Management Structure and Organizational Behaviour

Introduction

Organizational behaviour refers to the study of an organization, human behavior in that organizational setting and the interaction between these two. Within every organization exists formal and informal framework of policies and rules, lines of authority and communication and allocation of responsibilities. All of these factors, combined, known as the organizational structure. (Wilson 2004, p.159)

The organizational structure determines that how the parts of an organization fit together. It is the basic need of every organization in order to coordinate its employees’ actions, and achieve organizational goals. Every organization creates such a structure for itself in which employees can get more done when they work together than they could when working separately. For example, if two or three females start stitching clothes on a commercial basis, they might not need an organizational as they can make whatever they want and it will be unique. However, if they want to make a significant profit then they have to order material in bulk, fill large quantity orders from clothing stores and put out a catalog. For any these activities this small organization needs a structure otherwise this group would never know how much material to buy, how many people to hire, or whether they could to meet overall demand. (Elwell )

Basics of Organizational Structure

Organizational structure is a system of authority, reporting and task relationships that characterize the form and purpose of activities in any organization.

There are two basic functions of every organizational structure:

• The first one is effective distribution of tasks and labor.
• The second one is the creating coordination between different tasks in order to attain the preferred output. (Wilson 2004, p.91)

This concept was used by Henry Ford in early twentieth century. He applied this concept in an assembly line where all the workforce of Ford was given some particular task, which was recurring. Ford was able to manufacture cars at the speed of one after every ten seconds using comparatively less experienced staff by means of converting large jobs into small and identical errands. The term work specialization is used to explain the extent to which organizational tasks are alienated into similar, small jobs. The fundamental nature of work specialization explains that a single person must not carry out the complete work rather it is divided into steps, and every step is completed by a separate person. Individual employees focus on working on a division of an activity more willingly than working on the complete activity. (Mullins 2007, p.102)

Mechanistic types of organizational structures have a tendency to work effectively by following rules, regulations, uniform responsibilities, and related controls. This organizational design makes an effort to curtail the blow of conflicting behaviors, verdicts, and indistinctness for the reason that such human qualities are perceived as unproductive and incoherent. More or less each and every great firm and governmental organizations include no less than a few of these mechanistic characteristics even if no unadulterated type of a mechanistic organization subsists in actuality. Structure of the mechanistic organization is firm as well as unwavering. The organic organization is agile and is capable of modifying speedily whenever required by the situation. Even though organic organizations encompass division of labor, still the work that employees carry out is not consistent. Staff is well qualified plus authorized to manage diverse work behaviors along with troubles. Employees working in organic type organizations need least official set of laws and negligible direct control. They possess excellent levels of expertise along with training moreover the help offered by other team members create formalization plus rigid executive controls needless. (Wilson 2004, p.91)

Elements of Organizational Structure

• Departmentalization
• Span of Control
• Formalization
• Centralization

Departmentalization is way by which an organization combines divided tasks and allocates these tasks to the work groups. Span of control refers to the number of employees reporting to a manager. Formalization is the level to which rules and procedures dictate the jobs and activities of employees. Centralization is an aspect of organizational structure in which almost all the important decisions made at the top level. (Mullins 2007, p.51)

Common Organizational Structures

• Simple Structure: A structure distinguished by a small amount of departmentalization, broad spans of control, power centralized into a particular individual, along with the modest formalization.