Org structure

• Coordination of the labor

  Division of labor requires coordinating mechanisms to ensure everyone works
• Five Basic Parts of an Organization

  • Operating core: responsible for conducting the basic work duties that give the organization its defining purpose
  • Strategic apex: responsible for the overall success of the entire organization; executive leadership; brain of the organization
  • Middle line: employees who have the day-to-day authority for ensuring that the overall goals set by the strategic apex are being carried out by the operating core; coordinating mechanism of direct supervision
  • Technostructure: possess specific technical expertise that facilitates the overall operation of the organization; do not perform mainstream work of the organization
  • Support staff: provides services that aid the basic mission of the organization and typically includes the mailroom, switchboard, security, and janitorial services
• Organizational Structure


  Refers to the arrangement of positions in an organization and the authority and responsibility relationships among them
• Informal communication


  Sharing information on mutual tasks, vital in non-routine and ambiguous situations, easiest in small firms
• Two Fundamental Requirements of Org Structure

  • Division of Labor: Subdivision of work into separate jobs assigned to different people leading to job specialization
  • Coordination of the labor: Division of labor requires coordinating mechanisms to ensure everyone works
• Relationship between Division of Labor and Coordination

  • Optimal level of specialization is limited by the feasibility of coordinating the group
  • Coordination tends to be more expensive and difficult as division of labor increases
• Organizational Structure

  • Includes reporting relationships
  • Relates to job design, info flow, work standards and rules, team dynamics, and power relationships
  • Used as tools for organizational change
  • Reconfigures power, communication patterns, and company’s culture in the long run
• Division of Labor

  Subdivision of work into separate jobs assigned to different people leading to job specialization
• Components of Social System

  • Role: a set of expectations about appropriate behavior in a position
  • Norm: a set of shared group expectations about appropriate behavior
  • Culture: the language, values, attitudes, beliefs, and customs of an organization
• Coordinating Mechanisms


  • Mutual adjustment
  • Direct supervision
  • Standardization of work processes
  • Standardization of work output
  • Standardization of skills and knowledge
• Coordinating Mechanisms

  • Informal communication: Sharing information on mutual tasks, vital in non-routine and ambiguous situations, easiest in small firms
  • Formal hierarchy: Assigns legitimate power to individuals who will use their power to direct work processes and allocate resources, optimal coordinating system for large organizations
• Formal hierarchy


  Assigns legitimate power to individuals who will use their power to direct work processes and allocate resources, optimal coordinating system for large organizations
• Formal hierarchy

  • Assigns legitimate power to individuals who will use their power to direct work processes and allocate resources
  • Optimal coordinating system for LARGE organizations
  • Coordinates work among executives through division of organizational activity
  • Can be efficient for simple and routine situations
  • Close supervision may be limited
• Traditional Organizational Structures

  • Also called mechanistic or bureaucratic structures
  • Narrow span of control & high degree of formalization and centralization
  • Stable environments
  • Resistant to change
  • Jobs and lines of status and authority tend to be clearly defined
  • Much of the work behavior tends to be regulated and kept within organizational guidelines and standards
• Standardized outputs

  Ensuring that individuals and work units have clearly defined goals and output measures
• Standardized skills

  1. Coordinating work by extensively training employees or hiring people who have learned precise role behavior from educational programs

  2. Used in medical settings (ex: professionals in operating room)
• Standardization

  1. Creating routine patterns of behavior or output

  2. 3 distinct forms of standardization: Standardized processes, Standardized outputs, Standardized skills
• Standardized processes

  1. Quality and consistency of product or service can be improved by standardizing work activities

  2. Feasible for routine and simple works
• Nontraditional Organizational Structures

  • Also called organic structures
  • Wide span of control & low or little formalization and centralization
  • Rapidly changing environments
  • Less formalized work roles and procedures
  • Less rigid status of hierarchy
  • Have fewer employees than traditional structures
  • Often organized around a particular project or product line and are responsible for all aspects of the job
• Characteristics of Nontraditional Structures

  • High flexibility and adaptability
  • Collaboration among workers
  • Group decision making
  • Less emphasis on organizational status
• Traditional Org Structures

  • Bureaucracy: traditional organizational structure typified by a well-defined authority hierarchy and strict rules governing work behavior
• Characteristics of a Bureaucratic Organization

  • Specialization of labor
  • Well-defined authority hierarchy
  • Formal rules and procedures
  • Impersonality
  • Employment decisions based on merit
  • Emphasis on written records
• Qualified workers should be the only ones advancing to higher-level positions
• Team Organization

  1. Nontraditional structure with a team organized around a project or product

  2. Possess a variety of work-related skills

  3. Employees share skills and resources

  4. Work collaboratively

  5. Place less emphasis on organizational status/formal hierarchy

  6. Each worker viewed as knowledgeable and skilled professional

  7. Team members have input on decision making

  8. More flexible and responsive to the environment
• Line-Staff Organizational Structure

  Traditional structure with one group of employees achieving goals (the line) and another supporting (staff)
• Bureaucracies


  • Keep meticulous records of past decisions and actions
  • All behaviors in the organization are recorded, contributing to the image of bureaucrats as compulsive "paper-shufflers"
• Project Task Force

  Nontraditional organization of workers assembled temporarily for a specific job or project
• Matrix Organization

  1. Hybrid of traditional and non-traditional designs

  2. Blends functional and product structures

  3. Highly flexible and adaptable

  4. Greater worker communication and job satisfaction

  5. Best suited for projects requiring creativity and innovation
• Tall Organizational Structure


  • Long chain of command
  • Narrow span of control
  • Suitable for complex and multifaceted goals, interdependent jobs
• Chain of Command and Span of Control

  1. Traditional structures characterized by authority hierarchy

  2. Organigram represents authority levels and workers reporting to each position

  3. Chain of Command: number of authority levels

  4. Span of Control: number of workers reporting to a single supervisor

  5. Traditional organizations can be "tall" or "flat" based on these
• Tall structures may lead to workers feeling cut off from those above, becoming "top-heavy", and undermining employee empowerment and engagement
• Network Structure

  1. Alliance of several organizations for creating a product or serving a client

  2. Satellite organizations around a hub or core firm

  3. Core firm orchestrates the network process

  4. Advantages and disadvantages listed
• Advantages of hierarchical structures

  • May offer lower-level employees many different promotional opportunities throughout their careers
  • Usually adequate supervision
  • Flat organizational structure, short chain of command, wide span of control
• Disadvantages of hierarchical structures

  • Workers at the bottom levels may feel cut off from those above, may undermine employee empowerment and engagement
  • Can become "TOP heavy" with administrators and managers, because the ratio of line workers to supervisors is very low
  • Due to more layers, higher probability that managers will filter information that puts them in a bad light
• Disadvantages of flat organizational structures

  • Few promotional opportunities for workers
  • Supervision may be inadequate
• Advantages of flat organizational structures

  • Greater interaction between the top and bottom of the organization
• Functional structure


  Divides the organization into departments based on the functions or tasks performed
• Flat organizational structures are mostly applied to traditional organizations than non-traditional ones. For highly non-traditional organizations, they may have a very small chain of command or none at all
• Advantages of functional structure

  • Create job specialists
  • Eliminates duplication of function
  • Direct supervision is easier
• Divisional structure

  Employees are organized around geographical areas, outputs (products or services), or clients