Thursday, April 1, 2010

Organizational Structure/Terminologies


 Organizations can be defined as groups of people who must coordinate their activities in order to meet organizational objectives.
 The coordination function requires strong communication and a clear understanding of the relationships and interdependence among people.
 Organizational structures are dictated by such factors as technology and its rate of change, resource availability, product, and competition.
 You must keep in mind that there is no such thing as good or bad organizational structure; there are only appropriate or inappropriate ones.

Terminologies:
 The following definitions will be used in the discussions of organizational structures:
Authority is the power granted to individuals (possibly by their position) so that they can make final decisions.
 In other words, authority is the right to take and implement management decisions.
 You can make decisions – it is just a process of generating options for a solution to a problem. You need authority to decide which to use and then implement the selected option.
Responsibility is the obligation incurred by individuals in their roles in the formal organization to effectively perform assignments.
 Your role demands that you create a climate in your team where responsibility is clearly defined and accepted. Without acceptance there is no commitment and the work is not done or willingly.
 Responsibility is completely separate to an individual and cannot be shared. A shared or split responsibility is no responsibility and generates a blame culture!
 When you are given authority you are held to account for its effective use and abuse! No authority means no accountability.
Accountability is being answerable for the satisfactory completion of a specific assignment. (Accountability = authority + responsibility.)
 You are only accountable for the use of management authority that is given by delegation.

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