivalries among divisions. This type of structure may increase costs by requiring more qualified managers for each division. Also, there is usually an over-emphasis on divisional more than organizational goals which results in duplication of resources and efforts like staff services, facilities, and personnel.
Matrix structure
The
matrix structure
An organizational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are directed toward the achievement of organizational aims.
Organizational structure affects organizational action and provides the founda ...
groups employees by both function and product simultaneously. A matrix organization frequently uses teams of employees to accomplish work, in order to take advantage of the strengths, as well as make up for the weaknesses, of functional and decentralized forms. An example would be a company that produces two products, "product A" and "product B". Using the matrix structure, this company would organize functions within the company as follows: "product A" sales department, "product A" customer service department, "product A" accounting, "product B" sales department, "product B" customer service department, "product B" accounting department.
*Weak/functional matrix: A
project manager with only limited authority is assigned to oversee the cross- functional aspects of the
project. The functional managers maintain control over their resources and project areas.
*Balanced/functional matrix: A project manager is assigned to oversee the project. Power is shared equally between the project manager and the
functional managers. It brings the best aspects of functional and projectized organizations. However, this is the most difficult system to maintain as the sharing of power is a delicate proposition.
*Strong/project matrix: A
project manager is primarily responsible for the project. Functional managers provide technical expertise and assign resources as needed.
There are advantages and disadvantages of the matrix structure. Some of the disadvantages include tendencies towards
anarchy,
power struggles and 'sinking' to group and division levels. Matrices increase the complexity of the
chain of command
A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part.
Milit ...
, which can present problems because of the differentiation between functional managers and project managers. This, in turn, can be confusing for employees to understand who is next in the chain of command. An additional disadvantage of the matrix structure is higher manager to worker ratio that results in conflicting loyalties of employees. However, the matrix structure also has significant advantages that make it valuable for companies to use. The matrix structure may improve upon the "silo" critique of functional management in that it aims to diminish the vertical structure of functional and create a more horizontal structure which allows the spread of information across task boundaries to happen much quicker. It aims to allow specialization to increase depth of knowledge and allows individuals to be chosen according to project needs.
Starbucks is one of the numerous large organizations that successfully developed the matrix structure supporting their focused strategy. Its design combines functional and product based divisions, with employees reporting to two heads.
Some experts also mention the
multinational design,
[Robbins, S.F., Judge, T.A. (2007). Organizational Behavior. 12th edition. Pearson Education Inc., p. 551-557.] common in global companies, such as
Procter & Gamble
The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...
,
Toyota
is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
and
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...
. This structure can be seen as a complex form of the matrix, as it maintains coordination among products, functions and geographic areas.
With the growth of the internet, and the associated access that gives all levels of an organization to information and communication via digital means, power structures have begun to align more as a
wirearchy, enabling the flow of power and authority to be based not on hierarchical levels, but on information, trust, credibility, and a focus on results.
In general, over the last decade, it has become increasingly clear that through the forces of globalization, competition and more demanding customers, the structure of many companies has become flatter, less hierarchical, more fluid and even virtual.
Organizational circle
The
flat structure is common in small companies (entrepreneurial start-ups, university spin offs). As companies grow they tend to become more complex and hierarchical, which lead to an expanded structure, with more levels and departments.
However, in rare cases, such as the examples of
Valve
A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...
,
GitHub, Inc. and
37signals, the organization remains very flat as it grows, eschewing
middle manager Middle management is the intermediate management level of a hierarchical organization that is subordinate to the executive management and responsible for ‘team leading’ line managers and/or ‘specialist’ line managers. Middle management is i ...
s. (However, GitHub subsequently introduced middle managers). All of the aforementioned organizations operate in the field of technology, which may be significant, as software developers are highly skilled
professional
A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and ski ...
s, much like
lawyers. Senior lawyers also enjoy a relatively high degree of
autonomy within a typical
law firm, which is typically structured as a
partnership
A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...
rather than a hierarchical bureaucracy. Some other types of professional organizations are also commonly structured as partnerships, such as
accountancy
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the measurement, processing, and communication of financial and non financial information about economic entities such as businesses and corporations. Accounting, which has been called the "langua ...
companies and
GP surgeries.
Often, growth would result in
bureaucracy, the most prevalent structure in the past. It is still, however, relevant in former Soviet Republics, China, and most governmental organizations all over the world.
Shell Group used to represent the typical bureaucracy: top-heavy and hierarchical. It featured multiple levels of command and duplicate service companies existing in different regions. All this made Shell apprehensive to market changes, leading to its incapacity to grow and develop further. The failure of this structure became the main reason for the company restructuring into a matrix.
Team
One of the newest organizational structures developed in the 20th century is ''
team
A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal.
As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to inf ...
'' and the related concept of team development or
team building
Team building is a collective term for various types of activities used to enhance social relations and define roles within teams, often involving collaborative tasks. It is distinct from team training, which is designed by a combine of business ...
. In small businesses, the team structure can define the entire organization.
Teams can be both horizontal and vertical. While an organization is constituted as a set of people who synergize individual competencies to achieve newer dimensions, the quality of organizational structure revolves around the competencies of teams in totality. The team could classified into functional team structure, lightweight team structure, heavyweight team structure and autonomous team structure. For example, every one of the
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A US ...
stores, the largest natural-foods grocer in the US developing a focused strategy, is an autonomous
profit centre
A profit center is a part of a business which is expected to make an identifiable contribution to the organization's profits.
Overview
A profit center is a section of a company treated as a separate business. Thus profits or losses for a prof ...
composed of an average of 10 self-managed teams, while team leaders in each store and each region are also a team. Larger bureaucratic organizations can benefit from the flexibility of teams as well.
Xerox
Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...
,
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...
, and
DaimlerChrysler
The Mercedes-Benz Group AG (previously named Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler and Daimler) is a German multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is one of the world's leading car manufacture ...
are all among the companies that actively use teams to perform tasks.
Network
Another modern structure is
network
Network, networking and networked may refer to:
Science and technology
* Network theory, the study of graphs as a representation of relations between discrete objects
* Network science, an academic field that studies complex networks
Mathematics ...
. While business giants risk becoming ''too clumsy to proact (such as), act and react efficiently'', the new network organizations contract out any business function, that can be done better or more cheaply. In essence, managers in network structures spend most of their time coordinating and controlling external relations, usually by electronic means.
H&M is outsourcing its clothing to a network of 700 suppliers, more than two-thirds of which are based in low-cost Asian countries. Not owning any factories, H&M can be more flexible than many other retailers in lowering its costs, which aligns with its low-cost strategy. The potential management opportunities offered by recent advances in complex networks theory have been demonstrated including applications to product design and development, and innovation problem in markets and industries.
Virtual
Virtual organization is defined as being closely coupled upstream with its suppliers and downstream with its customers such that where one begins and the other ends means little to those who manage the business processes within the entire organization.
A special form of
boundaryless organization is ''virtual''. Hedberg, Dahlgren, Hansson, and Olve (1999) consider the virtual organization as not physically existing as such, but enabled by software to exist. The virtual organization exists within a network of alliances, using the Internet. This means while the core of the organization can be small but still the company can operate globally be a market leader in its niche. According to Anderson, because of the unlimited shelf space of the Web, the cost of reaching niche goods is falling dramatically. Although none sell in huge numbers, there are so many niche products that collectively they make a significant profit, and that is what made highly innovative Amazon.com so successful.
Hierarchy-community phenotype model
In the 21st century, even though most, if not all, organizations are not of a pure hierarchical structure, many managers are still blind to the existence of the flat community structure within their organizations.
The business is no longer just a place where people come to work. For most of the employees, the firm confers on them that sense of belonging and identity –– the firm has become their “village”, their community. The firm of the 21st century is not just a hierarchy which ensures maximum efficiency and profit; it is also the community where people belong to and grow together, where their affective and innovative needs are met.
[Lim, M., G. Griffiths, and S. Sambrook. (2010). Organizational structure for the twenty-first century. Presented the annual meeting of The Institute for Operations Research and The Management Sciences, Austin. https://communities-innovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Organizational-Structure-for-the-Twenty-first-Century-220619i.pdf]
Lim, Griffiths, and Sambrook (2010) developed the Hierarchy-Community Phenotype Model of Organizational Structure borrowing from the concept of Phenotype from genetics. "A phenotype refers to the observable characteristics of an organism. It results from the expression of an organism’s genes and the influence of the environment. The expression of an organism’s genes is usually determined by pairs of alleles. Alleles are different forms of a gene. In our model, each employee’s formal, hierarchical participation and informal, community participation within the organization, as influenced by his or her environment, contributes to the overall observable characteristics (phenotype) of the organization. In other words, just as all the pair of alleles within the genetic material of an organism determines the physical characteristics of the organism, the combined expressions of all the employees’ formal hierarchical and informal community participation within an organization give rise to the organizational structure. Due to the vast potentially different combination of the employees’ formal hierarchical and informal community participation, each organization is therefore a unique phenotype along a spectrum between a pure hierarchy and a pure community (flat) organizational structure."
"The Hierarchy-Community Phenotype Model of Organisational Structure views an organisation as having both a hierarchy and a community structure, both equally well established and occurring extensively throughout the organisation. On the practical level, it utilises the organizational chart to study the hierarchical structure which brings across individuals’ roles and formal authority within their designated space at the workplace, and social network analysis to map out the community structure within the organisation, identifying individuals’ informal influences which usually do not respect workplace boundaries and at many times extend beyond the workplace."
See also
informal organization
Open Value Network
Open Value Network, also known as OVN, is a transnational open network that makes heavy use of technology to support its operations. It resembles the
entralizedNetwork type structure described above with the difference that there are no formal mechanisms of power to allow centralization of control over the platform (or the technological infrastructure) that enables the activities of the network. Examples are
Bitcoin,
Ethereum
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether (Abbreviation: ETH; sign: Ξ) is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capita ...
,
Sensorica, etc.
Moreover, Open Value Networks are permissionless, which means that anyone can become part of them without the need to go through a hiring process or to sign an employment contract.
These organisations hold together through gamification or set of incentives that are formally and directly linked to contributions and performance.
Distributed autonomous organisations
Decentralized autonomous organizations, also known as DAOs, are essentially autonomous
Open Value Networks with most governance being "on chain", i.e. formalized as smart contracts, which are programmed rules that govern the functioning of the ortganisation, minimizing human interference as much as possible. Examples include
The DAO.
History
Organizational structures developed from the ancient times of hunters and collectors in tribal organizations through highly royal and clerical
power structure
In political sociology, but also operative within the rest of the animal, animal kingdom, a power structure is a hierarchy of competence or aggression (might) predicated on power (social and political), influence between an individual and other ...
s to industrial structures and today's
post-industrial structures.
As pointed out by Lawrence B. Mohr, the early theorists of organizational structure, Taylor, Fayol, and Weber "saw the importance of structure for effectiveness and efficiency and assumed without the slightest question that whatever structure was needed, people could fashion accordingly. Organizational structure was considered a matter of choice... When in the 1930s, the rebellion began that came to be known as human relations theory, there was still not a denial of the idea of structure as an artifact, but rather an advocacy of the creation of a different sort of structure, one in which the needs, knowledge, and opinions of employees might be given greater recognition." However, a different view arose in the 1960s, suggesting that the organizational structure is "an externally caused phenomenon, an outcome rather than an artifact."
In the 21st century, organizational theorists such as Lim, Griffiths, and Sambrook (2010) are once again proposing that organizational structure development is very much dependent on the expression of the strategies and behavior of the management and the workers as constrained by the power distribution between them, and influenced by their environment and the outcome.
Military command and control
There are correspondences between Mintzberg's organizational archetypes and various approaches to military
Command and Control
Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...
(C2). Mintzberg's Machine Bureaucracy represents a highly centralized approach to C2, with a narrow allocation of decision rights, restricted patterns of interaction among organization members, and a restricted flow of information. Mintzberg's Adhocracy, on the other hand, represents a more networked and less centralized approach to C2, with more individual initiative and self-synchronization. It involves a broader allocation of decision rights, broader interaction patterns, and broader information distribution. Mintzberg's other organization types (for example, the Professional Bureaucracy and the Simple Structure) fall in between these two.
[Vassiliou, Marius, David S. Alberts, and Jonathan R. Agre (2015). "C2 Re-Envisioned: the Future of the Enterprise." CRC Press; New York; pp. 93-96.]
Operational and informal
The set organizational structure may not coincide with facts, evolving in operational action. Such divergence decreases performance, when growing as a wrong organizational structure may hamper cooperation and thus hinder the completion of orders in due time and within limits of resources and budgets.
Organizational structures should be adaptive to process requirements, aiming to optimize the ratio of effort and input to output.
Configurations of organizational structure according to Mintzberg
Parts of organization
Henry Mintzberg
Henry Mintzberg (born September 2, 1939) is a Canadian academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, ...
considers five main parts of organization:
[ Robertas Jucevičius "Strateginis organizacijų vystymas", „Pasaulio lietuvių kultūros, mokslo ir švietimo centras“, 1998, , p. 81-92]
*
Strategic apex
Strategy (from Greek στρατηγία ''stratēgia'', "art of troop leader; office of general, command, generalship") is a general plan to achieve one or more long-term or overall goals under conditions of uncertainty. In the sense of the "art ...
(leaders of organization)
*
Middle line (managers of lower level)
*
Operating core (workers of lowest level, directly producing something or providing services)
*
Technostructure
Technostructure is the group of technicians, analysts within an organisation (enterprise, administrative body) with considerable influence and control on its economy. The term was coined by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith in ''The New Indus ...
(analysts)
*
Support staff (helping other members of organisation to perform their function)
An additional element is organisational ideology.
Mechanisms of coordination
Mintzberg considers six main mechanisms of coordination of work:
* Mutual adjustment (without formal, standardized mechanisms)
* Direct supervision (when one person, leader of organization, gives direct orders to others)
* Standardization of work processes (based on the documents that regulate work and are produced by technostructure)
* Standardization of outputs (only the results of work are regulated)
* Standardization of skills (based on preparing the specialists outside the organization)
* Standardization of norms (based on organisation's values, ideology)
Configurations of organizations
Mintzberg considers seven main configurations of organizational structure:
# Entrepreneurial organization (strategic apex, direct supervision dominate)
# Machine organization (technostructure, standardization of work processes dominate)
# Professional organization (operating core, standardization of skills dominate)
# Diversified organization (middle level, standardization of outputs dominate)
# Innovative organization (support staff, mutual adjustment dominate)
# Missionary organization (ideology, standardization of norms dominate)
# Political organization (no part or mechanism of coordination dominates)
Entrepreneurial organisation or Simple structure has simple, informal structure.
[Victoria Lemieux "Applying Mintzberg's Theories on Organizational Configuration to Archival Appraisal" // "Archivaria", 1998, 46, p. 32-8]
/ref> Its leader coordinates the work using direct supervision. There is no technostructure, little support staff. Such structure is usually found in organizations with environment that is simple (so that one man could have significant influence), but changing (so that flexibility of one man would give a significant advantage over the bureaucratic structures).
Machine organisation or Machine bureaucracy has formal rules regulating the work, developed technostructure and middle line, is centralised, hierarchical. Such structure is common when the work is simple and repetitive. Organizations also tend to achieve such structure when they are strongly controlled from outside. Also, such structure is common for organizations that perform work that is related to some sort of control (for example, prison
A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...
s, police
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
), or organizations with special safety requirements (for example, fire departments, airline
An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in wh ...
s).
Professional configuration or Professional bureaucracy mostly coordinates the work of members of operating core, professionals, through their training (for example, in university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
). Operating core in such organisation is large, middle line insignificant, as the professionals perform complex work and have significant autonomy. Technostructure is also insignificant.[Fred C. Lunenburg „Organizational Structure: Mintzberg’s Framework“ // „International Journal of Scholarly Academic Intellectual Diversity“, 2012, Volume 14, Number 1] Support staff, helping the professionals to do their job, is numerous. Professionals participate in administrative work, thus there are many committees
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. Such structure is common for universities
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...
, hospitals, law firms.
Diversified Configuration or Divisionalized form consists of several parts having high autonomy. Such structure is common for old, large organizations.
Innovative Configuration or Adhocracy gathers the specialists of different fields into teams for specific tasks. Such organizations are common when environment is complex and dynamic. Mintzberg considers two types of such organization: operating adhocracy and administrative adhocracy. Operating adhocracy solves innovative problems for its clients. Examples of such organisation can be advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
or firm that develops the prototypes of products. Administrative adhocracy has teams solving problems for the organization itself. As an example of such organization Mintzberg gives NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
when it worked on Apollo program.
Missionary organisation coordinates the work through organisational ideology. Formal rules in such organization are not numerous. Such organizations are decentralized, the differences between levels are not significant.
Political configuration happens when the power is mostly used through workplace politics Workplace politics is the process and behavior that in human interactions involves power and authority. It is also a tool to assess the operational capacity and to balance diverse views of interested parties. It is also known as office politics and ...
.
Bibliography
* Lawrence B. Mohr, ''Explaining Organizational Behavior. The Limits and Possibilities of Theory and Research.'', Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1982.
References
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