Principles and types of organizations

 

Need of organizations, formal organizations structure, departmentalization, departmental characteristics, span of control, line and staff, checks and balance within the organizations, organizations design, understanding organization, developing a linear responsibility chart, lRC and job description, line organizations , staff organizations, matrix organizations, project organizations, pure project organizations, selecting an organizations for projects, organizations of the future

 

Need of organizations

A person to be success in any spheres of life needs the support from other people, to which we call organized activity.   A person has unlimited potential; however, the potential will remain unrealized if not carried out properly.  An organization means net work of individuals created to achieve a goal. Any plan, whatever may be its scope from entirely personal to international it requires organized activity to fulfill. Hence this article tries to discuss the issues related to the types of organizations required to fulfill the objectives of a person. We can take the examples of so many people, like Walt Disney, Bill Bates, Steve Jobs, who become successful because of their organization.

 

Formal organizations structure

Organizations formed under the bindings of some rules and regulation made by country is called formal organizations. Government ministries, departments, business organization formed under company act, partnership act, cooperatives, NGOs are the examples of formal organizations. Existing acts, rules, regulations controls formal organizations. The structures, duties, rights, scopes of the formal organizations are fixed.    Formal organizations structure can be classified into vertical and horizontal.

Departmentalization

The total works of the organizations are divided into many measurable units and sections, which are called departments. The process of making such units is deparmentaion.   There are many bases of departmentalization. They are:

1. Process:  engineering, accounting, marketing, etc.
2. Clients: female departments, child departments,
3. Geographical: eastern region, western region,
4. Functions: marketing, finance, human resources, etc
5. Product: heavy equipment, light cars, lorry, etc

Departmental characteristics

A departments has certain characteristics, they are;

1. Distinct: a department is distinguished from other by any criteria. By name of the departments they should give the message what it means.
2. Specializations: there are people having specialized in one area. Mechanical engineers work in operation departments, accounting specializations in accounting departments.
3. Location: one department is located in one area, for example sales departments are established in market area and operation departments are located in industrial areas and finance departments in head office.

  Span of control

How many person a supervisor can control is the question of span of control. There is no fixed rule. It is the ability of the person, the characteristics of subordinates, motivation level of employee, integrity of the subordinates, use of information technology(CCTV), nature of work, culture of the organizations, determine the issues of how many people can be controlled by a supervisor.

Line and staff

There are two types of people working in the organizations. One is called doing line functions and another is called doing staff functions. Line function is receiving instructions and doing works. Staff function is suggesting and advising what is best. Line functions are mandatory in nature whereas staff functions are optional in nature, which means the advices need not be implemented if the receiver does not wish. Military administration is the example of line functions, where commander is not questioned by juniors about the reasonability of the orders because juniors are supposed to do only. This organization is traditional in nature.

Checks and balance within the organizations,

This principle establishes the practice that one particular employee should not be given rights to control everything in the organizations.  In government organizations prime ministers are controlled by parliaments and judiciaries. Judiciaries cannot use go beyond what has not coded in the law. Parliament members have no executive power in isolation. They have power only in the parliaments. Similarly in business organizations CEO is controlled by BOD and BOD is by AGMS. Shareholder can raise his voice only in the AGM not in isolation.   

Organizations design.

Organization means a group of people joining hands to accomplish common tasks.   The common task can be successfully can be completed if they have abilities, they follow certain procedures, if they maintain certain standards, if they have certain norms, certain hierarchy, responsibilities, defined task, technology, etc. So, managers must define in advance who will be the employees, what will be hierarchical structure, responsibilities, technology, procedures, standardizations practice, etc and this process  is called organization design.

Developing a linear responsibility chart

Linear Responsibility Chart (LRC) presents an overview of formal authority, responsibility and accountability. It allows everyone within an organization, including newcomers, to see the "big picture" and provides a standard by which progress can be monitored.

The linear responsibility chart makes a clear distinction between roles, or job titles, and the individuals who perform those roles. Each project typically has a single project manager, but there may be many such project managers within an organization.

Job description

Job description consists of the list of all duties to be performed by the employees of the organization. It is the general principles of the organizations that it must assess its members based on the assigned jobs to the members. Job description define what duties are to be done, who should be reported, what procedures should be followed, who works under him/her, what are the working conditions, etc. it can be said that an organizations total performance equal to jobs of the total individuals working for the organizations. 

Job description and linear responsibility chart can be differentiated only in one sense that is job description is individual employees list of tasks where as linear responsibility chart is the list of the responsibilities of many employees performing related jobs displayed in a single chart of paper.

Line organizations

An organization that practices the relation of employees in line is called line organizations. It means that one employee has relation with another employee who is in line.  This follows the principle that one subordinate has one supervisors. This is traditional types of organizations but very simple. This is authoritative in nature because subordinates have no right to raise questions on the orders issued by superiors who are in line.

Staff organizations

Staff organizations are the organizations that provision the advisory functions for superiors who need advises. In this type of organizations, some advisors or advisory bodies are appointed to give advices to superiors who are busy every time. The relation of staffs and supervisors are generally horizontal it means they can control each other. It is the right of the employee whether to accept advices or not. This types of organizations prevents the superiors of the organizations from being authoritative, because advisors give them suggestions in this respect.