Essay Sample on Business Organizational Structures

Executive Summary

The business organizational structure is defined as a method in which an organization distributes jobs and the workforce for an effective work performance ensures that the goals of the organization are achieved. Every firm has different organizational structure that are designed in a well-organized manner to control and organize work in the organization. All the works in any given organization are delegated by the organizational managers to ensure professionalism and efficiency in every task. A good structural organization in any business brings about specialized output, freedom and development, control of the administration. The essay seeks to discuss different types of organizational structures mainly functional, adaptive and divisional and reporting structures. The organizational structure primarily works on two objectives:

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• To lay and provide the foundation on the standard routines and the operating procedures
• To determine which individual should perform a particular decision-making processes

Reporting Structure

This is an organizational structure that acts as the command chain of management position and stages. Each and every business has a chain of command which is structured in a unique way depending on the organization. Therefore, reporting structure is an essential tool in any given organization, this is because if not built correctly it can lead to total destruction of the organization.

Functional Structures

This is an organizational structure in which every person specializes in his/her unit. This is a very important component in an organization. This organizational structure is created by sub-dividing tasks in different sub-units and units. This structure leads to an increase in individual skills, it also helps to save time and brings about accuracy in productivity. It also brings about better cohesion in each and every department in the organization. It creates a win to win a situation and helps to reduce contradictions that may accrue in the different departments. Even though this structure has a lot of merits it still has demerits that if not keenly taken care of, may yield poor productivity. These demerits include boredom, increased turnover, and fatigue. It also brings about inflexibility and slowness in the task force (Jaakkola & Hallin, 2018)

Divisional Structure

This is well known as the product structure. The main aim of this structure is to divide the organizational function into different departments. Every department/division within the product structure comprises of all the necessary functions and resources that are within it. These divisions are categorized into distinct and different points of view. This structure ensures different products for different customers (Steenkamp, 2017). This structure is very different as compared to the others, this is because it allows a company to conduct an evaluation and compares other regions. This structure ensures that each and every division has its own duties and expectations. In this structure, each and every division is developed with persons that have the required skills and expertise in relation to the said department.

Adaptive Structure

This type of organizational structure is designed in a way that it can cope with the nature of the undertakings and the situation at hand. This structure is of two types which are matrix and project organizations.

Matrix Structure

This type of adaptive structure combines both the functions and products. It also gathers of the best divisions of the departments. To complete any work, these groups hire groups of employees, this helps to counter or make up for the weaknesses that may have accrued as well as taking advantage of the strengths and the decentralization of a functional forms.

The Dimensions of Organization Structures

Business organization structures are categorized into three dimensions. i.e. complexity, formalization, and centralization. Formalization is the extent to which the rules and instructions in an organization are written, specified and referred to the organization set standards. Formalization promotes coordination and reduces conflict and ambiguity. Centralization, on the other hand, is the extent to which the decision-making process is centralized. This is mainly useful and important in small organizations and complexity in an organization relates to the differences that may accrue among jobs and units. This gives a reflection of the differences that exist within the organization (Kovac, 2017).

Conclusion

The above contexts reveal that organizational structures are the best structures in organizing a business. The structural organization solely depends on a varied number of factors. Business organizational structures can be influenced by the external environment in which the operation of the business takes place. The above-mentioned structures can either have a positive or negative impact on a business. Any business that has the best organizational structure makes a business to respond to any change in the market effectively. It is therefore important for any business employ and applly the above-mentioned structures to promote good communication, productivity, and poor customer service.

References

Jaakkola, E., & Hallin, A. (2018). Organizational Structures for New Service Development. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 35(2), 280-297.

Kovac, J. (2017). Dimensions of organizational change. Management: journal of contemporary management issues, 5(1), 73-81.

Steenkamp, J. B. (2017). Organizational Structures for Global Brands. In Global Brand Strategy (pp. 151-179). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Thompson, J. D. (2017). Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative theory. Routledge.