INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT (ORGANIZING)

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT

(ORGANIZING)

Organizing is the function of management that involves developing an organizational structure and allocating human resources to ensure the accomplishment of objectives. The structure of the organization is the framework within which effort is coordinated. The structure is usually represented by an organization chart, which provides a graphic representation of the chain of command within an organization. Decisions made about the structure of an organization are generally referred to as "organizational design" decisions.

Organizing also involves the design of individual jobs within the organization. Decisions must be made about the duties and responsibilities of individual jobs as well as the manner in which the duties should be carried out. Decisions made about the nature of jobs within the organization are generally called "job design" decisions.

Organizing at the level of the organization involves deciding how best to departmentalize, or cluster jobs into departments to effectively coordinate effort. There are many different ways to departmentalize, including organizing by function, product, geography, or customer. Many larger organizations utilize multiple methods of departmentalization. Organizing at the level of job involves how best to design individual jobs to most effectively use human resources.

Traditionally, job design was based on principles of division of labor and specialization, which assumed that the more narrow the job content, the more proficient the individual performing the job could become. However, experience has shown that it is possible for jobs to become too narrow and specialized. When this happens, negative outcomes result, including decreased job satisfaction and organizational commitment and increased absenteeism and turnover.

Recently many organizations have attempted to strike a balance between the need for worker specialization and the need for workers to have jobs that entail variety and autonomy. Many jobs are now designed based on such principles as job enrichment and teamwork.

The Nature of Organizing

Once a plan has been created, a manager can begin to organize. Organizing involves assigning tasks, grouping tasks into departments, delegating authority, and allocating resources across the organization. During the organizing process, managers coordinate employees, resources, policies, and procedures to facilitate the goals identified in the plan. Organizing is highly complex and often involves a systematic review of human resources, finances, and priorities.

Before a plan can be implemented, managers must organize the assets of the business to execute the plan efficiently and effectively. Understanding specialization and the division of work is key to this effort, since many of the “assets” are employees. 

Recall what Henri Fayol wrote about the division of work:
The specialization of the workforce according to the skills of a person, creating specific personal and professional development within the labour force and therefore increasing productivity, leads to specialization which increases the efficiency of labour. By separating a small part of work, the workers speed and accuracy in its performance increases. This principle is applicable to both technical as well as managerial work.

Where workers are specialists, managers can group those employees into departments so their work is appropriately directed and coordinated. In short, work should be divided, and the right people should be given the right jobs to reduce redundancy and inefficiency.

Organizing Function of Management

Organizing is the function of management which follows planning. It is a function in which the synchronization and combination of human, physical and financial resources takes place. All the three resources are important to get results. Therefore, organizational function helps in achievement of results which in fact is important for the functioning of a concern. According to Chester Barnard, “Organizing is a function by which the concern is able to define the role positions, the jobs related and the co-ordination between authority and responsibility. Hence, a manager always has to organize in order to get results.

A manager performs organizing function with the help of following steps:-

1-Identification of activities - All the activities which have to be performed in a concern have to be identified first. For example, preparation of accounts, making sales, record keeping, quality control, inventory control, etc. All these activities have to be grouped and classified into units.

2-Departmentally organizing the activities - In this step, the manager tries to combine and group similar and related activities into units or departments. This organization of dividing the whole concern into independent units and departments is called departmentation.

3-Classifying the authority - Once the departments are made, the manager likes to classify the powers and its extent to the managers. This activity of giving a rank in order to the managerial positions is called hierarchy. The top management is into formulation of policies, the middle level management into departmental supervision and lower level management into supervision of foremen. The clarification of authority help in bringing efficiency in the running of a concern. This helps in achieving efficiency in the running of a concern. This helps in avoiding wastage of time, money, effort, in avoidance of duplication or overlapping of efforts and this helps in bringing smoothness in a concern’s working.

4-Co-ordination between authority and responsibility - Relationships are established among various groups to enable smooth interaction toward the achievment of the organizational goal. Each individual is made aware of his authority and he/she knows whom they have to take orders from and to whom they are accountable and to whom they have to report. A clear organizational structure is drawn and all the employees are made aware of it.

Functional Organization Structure

Under a functional organization structure, people who do similar tasks are grouped together based on specialty. So all the accountants are placed in the finance department and so on for the marketing, operations, senior management and human resources departments.

The advantages of this kind of structure include quick decision making, because the group members can easily communicate. They can also learn from each other, since they already possess similar skill sets and interests.

Divisional Structure Based on Products

In a divisional structure, your company groups workers into teams based on the products or projects that meet the needs of a certain type of customer. For example, a bakery with a catering operation might structure the workforce based on key clientele, such as a wedding department and a wholesale-retail department. The division of labor in this kind of structure ensures workers making similar products can achieve greater efficiency and higher output.

Matrix Structure Combines Functional and Divisional Models

A matrix structure combines elements of the functional and divisional models, so it’s more complex. It groups people into functional departments of specialization, then further separates them into divisional projects and products.

In a matrix structure the team members are given more autonomy and expected to take on more responsibility for their work. This increases the productivity of the team, fosters greater innovation and creativity, and allows managers to cooperatively solve decision-making problems through group interaction. This type of organizational structure takes lots of planning and effort, making it appropriate for large companies that have the resources to devote to managing a complex business framework.

Flat Organizational Structure

A flat organizational structure attempts to disrupt the traditional top-down management system of most companies. Management is decentralized so there is no everyday “boss.” Each employee is the boss of themselves, eliminating bureaucracy and red tape and improving direct communication.

For example, an employee who has an idea doesn’t have to wade through three levels of upper managers to get the idea to the key person making the decision. The employee simply communicates directly with the target on a peer-based level.

A company adopting this type of structure for everyday purposes typically establishes a special top-down management system for temporary projects or events.