First Of All let us all consider what is an organizational structure? – First Of all a worker reports to a worker always reports to a supervisor ( if there is one), or the worker reports to the manager. The manager in turn reports to the director, who as per the hierarchy may have to report to the Vice President. Further the Vice President may report to a chief level executive officer like a CEO( chief executive officer) or a chief administrative officer. There may be a small amount of variations in the hierarchy as per the mandatory requirements of the company.
The organizational structure always defines how the task are formally divided, grouped and also coordinated task are formally divided, grouped and also coordinated. Usually the following eleements would always comprise the plan or the following structure:
- Work Specialization
- Departmentalization
- Chain Of Command
- Span Of Control
- Centralization Or Decentralization
- And Finally Formalization.
Each of the elements are described below and the blogs that follow:
- Work Specialization – Frederick Winslow Taylor, who did the research about the time and the motion who determined the most efficient ways for all the workers to do all their task. At the same time, Taylor’s one very right way was the birth of the concept of work specialization. With those theories in mind, henry Ford conceived the idea of his assembly line. He said and I quote, “One best way and viewed the work specialization with an eye for continuous improvement.” The activities are further subdivided into separate jobs as per the workers requirements.
For Example, if put one worker on the task of building an automobile, it will take him a really long time, but if the job is divided into smaller tasks and each task can also be carried by a particular worker. In this particular case, if the worker has to do the same thing again and again then his or her speed will increase. This will give them more productivity and also there quality will be better. With practice even the quality will be far better. With practice the employees will be able to learn to do their designated tasks quickly.
In fact most manufacturers have started work specialization or which was also called division of labour as it was found very effective. The task which required better skills would be now separated out and given to various different employees with those skills. Work specialization form the point of view of productivity actually turned out to be a boon. The employees could be easily put to do one specific task. Thus they could assemble highly complex machines much quicker and more easier than a highly trained employee who possessed all the skills does the same task, he would take much longer to do it. The manufacturers fine tune work specialization to increase productivity until the 1960s. It was felt that the particular idea cannot be taken to far. If done so boredom, stress, low productivity and low turnover of employees will prove very expensive. Thus the particular organization would always draw the line to which extent they can go in relation to division of work and its specialization.
NOTE: Please note that the Article will continue where other elements will be properly described.
