7. Organising nad management

• • Organisational Structure: levels of management and division of responsibilities within a company.
• • Organizational Charts: refers to diagrams that outline the internal management structure.
• • Hierarchy refers to the levels of management in any organisation.
• • Levels of Hierarchy: refers to management/supervisors/other employees who are given a similar level of responsibility in an organisation.
• every individual can see their position, see what they are accountable for, which they have authority over, and who to take orders from.
• Chain of Command: The structure in an organisation allows instructions to be passed down from senior management to subordinates.
• • The Span of Control: The number of subordinates working directly under a manager.
• • Subordinate: an employee below another employee in the organization’s hierarchy.
• • Subordinate: an employee below another employee in the organisation’s hierarchy.
• • Tall Structure: the longer the chain of command is, the ‘taller‘ the organisational structure and the ‘narrower‘ the span of control.
• Flat Structure: when a chain of command is short, the organisation will have a ‘wider’ span of control, thus making it a ‘flat‘ structure.
• • Advantages of Short Chain of Command:
  • Communication and decision-making are quicker.
  • The span of control will be wider, encouraging managers to delegate more and allowing workers to feel trusted.
• • Advantages of a long chain of command:
  • As decisions get passed down, it is checked by multiple people, thus reducing error and preventing bad decisions from happening
  • Lesser subordinates means management can focus more on their designated workers.
• • Factors affecting the size of the span of control:
  • Difficulty of the task
  • The experience and skill of workers
  • The size of the business
  • the level of hierarchy
  • Management style
• director lead a particular department
• line manager responsible for people below them
• supervisors control over employees below them
• staff managers provide support, information to line manager
• • Delayering: reducing the size of the hierarchy by removing one or more levels, often the middle management.
• Advantages of delayering

  • Reduces cost
  • Communication and decision-making are quicker due to reduced chain of command.
• Disadvantages of delayering

  • Reduction in job security
  • Have to make redundancy payments to employees who lost their job
• • Delegation: Giving a subordinate the authority to perform particular tasks.
• Delegation Advantages

  • managers are less likely to make mistake
  • makes work more interesting
  • increase job satisfaction
• Delegation Disadvantages

  • Some managers are reluctant to delegate, as they will be held accountable for any errors
  • Managers lose some control over subordinates
• • Centralised Organisation: one where all the important decision-making power is held at the head office/the centre and then passed down to lower levels.
• Centralised Organisation Advantages

  • Decision-making is often quicker
  • Decisions are taken for the benefit of the whole business
• • Centralised Organisation Disadvantages
  • May reduce motivation
  • Slower communication
• • Decentralised Organisation - A business structure where decisions are made at a lower level than the top management
• Decentralised Organisation Advantages

  • Decisions are made based on local needs.
  • Delegation helps improve worker motivation.
• Decentralised Organisation Disadvantages

  • Poor decisions might be made often due to lack of experience and skills
• • The functions of managers include:
  • Planning set clear objectives and an action plan.
  • Organising – decide the best way of completing tasks at lowest cost
  • Communicating - aim to motivate workers to achieve the objectives.
  • Coordinating - Make sure that all parts of the business are working together
  • Controlling – checking to make sure that the plan is working
• good manager should:

  • give guidance
  • inspire employees to achieve goal
  • motivate
  • increase profitability
  • keep cost under control
• Leadership styles are the approaches to dealing with people and making decision

  • autocratic
  • democratic
  • laissez-faire
• Autocratic Leadership: where the manager expects to be in charge of the business

  • does all the decision-making
  • Don’t take input from others.
  • Highly structured working environment

  
• Autocratic Leadership:

  Advantages:

  • Quick decision-making process
  • Disadvantages:
  • There is no opportunity for employee input into key decisions, which can be demotivating
• Autocratic Leadership:

  • Pro:
  • Quick decision-making process
  • Con:
  • There is no opportunity for employee input into key decisions, which can be demotivating
• Laissez-Faire Leadership: managers allow their staff to get on with their work without much interference or direction.

  • Workers and employees are expected to make the decisions.
  • The leader will only give guidance.
  • The leader only takes charge when necessary.

  
• Laissez-Faire Leadership:

  • Advantages
  • Encourage employees to show creativity and responsibility
  • Disadvantages
  • It is unlikely appropriate in organizations with a consistent and clear decision-making structure.
• Democratic Leadership: gets other employees involved in the decision-making.

  • Motivation is higher
  • Creativity and engagement with workers are encouraged.
  • Workers and employees are involved in decision-making.
• Democratic Leadership:

  • Advantages
  • Better Decisions could result from consulting with employees using their ideas and experiences.
  • Disadvantages
  • Unpopular decisions could not effectively be made using this style