Departmentalizing Jobs Into Different Functions example essay topic

Without a proper organisational structure it is unlikely that an organisation will achieve its goal. Discuss Any organisation consists of four functions through which an organisation attains its goal. These functions are planning, organising, leading and controlling and they are all equally important in achieving the organisation's goals. Organisation structure forms part of the organising function of management. Organising refers to arranging and allocating work and resources among the organisational members so that the plans may be carried out successfully. Hence, there is a setting up of the organisational structure whereby work is allocated, lines of authority and responsibility defined and a system of rules and regulations which guide the conduct of the employees laid down.

We are therefore going to see to what extent a proper organisational structure has a crucial role to play in attaining the goal of an organisation. According to Stoner 1995, organisational structure is the way through which an organisation's activities are divided, organised and coordinated. It is seen as the backbone of a company which caters for smooth running of activities and work distribution with a view to achieve its goals. The first element of designing the organising structure is to identify every single task that the organisation needs to perform. Then allocate those tasks to individuals or groups.

Afterwards, combine the tasks and group employees in a logical and strategic way and finally, set up mechanisms to facilitate coordination both vertically and horizontally. We can therefore find out that the organisational structure does have an important role in helping the company achieve its aim. To better understand the organisational structure, we have divided it into four parts namely job design, departmentalisation, vertical coordination and horizontal coordination. Under each section we will find out to what extent they are important in attaining the company's goal. Job Design The process of job design is used in order to achieve organizational goal.

Job design is defined as the tasks and activities related to a specific job that must be clearly defined. The major approaches to job design are job simplification, job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. Job simplification is based on the concept of division of work where tasks given to the employees can be learned and completed relatively quickly. This leads to the enhancement of production efficiencies as employees become expert in their particular job by doing it repetitively. However, some difficulties arise in the way that work becomes boring since there is a repetition of task, such type of job needs very little skilled workers, it is prone to more absenteeism and finally there is too much of interdependence leads to less turnover Job rotation on the other hand is defined as shift of workers through a set of job through a planning system.

Such approach is mainly used to alleviate boredom. The main advantages associated with it are that it helps the individual to know better the various aspects of organization and leads them to develop more skills, being more capable and flexible. However, the problems arising from job rotation are that it is time consuming to adapt in a particular job, there are no department loyalty and sense of responsibilities, employees are overloaded with work and there is uncertainty and frustration due to instability of work Job enlargement is the combination of various operations at a similar level into one job. In this, workers are more motivated to work as they get challenging responsibilities in different departments. As a result it alleviates boredom by increasing job scope. But there are some problems with job enlargement which are lack of interest in the job as employees change job from time to time, it is very costly and time consuming, workers lack skills and there is the problem of adaptability to different tasks and finally the job might not necessarily be challenging.

Job enrichment is a situation where job is designed is such a way that workers have to perform several activities from a vertical cross section into one job leading to more autonomy and responsibilities. It is meant to empower subordinates with a view to enhance self-satisfaction. The workers are allowed a degree of freedom to work at their own pace, do their planning and to devise their own way of improving and controlling their job. The difficulties arising are loss of time as employees take all their time to finish their work, too much of responsibilities may discourage workers to work especially if there is no recognition and rewards, there may be difficulties to control the work and they may require changes in layout, technology, training and compensation. Another approach to job design for increasing job satisfaction and motivation is to other different options concerning work schedules. The common options are flexitime, compressed work-week and job sharing.

Flexitime is a system where workers can decide their working schedules according to their personal needs provided that they fulfil the specified core of working hours. This in turn leads to less absenteeism and a decrease in lateness as workers can avoid traffic jams. But on the other hand, it would be quite difficult to control the staff and to coordinate people. Furthermore, at time, it may be very difficult to obtain key person when required. It can be done mainly on an individual basis. Compressed work-week is another type of scheduling where employees are allowed to work longer hours and when their quota of hours are completed they are allowed time off.

This leads to greater job satisfaction. However employees are more prone to accidents due to fatigue. Job sharing on the other hand is a work practice on a shift basis. It allows workers to arrange working time among them. As a result, it ensures the coordination of the activities of part-time workers in the organization.

DEPARTMENTALISATION Departmentalisation is the grouping of employees and tasks into areas of work and activities that are similar and logically connected. There are two major ways of departmenatlising namely by function and by product Functional structure is the grouping of people having similar working skills and expertise and who are engaged in the same activities. There is a well defined hierarchy with a scalar chain of authority and each of the departments is a specialized area comprising specific set of activities. An enterprise may be subdivided into production, marketing, research and development, personnel, finance, legal and professional, information technology and industrial relations. Departmentalizing jobs into different functions make managers have a limited responsibility over the works that need to be done, hence a restricted range of skills and they became specialized in their jobs by focusing on a particular department There is better coordination since every manager is responsible for a particular department; there is both authority and delegation. Top managers delegate works to middle managers and the latter delegates to first line managers.

They are all then accountable to their respective superiors to see whether the organization is meetings its aims. Within the formal structure of the organization, the one to whom authority is delegated becomes responsible to the superior for doing the job. However in such types of organizations, decision making process is very slow since there is a need for vertical and horizontal communication at all times to be able to solve problems. Moreover of the specialized skills that managers have, they cannot take over other functions as they possess only a limited school of thoughts. As a result this can cause inter departmental conflicts since through specialization we create differences between departments. These differences will be more visible when discrepancies and failures arise.

In other words it will be very difficult to trace the real causes of failures in the organization since department will blame each other and none will be willing to accept that they are the real cause. On the other hand divisional structure groups similar products, services or markets thus creating departments which look like small separate business within the organization itself. are commonly called divisions which are categorized as product divisions, geographic divisions and customer divisions. This type of organizational structure is applied in companies which produces different types of product and services, have different geographical areas and also have to deal with different types of customers. As a result decision making is easier since there is no specialisation by function. So the person in charge can take the decision himself. As a performance appraisal will be more precise since the departments concentrate on a limited range of products.

Moreover the managerial skills are not limited as they have the opportunity to acquire general management competence since they are engaged in different functions. Despite its advantages, the divisional structure makes duplication of resources since each division need to be self sufficient to achieve its aims. So this incurs other costs which may go against the aims of the organization that is to increase profits. Moreover managers focus only on their division. They may not consider the objectives of the organization as a whole. Since they have to do all the works in the department, they may not have the necessary technical skills and expertise in the different fields.

As a result they may make wrongs decisions which will be detrimental to the company's image. So to ensure a good fit with the organisation's aims and objectives, many organizations include some features associated with functional structure to divisional structure. This type of organization is known as hybrid strategy. VERTICAL CO-ORDINATION Vertical co-ordination is the flow of information related to the activities in an organisation from top to bottom in the managerial hierarchy. There are different ways of carrying out vertical co-ordination which are as follows: o Line and staff authority o Delegation o Centralisation versus decentralisation o Formalization o Span of management Line and staff authority Authority exercised by managers over their subordinates in order to ensure that organisational goals are met is known as line authority. Thus managers directly responsible for achieving organisational objectives are known as line managers (production and sales managers) and those mangers who advise and service line managers are known as staff managers (personnel manager).

Delegation The process by which an individual manager or supervisor transfers part of his legitimate authority to a subordinate is known as delegation. But under this condition, the manager should bear in mind that the ultimate responsibility which has been entrusted to him by his own superior should not be passed on. Centralisation versus decentralisation The extent to which power and authority are retained at he top organisational levels is known as centralisation. In other words, organisations are centralised HORIZONTAL CO-ORDINATION Horizontal co-ordination is the connection of activities through flow of information across departments of the same levels. Due to increasing competition, an organisation must have adequate methods of conveying information to all departments so that they may be aware of the happenings within the organization and work together to achieve the company's goal. It is through slack resources, information systems and lateral relations that the information is exchanged in horizontal co-ordination.

Slack resources refer to extra resources that help to relieve both external and internal pressures and contribute to innovation. An example can be a mobile phone. Extra equipment or manpower therefore will help reducing tension as it allows a smoother co-ordination of activities. As far as information systems is concerned, we find out that nowadays computerized information has become the sine qua non for organizational success since information are being exchanged at very high speed.

One example can be the use of email. Hence, the entire organization can be connected via a local area network for rapid information transfer. Hence, computers are an effective means to transfer information. Lateral relations on the other hand, is the co-ordination of efforts through communicating and problem soling with peers in other departments or units instead of seeking help from higher levels of the organizational hierarchy. This can be done through interaction that is individuals of different departments can interact among themselves and find solutions. Or on the other hand, there can be a liaison role that is someone who is employed to facilitate communication between different departments to ensure that the respective needs are met.

His role is to maintain a good internal customer-supplier relationship. Moreover, lateral relations are also in the form of a taskforce whereby people from different units are appointed to work together and share ideas with a view to provide recommendations on important issues and try to recommend them.