Operation, Technology, and Management Plan (with Financials)

Management and Organization Flow Charts Page 242

Management Structure and Style

How will you actually run your company? How will decisions be made? What are the lines of authority? How do you want employees to feel about the company? What voice do employees have when company policies and goals are set?

A company’s organization and management style act as powerful invisible forces shaping both the daily working atmosphere and the future of the company. But all too often managers, especially new managers, pay only cursory attention to the development of their structure and style. In looking at your company’s structure, examine both the formal lines of authority that exist and the informal ways in which decisions are made and employees are treated.

Lines of Authority

When examining their organization, managers usually begin with the formal structure — the official lines of authority. They decide how employees will be supervised and how job functions will be allocated. While clear lines of authority are vital in large organizations, they are equally important in small companies. A frequent source of tension in partnerships is the failure to plainly delineate areas of responsibility and decision-making.

Increasingly, companies use “horizontal” management structures rather than strict hierarchical, “top-down” lines of authority. In such organizations, employees have greater authority for decision-making in their own areas of responsibility. This enables those closest to the customer or to the production process to make decisions quickly and respond to change faster than in more centrally controlled organizations.

“Building a sense of the ‘team’ must be planned and orchestrated. You must continually note that the team is all-important. The only bottom line, the only true satisfaction, is when the team does well. Team-building is an ongoing process. In your training, use every conceivable example from other fields to bring home the importance of the concept of the team. Look to develop an atmosphere where players expect and demand a lot of each other, where they feel that individually they are an extension of their teammates. This doesn’t just happen, it must be planned.”

Bill Walsh

Former Coach and President

San Francisco 49ers

See attached picture