Small Business Organization’s Structure

Chart Description

The chart used for the paper is a reconstruction of the organizational structure of a small business involved in the production of customizable goods. The company distributes its products online. As can be seen from the chart, the organization utilizes the vertical organizational structure. At the top of the organizational hierarchy is the company’s CEO, who is responsible for the firm’s overall success and ensures the consistency between the planned direction and the actual performance. The CEO in the organization in question has the authority to make decisions on a strategic level. An administrative assistant provides necessary assistance to the CEO, mostly in the domains of documentation. An administrative assistant in the company in question also serves as a representative of the CEO in the cases where it is necessary to communicate certain information to the staff (Reitzig & Maciejovsky, 2015). Since the assistant works mostly with the CEO, the position has the only horizontal link in the chart.

The production department is responsible for manufacturing the products by the customers’ instructions. The company does not own facilities, and the manufacturers operate in several workshops in different locations. The instructions are initially processed by the customer service department, responsible for receiving feedback and handling quality complaints. These are the only two departments that operate in coordination due to the high volume of tasks and information processed daily. Also, the company’s product is highly customizable, which introduces additional complexity to the production process and necessitates the existence of reliable communication channels between the customers and the production team (Yinan, Tang, & Zhang, 2014). The main bulk of communication is done remotely.

The remaining departments operate independently of one another and communicate either with their manager or, in rare cases, the CEO. These departments include delivery and logistics, IT and web design, human resource management, and marketing. Except for the marketing department, whose tasks include the promotion of the company’s products on the Internet, these departments are comprised of no more than four employees. The likely cause of such a policy is the current scale of the firm.