What is organisational structure concerned with?
The way in which work is divided up an allocated. It outlines the roles and responsibilities of individuals and groups within the organisation.
How many ways can an organisation be structured?
In several ways
What is an entrepreneurial business?
Typically a small business in the early stages of development
What are the advantages of entrepreneur?
Fast decision-making, more responsive to market, goal congruence, good control, close bond to workforce
What are the disadvantages of entrepreneur?
Lack of career structure, dependent on the capabilities of the manager/owner, cannot cope with diversion/growth
What is a functional/departmental structure?
Functional organisations group together employees that undertake similar tasks into departments
When is functional/department structure often found?
In organisations that have about growing the entrepreneurial structure
What is the usual layout of functional/departmental structure?
Board of directors then marketing department production department finance department personal department
Advantages of functional/departmental
Economies of scale, standardisation, specialist more comfortable, career opportunity
What are the disadvantages of functional/departmental?
Empire building, slow, conflict between functions, cannot cope with diversification
What is a divisional/product structure?
An organisation is split into several divisions, each one or anonymously overseen a product a separate divisions eg cars and motorbikes, a graphical section eg US and Europe or even by customer
What is each division likely to have individual and product structure?
To have a functional structure with all the departments it needs in order to operating a particular market segment
What is the shared service approach?
Involves restructuring the provision of certain services within the organisation so that the service is centralised into one specific part of the organisation eg having one finance for 7 Samsung business
What is divisions based on geographical areas?
A company may be split into different divisions based on graphical areas for example there may be division looks after Asian operations one that covers Europe and another for America
What is an advantage of divisional structure?
Enables growth, clear responsibility for products/divisions, training of general managers, easily adapted for further diversification, top management free to concentrate on strategic matters
What is the disadvantage of divisional structure?
Potential loss of control, lack of goal congruence, duplication, specialist may feel isolated, allocation of central costs can be a problem
What is a matrix structure?
A combination of the functional and divisional structures
What are the advantages of the matrix? Structure.
Advantages of both functional and divisional structures
Flexibility
Customer orientation
Encourages teamwork and the exchange of opinions and expertise
What is a disadvantage of the matrix structure?
Dual command and conflict
Dilution of functional authority
Time consuming meeting
Higher admin costs
What is a scaler chain?
The line of authority which can be traced up or down the chain of command from the most senior member of staff to the most junior. It relates to the number of levels of management within an organisation.
What’s a span of control?
A man span of control is the number of people for whom he she is directly responsible for
What are the factors that influence the span of control?
The nature of the work, the more repetitive or simple the work the wider the span of control can be
The type of personnel, the most skilled motivated the managers and the other staff are the way to the spawn control can be
The location of personnel , if personnel are located locally it takes relatively little time and effort to supervise them. This allows the panic control to become wider.
What is a tall organisation?
A tall organisation as many levels of management, a long scale chain and a narrow span of control
What is a flat organisation?
Has few levels of management, a short scalar chain in a wide span of control
