ORGANIZING
Organizing
is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed. Organizing
is deciding how best to group organizational elements.
Organizing
can also be defined as a process of creating a system of authority
relationships and task responsibilities.
The process
of organizing (creating the organizational structure) involves following steps:-
1. Identifying the work:
Organizations
perform complex tasks that are beyond the scope of one man capacity to execute
and supervise. It becomes necessary to identify the several works, jobs, tasks
that are necessary in order to achieve the organizational goals. It helps in
concentrating on important activities, avoiding unnecessary duplication,
overlapping and wastage of efforts.
Job
specialization,
2. Grouping
the work:
in the process of identifying work, numerous
of activities are analyzed and found that some are closely related to each
other and needed to put together in order to get the work done smoothly. Also
some activities are separate in nature and needed to put separately to be done
efficiently.
Similar
activities are put together in forms of groups/departments. The basis of
grouping may be according to some convenience or goal accomplishing ability of
the grouping.
3.
Establishing reporting relationships between jobs :
After
grouping the tasks it is necessary to create relationship among these tasks,
because there is an interrelation and complementary relationship of these tasks
to achieve the organizational goal. So formal relationship between these tasks
is established
4.
Delegating authority and responsibility:
Once the
different tasks have been identified, someone should be given the
responsibility to perform them and also someone to supervise the same. In this
stage, managers are authorized to get the work done in their
departments/groups. They delegate the various tasks to their subordinates and
supervise the same.
5.
Coordinating activities among jobs:
After
different units/departments are created, the interdependence between these all
are established. Departments can coordinate with each other in three manners
Pooled
interdependence
represents the lowest level of interdependence. Units with pooled
interdependence operate with little interaction—the output of the units is
pooled at the organizational level.
In sequential
interdependence, the output of one unit becomes the input for another in a
sequential fashion. This creates a moderate level of interdependence. At
Nissan, for example, one plant assembles engines and then ships them to a final
assembly site at another plant, where the cars are completed.
Reciprocal interdependence exists when
activities flow both ways between units. This form is clearly the most complex
6.
Differentiating amongst positions: last step is creating difference between
line and staff positions. Line positions (or managers) are directly responsible for fulfillment of goals, staff
positions are in supporting and advising
role.
Span of control
Span of
control is number of people who directly report to a manager. In other words it
is the number of people, subordinates
who are directly supervised, controlled, instructed and guided by a superior
manager.
Span of
control is directly related to the closeness of supervision. Narrow span of
control , close supervision and wide span of control means lose supervision.
Span of
control is directly related to the number of levels in an organization. Narrower
the span of control, taller the organization and wider the span of control-
flatter the organization.
Factors affecting
span of control-
1. Nature of organization
2. Nature of work
3. Complexity of work
4. If the task requires machine paced,
well learned or easily monitored behavior , then the span of control is wider
5. The ability and personal quality of
manager including the capacity to cope with interruption.
6. Ability and training of staff
7. The amount of time manager has
available from other activities to spend with subordinates.
8. Effectiveness of communications and
control systems.
9. The physical location or spread of
subordinates
Little
discussion on span of control:
If the span
of control is too wide, it is difficult to a manager to supervise their
subordinates, and manager will be stressed. Wide span of control means larger
groups of subordinates so there will be possibility of informal grouping ,
cliques, and informal leaders in these groups that may operate contrary to the
policy and plans.
Too narrow
span of control results in tall organizations. Also this type of organizing is
more expensive because no of managers is increased. There also becomes problem
in communication flow because information must pass various layers.
The Delegation Process
Delegation is the establishment of a pattern of authority
between a superior and one or more subordinates. Specifically, delegation
is the process by which managers assign a portion of their total
workload to others.
Reasons for Delegation The primary reason for
delegation is to enable the manager to get more work done. Subordinates help
ease the manager’s burden by doing major portions of the organization’s work.
In some instances, a subordinate may have more expertise in addressing a
particular problem than the manager does. For example, the subordinate may have
had special training in developing information systems or may be more familiar
with a particular product line or geographic area. Delegation also helps
develop subordinates. By participating in decision making and problem solving,
subordinates learn about overall operations and improve their managerial skills.
Steps in delegation
Delegation process involves three steps. First, the manager
assigns responsibility or gives the subordinate a job to do. The assignment of
responsibility might range from telling a subordinate to prepare a report to
placing the person in charge of a task force. Along with the assignment, the
individual is also given the authority to do the job. The manager may give the
subordinate the power to requisition needed information from confidential files
or to direct a group of other workers. Finally, the manager establishes the
subordinate’s accountability—that is, the subordinate accepts an obligation to
carry out the task assigned by the manager. For instance, the CEO of AutoZone
will sign off for the company on financial performance only when the individual
manager responsible for each unit has certified his or her own results as being
accurate. The firm believes that this high level of accountability will help it
avoid the kind of accounting scandal that has hit many businesses in recent
times
Problems in delegation
Unfortunately, problems often arise in the delegation process.
For example, a manager may be reluctant to delegate. Some managers are so
disorganized that they are unable to plan work in advance and, as a result,
cannot delegate appropriately. Similarly, some managers may worry that
subordinates will do too well and pose a threat to their own advancement. And,
finally, managers may not trust the subordinate to do the job well. Similarly,
some subordinates are reluctant to accept delegation. They may be afraid that
failure will result in a reprimand. They may also perceive that there are no
rewards for accepting additional responsibility. Or they may simply prefer to
avoid risk and therefore want their boss to take all responsibility.
Departmentalization
The process of grouping jobs according to some
logical arrangement, like function(activity), product, customers, location etc.
Logic for departmentalization:
When organisations are small owner can supervise and guide
all the employees, but as the organization grows it becomes difficult for owner
manager to supervise personally. As a result new managerial positions are
created to supervise the work of employees. Employees are not assigned to
managers randomly, jobs are grouped according to some logic, plan and people
are assigned the work and managers are authorised to supervise them.
So the logic for departmentalization is it helps in
coordination and better supervision.
Types of departmentalization –
1. functional 2. Product 3. Customer 4. Geographical
Functional departmentalization:- is grouping of jobs
according to similarity of activities. This requires similar set of skills to
perform these activities
In order to produce some good or service there are four
essential functions that the organisation must perform.
1. The good or service must be developed (research and development
activity – R&D department)
2. Something of value must be created. (Production
activities)
3. The product and service must be sale and marketed. They must
be made available to those who are to use them (Marketing activity)
4. Finance is needed in order to make available resources used
in the development, creation, and distribution of the products (financing
activity)
Benefits of functional structure:
-
Best use of expert staff
-
Supervision is facilitated in that managers only
need to be familiar with a narrow set of skills
-
Coordination inside each department is easy
-
Shared use of expertise
Disadvantages of functional departmentaion :
-
Coordination between departments becomes
difficult
-
Slow and bureaucratic decision making
-
Competition between departments for resources
-
Narrow focus to departmental goals and lose
sight to organisational goals
-
Accountability and performance difficult to
monitor
-
Departments develop their homogeneous work
culture
Example of functional departmentalization :-
Britannia Industries, Bata India, Maruti Udyog, MOdi Xerox
follow this departmentalization
2. Product departmentalization:
Grouping of activities /roles/jobs around different
products. If a company is offering different products it may group the jobs
according to these products.
Different specialists come together into separate product
departments with collective responsibility for producing a product. Here in each
product department , specialists of production, finance, marketing , H.R take
joint responsibility . These product departments or organisational units are
autonomous from each other,
This form of grouping is used in diversified organizations. In
india Hindustan Uniliver, ITC Larsen&Toubro, Siemens, Thremax have been
using this model successfully.
Advantage of this departmentalization:
-
All activites related to one product can be
integrated and coordinated
-
Speed and effectiveness of decision making is
enhanced
-
Performance of individual products can be
assessed easily
Disadvantages of this departmentalisation –
-
Managers may focus on their product to the
exclusion of the rest of organisation
-
Administration cost may increase due to each
department having functional are experts
-
Divisions may become too autonomous
Pic : product departmentalisation
Customer departmentalisation
Grouping of jobs according to respond to and interact with
specific customer groups/segments.
Advantage : skilled specialists can deal with unique or
customers or customer groups
Disadvantage: Large administrative staffs is needed to
integrate activities of various departments.
