Organization and Management (Copy)

Organization and Management

Organizational structure is the levels of management and how responsibilities are divided within an organization

A job description outlines the requirements of the job and working conditions along with mentioning the name of the post.

Organizational chart shows the organizational structure in a visual form. It is a hierarchy with people on different level have different degree of authority while people on same level have same degree of authority.

• Departments can also be shown in the organizational chart
• Benefits
  • Shows how employees are linked and so employees know what channel to use for communication
  • Individuals can see their own position in the organization and determine who they are accountable to and who is accountable to them.
  • Employees know who to take orders from
  • Shows links between departments
  • Sense of belonging to the complete structure

Some other important things to remember

• Chain of command is the the structure that allows for information and instructions from top level to be passed down to lower levels. Basically it refers to the number of levels in the organizational structure. It can be long with many levels or short with less levels
  • Removing a level is called delayering
  • Delayering widens the span of control
• Span of control refers to the number of workers a manager is directly responsible for. This means the number of employees on the level immediately below him. Span of control can be wide with many employees or narrow with fewer employees directly under a manager
• Benefits of short chains of command
  • Quicker communication
  • More accurate communication as less levels to pass which can distort the message
  • Top managers not far away from lower levels of the hierarchy so in touch with people below
  • Wider span of control
    • More delegation
    • Less direct control on each worker individually so they will feel more trusted and can take more decisions themselves
      • More job satisfaction
    • Managers can however lose control of workers under them in wider span of control
    • Poorly trained subordinates in wider span of control with little check over them can make more mistakes.
• Line managers are managers that are within a functional department such as production and sales etc.which means they are responsible for one particular part of work
• There are regional divisions in a business as well as department divisions especially for large businesses
• Other departments also exist that are not focused on a particular function but instead are specialist in a particular area for example IT department. Human resource department is another example. These department give direct reports to board of directors. The employees of these departments are called staff managers as they provide specialist support to the BOD and line managers.
  • They are more focused in their particular specialist area than on running the business (that job is of functional departments)
• An issue can be workers get confused on who to take orders from – line or staff managers – remember workers are responsible to their particular line manager not staff managers.

What is a management

Management has 5 main functions

• Planning
  • Managers plan for the future
  • This includes setting targets and aims
  • Managers also make resource plan to achieve those targets
• Organising
  • Delegation of work
  • Organizational chart helps in doing so and also to make sure that the same task is being performed by many people.
• Coordinating
  • Bringing everything together
  • Making functional departments work with each other
  • Helps to achieve the plans made
  • Team formation
• Commanding
  • Leading and supervising
  • Make sure targets and deadlines are met
  • Instructions and guidance to be provided
• Controlling
  • Never ending task
  • Make sure everything is according to plan and on target
  • Includes disciplining staff

Managers thus basically make a sense of control and direction, help coordinations between departments, helps in control of employees and leads to organization of resources.

Delegation

Delegation means giving subordinates authority to perform certain tasks, however, the responsibility still rests on the original employee who had to do that task.

Benefits of Delegation

• Managers can not d0 everything themselves
• Managers will make less mistakes if they have laser work to focus on
• Helps in measurement of staff’s success

Benefits of delegation to subordinates

• Work becomes more interesting and rewarding
• Employee feels important and trusted
• Delegation helps train workers and it gives them career opportunities

Reasons for not delegating

• It results in less control on workers directly
• Mistake of workers will fall upon managers as they are the ones responsible
• If a worker performs the duty better than the manager himself then the manager’s position is at risk.

Good management is necessary

• To motivate workers
• Provide guidance to employees
• Inspire workers to achieve more than they thought they can
• Costs under control
• Profitability increase

Leadership Styles

Leadership styles are the different approaches to how people are dealth with when someone is in authority.

• Autocratic leadership
  • More like a dictator
  • Manager expects everything to happen their way
  • They are separate from the other employees that they manage
  • Communication is one way and workers have little opportunity to comment on anything
• Democratic leadership
  • Employees part of the decision making process
  • Ideas discussed before decisions made
  • Communication is a two way
• Laissez-faire leadership
  • Means leave to do
  • Makes board objectives known
  • Employees make their own decision according to those objectives
  • No clear direction so communication not easy
  • Leader has limited role.

Multiple leadership styles can be used by same manager according to situation.

Trade Union

A trade union is a group of workers for promotion and safeguard of their interests

• Give workers strength in numbers so they can collectively make demands
• Improved work conditions for employees
• Improved work environment
• Improved benefits for members who are not on work due to say sickness
• Increased job satisfaction
• Advice and financial support for employees in crisis and those who had received unfair treatment or dismissal
• Benefits for union members
• Closed shop environment
• Views of employees put to government and media
• Communication between managers and workers improved.

Problems of trade union membership are

• Members have to pay
• Industrial action must even if they are against it.