Imagine that you are a crime analyst. You will be creating a geographic crime map that spans three years of crime data.
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OrganizationalStructure.edited.docxRunning head: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 1
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE 6
Organizational Structure
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Organizational Structure
A. Describe an organizational structure you would select for the business in the scenario by doing the following:
1. Describe the main features of an organizational structure that would meet the needs of the business in the scenario and why it is classified as one of the following:
• functional
• divisional
• matrix
• teams
For a consulting business to be efficient in its services, it has to ensure that it applies the right organizational techniques. Organizations whose organizational structure is made up of people grouped based on their skills and their role would require a functional Organizational Structure. A functional organizational structure is made up of functional units referred to as departments in most cases. These departments are made up of a group of people with similar skills, roles and are, in most cases, assigned common goals. Members belonging to the same functional unit are expected to work collaboratively (Martin, 2019). Role tasks and goals, in most cases, keep on recurring with every information and human resource expected to compl8with every measure and rules formulated for the unit.
2. Explain the rationale for your choice of organizational structure from part A1, based on the following four factors that influence organizational structure design:
• functions or departments
• chain of command
• centralized or decentralized
• level of formality
Therefore, the business consulting firm will apply the functional organizational structure to provide its services to potential business clients. The choice of using this form of organizational structure is not only because most businesses around seem to be applying it but also because it is a structure that promotes efficiency and productivity within a firm through departmentalization. The chains of commands are well defined as the authority and responsibilities are clearly stated, defining who should give order and what each employee within its function unit or department. Authority is also decentralized, which in most cases, creates some form of liberality within a firm. The division of power gives more power to employees through their managers, promoting democracy. It also lowers formality, and tension is neutralized as people working within a unit can build a healthy working relationship that makes the working environment much accommodative.
B. Explain how the choice of organizational structure in part A1 can be supported by one of the following organizational theories:
• scientific management
• bureaucratic
• administrative
• neoclassical
• modern
• contingency/situational
Henri Fayols's administrative theory would be the best theory to apply in the functional organizational structure's conceptualization. Hatchuel (2019) defines administrative theory as a departmentalization concept that brings in various resources and activities to aid in achieving a common goal. The administrative theory emphasizes more on how the management is structured. This is because organizational management is what determines the behavioral and human aspects within an organization. Henri Fayol, the author of the theory, argues that if the management is well structured, the individuals therein can easily comply with the structure and practices. To build a great functional unit is important to have an efficient team of managers and supervisors who run them; this means that more than having a department, good departmental heads should run those departments.
Through administrative theory, departments or functional units can be divided into managerial, financial, technical, security, accounting, and accounting. Principles of the administrative theory cannot be applied in the conceptualization of the structure. One of the principles is the division of work. Work should be divided based on the specialization of each functional unit. The other principle is authority and responsibility. There should be an exact assignment of authority and responsibility. This means that the unit should be aware of who gives who orders and who is accountable for who. Responsibilities should be set within the unit to ensure that everyone knows the capping of what they can do and what they can do and what they can assign to the others. Another important principle is the subordination of individuals to the general interest. The interests of a unit should supersede the interests of an individual within the units (Ferdous, 2016).
C. Describe how organizational structure can impact the effectiveness of the business in the scenario by doing the following:
1. Describe how the organizational structure chosen in part A1 can impact the business's effectiveness in the scenario, using the goal-attainment approach to measuring organizational effectiveness.
Hatch (2018) defines organizational effectiveness as the degree at which an organization can meet its short term and long term goals within the deadlines set. To study the effectiveness of an organization, the goal attainment approach is what is mostly used. For an organization that uses functional organizational structure, the attainment of goals is based mostly on developments or units. The goal attainment approach assumes that every unit within the organization has it's set goals and deadlines, well-defined measures to measure achievement of these goals, and proper managerial goals set to promote efficiency.
In this case, the goal that should be upheld by the management is to increase profitability and brand reputation. This means that the goal attainment approach should be used the measure whether the organization was able to achieve it's set the level of profitability and growth of its brand reputation. The roadmap should be clearly stated to ensure that each department can understand the role they have to play to achieve the goal. This could be done through short term or long goals. Each goal should be assigned to the right functional unit, and a time frame issued to them. Once this is done, then the goal attainment approach should be used to measure whether each department was able to achieve the goal set within the time set.
2. Explain the advantages or disadvantages of using an organizational structure from the list in part A1 that is different from the structure already chosen for the business, using the goal-attainment approach to measuring organizational effectiveness.
The advantage and disadvantage of using the matrix organizational structure base through the goal attainment approach are that it makes employees accountable to more than one boss within the same organization. This is a good thing as it helps drive the whole team towards meeting set goals within the set time. An example is assuming that a goal is two steps away from achieving. Various bosses have the right to follow up and ensure that adequate pressure is put on employees to ensure that the steps are achieved on time. There is also efficient use of all employees and their capabilities to fully explore and maximize their employees' skills and strengths. However, the disadvantage of this structure is that it may cause a conflict of interest especially when an employee is receiving orders from bosses with opposite ways of working
References
Ferdous, J. (2016). Organization theories: from a classical perspective. International Journal of Business, Economics, and Law, 9(2), 1-6.
Hatchuel, A., & Segrestin, B. (2019). A century-old and still visionary: Fayol's innovative theory of management. European Management Review, 16(2), 399-412.
Martin, R. L., & Riel, J. (2019). The One Thing You Need to Know About Managing Functions. Harvard Business Review.
