Organization Design
The structure of an organization should facilitate the organization’s goal achievement. Goals are an important part of an organization’s strategies, therefore it is only logical if both strategy and structure are closely linked together. Research has shown that certain structural designs work best with different organizational strategies.
There is a decent amount of evidence that an organization’s size affects its structure. Large organizations with an immense amount of employees tend to have more specialization, compartmentalization, centralization, and rules and regulations than do small organizations.
Organizations will use technology in any way to convert its inputs to outputs. The initial research on technology’s effect on the structure was conducted by Joan Woodward and she divided the firms into three distinct technologies based on their levels of complexity and sophistication. The first category is unit production which is a production in small batches. The second category is mass production which is a production in large batches. Lastly, the third category is process production which is a continuous-process production. In general, the more routine an organization uses technology the more mechanistic its structure will be. Whereas, the organization which uses technology non routinely they are more likely to have an organic structure.
Some organizations face a stable and simple environment with little uncertainty, others may face lots of uncertainties. By adjusting the organization’s structure they will minimize environmental uncertainty. Managers are restructuring their organizations to be lean, fast, and flexible.
When designing a structure, managers may choose one of the traditional organizational designs. The structures are more mechanistic in nature. The structures include, simple structure is an organization that is flexible, inexpensive, and with clear accountability. A functional structure is an organization that is an advantage in cost-saving from specialization. A divisional structure is an organization that focuses on results in which managers are responsible for what happens with the products and services.
A team structure is one in which the organization is made up of work teams that do the organization’s work. The matrix structure assigns specialists from different functional departments to work on projects led by the project manager(s). Many organizations use a project structure in which employees continuously will work on projects. Unlike a matrix structure in which there are no formal departments.
The boundaryless organization is an organization whose design is not defined by or limited to, the horizontal, vertical, or external boundaries imposed by a predefined structure. Although the idea of eliminating boundaries may be odd, many of the most successful organizations find that they can operate most effectively by being flexible and unstructured. A virtual organization usually consists of a small core of full-time employees and outside specialists temporarily hired as needed to work on projects. The biggest challenge in a virtual organization will be creating a “virtual” culture, a task made more challenging by the fact that the organization is virtual. Another option organization may use is a task force, which is a temporary committee or team formed to tackle a specific short-term problem affecting several departments. Today, many companies are trying open innovation, which is opening up the search for new ideas beyond the organization’s boundaries and allowing innovations to easily transfer inward and outward.
Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees work at home and are linked to their workplace by a computer. Which are considered lucky to have a chance to work for home. But in these times where COVID-19 became a pandemic, telecommuting is used more frequently for the safety of the employees.
There are ways to use flexible work options. One approach is a compressed workweek, where employees work longer hours but fewer workdays and this results in a reduction in energy used and they also saved money. Another alternative is also flextime which employees are required to work in a specific amount of hours a week but they are free to determine the vary of those hours. There is also another type which is called job-sharing which is the practice of having two or more people split a full-time job. Many companies used job sharing during the economic downturn to avoid employee layoffs.
In the world, there are many organizations that are coping with labor shortages and peak work demands by temporary employees. There are also people who do not expect their jobs to last or who reported that their jobs are temporary which is called contingent workers.
My opinion on this is that organizations should choose which strategies and structure will work for them and which work ethic they want for their employees in order to achieve their goal in the best way possible.
Work Cited:
Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. K. (2015). Management, Global Edition. Pearson.