Samenvatting Organisation Theory
Organizational Structure (EBP670C05)
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
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CHAPTER 4- DIMENSIONS OF ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
COMPLEXITY
The degree of horizontal, vertical and spatial differentiation in an organisation - If complexity increases, so do the demands on management to ensure that differentiated and dispersed activities are working smoothly and together towards achieving the organisation’s goals. - The higher the complexity, the greater the amount of attention management must give to dealing with problems of communication, coordination and control, the maintenance of the organisation itself and organisational change.
Horizontal differentiation The degree to which an organisation is separated into different units on the basis of the tasks performed by organisational members, their education and training and their administrative groupings. - ‘Creating organisational silos’: creating specialised departments, they require specialised knowledge and skills. Separating departments making it more complex, harder to communicate and coordinate - Diversity -> different goals, different vocab, views etc - Job sepcialisation (division of labor) o Physical limitations o Limitations of knowledge o Efficiency (through repetition and focus on specific area) - Specialisation increases -> complexity increases (requires more sophisticated and expensive methods of coordination and control
Vertical differentiation The number of hierarchical levels between top management and operatives; sometimes referred to as layers of management - The more levels between top management and lower level workers: o Communication breakdown o More difficult to coordinate the decisions of management o More likely political and power plays will slow decision making and create administrative bottlenecks.
Span of control The number of subordinates that a manager can supervise effectively - The narrower the span of control, the taller the organisation (the more layers of management) - Top management o Setting the strategic direction of the organisation - Middle management o Implement the plans of the senior managers and supervise lower level managers o Provide input into the decisions made by top management o Information conduit for information flowing up and down the organisation - Lower level management o Day-to-day task of supervising the production of goods and services
Spatial dispersion The degree to which the location of an organisation’s facilities and personnel is dispersed geographically - Multinationals: high spatial dispersion o Difficult to control -> high complexity
FORMALISATION
The degree to which jobs and procedures within the organisation are standardised. As a measure of standardisation of work. External formalisation: Acquired external to the organisation (experience, study) - High formalisation: o Minimimum amount of discretion
o Employees are expected to undertake tasks in exactly the same way -> consistent and uniform output
- Degree of formalisation differs o High: unskilled jobs, accountant (to bill the clients) o Low: great professionalisation of a job
- Why important o Reduces variability (everywhere the same) o Allows all members of the organisation to anticipate how others will act in certain situations o The higher the formalisation, the less discretion is required from the job incumbent (manager) so their price is low o To manage risks
Formalisation techniques - Rules Explicit statements that tell an employee what he or she ought or ought not to do - Procedures Specific standardised sequences of steps that result in a uniform output - Policies Statements that guide employees, providing discretion within limited boundaries. Guidelines created by judgemental terms (best) - Socialisation An adaption process by which individuals learn the values, norms and expected behaviour patterns for the job and the organisation of which they will be a part. o Socialisation into the organisation through process of observation and interaction with existing members o Socialisation into the standards of their profession before they join an organisation - Training To reduce variability in the behaviour of organisational members - Rituals Processes by which members prove their trustworthiness and loyalty to the organisation (norms and values) by participating in various behaviours in which predetermined responses are expected. Often communal group activities
CENTRALISATION
The degree to which decision making is concentrated in a single point in the organisation, usually top management - Only concerned with the formal structure - Looks at decision discretion. Where are the decisions delegated downwards - Can refer to an individual, unit or level, but it implies concentration at a high level - Information processing system may closely monitor decentralised decisions - Information goes up and down and gets filtered. Therefore the final decisions are presumably less concentrated, controlled and well informed. Decentralisation: The dispersion or transfer of decision making (after the manager has reached the limit of the amount of information he can process effectively. - Facilitates speedy action (no need to process the information through the vertical hierarchy) - Can provide more detailed input into the decision - The more one specialised group can influence the decision - Motivation of employees. They can participate in making decisions - Creates training for lower-level managers. They can make decisions where the impact is less critical
- Major decisions are often centralised. Same goes for financial and legal decisions
COORDINATION
The process of integrating the objectives and activities of the separate units of an organisation in order to achieve organisational goals efficiently - Programmed coordination o E. Bureaucracy
A structure characterised by a set of self-contained, autonomous units coordinated by a central headquarters - Middle management in control, essentially autonomous units operating Professional bureaucracy A structural form that has highly skilled professionals, high complexity, decentralisation and the use of internalised professional standards in place of external formalisation - Operating core dominant, decisions are decentralised Adhocracy An organisational form characterised by high horizontal differentiation, low vertical differentiation, low formalisation intensive coordination and great flexibility and responsiveness - Support staff dominates, control will be via mutual adjustment
Characteristic Simple structure Machine Bureaucracy
Professional Bureaucracy
Divisional Structure
Adhocracy
Specialisation Low High functional High social High functional High social Formalisation Low High Low High within divisions
Low
Centralisation High High Low Limited decentralisation
Low
Environment Simple and dynamic
Simple and stable Complex and stable
Simple and stable Complex and dynamic General structural classification
Organic Mechanistic Mechanistic Mechanistic Organic
Samenvatting Organisation Theory
Vak: Organizational Structure (EBP670C05)
Universiteit: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
