What is Organizing in Management? - Meaning, Concept, Features, Steps, Principles

Therefore, it is a process which coordinates human efforts, assembles resources and integrates both into a unified whole to be utilized for achieving specified objectives. Organizing is the managerial function and this function of organizing is known as process of organization.

To organize is to harmonize, co-ordinate or arrange in a logical and orderly manner.

Making the rational division of work into groups of activities and tying together the positions representing grouping of activities for accomplishment of desired objectives is the function of management and this function is known as organizing.

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Koontz O’Donnel, “Organising involves the establishment of an international structure of roles through determination and enumeration of the activities required to achieve the goals of an enterprise and each part of it; the grouping of these activities, the assignment of such groups of activities to the manager, the delegation of authority to carry them out and provision for co-ordination of authority and informational relationship, horizontally and vertically, in the organisation structure.”

Learn about: 1. Introduction to Organizing 2. Meaning and Definitions of Organizing 3. Concepts 4. Nature 5. Features 6. Elements 7. Steps 8. Principles 9. Basics 10. Trends.

What is Organizing in Management? – Meaning, Definitions, Concept, Nature, Features, Elements, Steps, Principles and Trends

Contents:

Introduction to Organizing
Meaning and Definitions of Organizing
Concepts of Organizing
Nature of Organizing
Features of Organizing
Elements of Organizing
Steps of Organizing
Principles of Organizing
Basics of Organizing
Trends in Organising

What is Organizing in Management – Introduction

Once the general and specific objectives determined and to achieve them a plan is prescribed, the next step is to organize the activities of the enterprise with a view to work the plan and to fulfill the organizational objectives. The management has to identify the activities necessary to reach the objectives and group these activities and assigned to the group of people, known as departments.

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A manager, with required qualification, intelligence and capability is given authority and made incharge of each department, so as enable him to work his subordinates to reach the organizational objectives. Proper organization will assist the most effective use of all the resources of the business. The need for adequate organization grows with the increase in size of the business unit. More delegation and a large number of managers are required as his business grows from that of a small company, with its nucleus of a few key people.

The word Organization is given a variety of interpretations.

We can stress here on two terms namely:

(a) Organization is understood as a dynamic process and a managerial activity, which is necessary for bringing people together and tying them together in the pursuit of common objectives. This may well be the process of organizing,

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(b) Secondly, it can be used in the sense, which refers to the structure of relationship among positions jobs, which is built-up for the attainment of common objectives or goals.

In this sense, organization can be considered as a vehicle through which goals are supposed to be achieved. Organization structure is considered in different views. Some consider it as a network of relationships, a blueprint of how the management will like the various functions and activities to be assigned and connected together.

Some others look upon it as a social system, consisting of the human relationships existing among people performing different types of activities. For some people, organizations are a system with inputs (such as men, materials, money and machines), and processes through which product or service is produced. Hence, the common features, we can identify are (characteristics of organization).

(i) Division of Labour:

When total work involved in achievement of goals and objectives are divided into activities and functions and allocated to an individual or a group of people, as whole work may be too heavy for and individual or a group of people, the organization structure comes into existence. Say for example, marketing, financial, personnel and production, etc.

(ii) Co-Ordination:

Once the functions are decided and allocated to group of people or an individual next is to see that all the activities of the groups or individuals must be directed towards the organizational goals. That is activities are unified and harmonized.

(iii) Accomplishment of Goals or Objectives:

The organization structure has no meaning, if it doesn’t serve in its mission of achieving the objectives, it is because the structure is framed in such a way that the works are allocated to different goals in such a way that they are unified and harmonized towards the achievement of a common goal or objective.

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(iv) Authority-Responsibility Structure:

An organization structure consists of various positions arranged in a hierarchy with a clear definition of the authority and responsibility associated with each of these. An organization cannot serve certain specific purposes or goals unless some positions are placed above others and given authority to bind them by their decisions. In fact, an organization structure is quite often defined as a structure of authority-responsibility relationships.

All the above discussion confirms that organization structure is a structure of positions arranged in a hierarchy for the pursuit of common objectives through specialization and division of work.

What is Organizing in Management – Meaning and Definitions: Given by Stephen P. Robbins and Mary Coulter, Louis A. Allen, G.R. Terry, Koontz O’Donnel, Henry Fayol

The word “organizing” refers to a process of a managerial function. Studying organization structure helps one to clarify the principle features of the organization’s anatomy and study the similarities as well as the distinctions among different organizations. The term “Organization” may be dealt in two contexts.

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They are:

1. To a particular company or group of persons working together to fulfill certain objectives or goals. It is referred in the name of the organization such as- Royal Industries, Tata Consultancy Services etc.

2. To the organization as a structure or a network of specific relationships among individuals.

Koontz and O’Donnell defines organizing as- “The establishment of authority relationships with provision for coordination between them, both vertically and horizontally in the enterprise structure.”

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Louis A. Allen defines organizing as- “The process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively together in accomplishing objectives”.

Hence, we can say that organizing involves the following four steps:

(i) Identification and grouping of the work,

(ii) Defining the responsibility,

(iii) Delegation of appropriate authority and

(iv) Establishment of structural relationships.

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All the above are necessary to achieve the organizational goals.

“Organizing is determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be grouped, who reports to whom and where decisions are to be made.” – Stephen P. Robbins and Mary Coulter

“Organizing is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating the responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively together in accomplishing objectives.” – Louis A. Allen

G.R. Terry, “Organising is the establishing of effective behavioural relationships among persons so that they may work together effectively and gain personal satisfaction in doing selected tasks under given environmental conditions for the purpose of achieving some goal or objective.”

Organising can be defined as a process that initiates implementation of plans by clarifying jobs, working relationships and effectively deploying resources for attainment of identified and desired results (goals). Therefore, it is a process which coordinates human efforts, assembles resources and integrates both into a unified whole to be utilized for achieving specified objectives.

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Organisation as a function of management leads to:

1. Creation of organisational structure with suitable personnel

2. Designing specific roles to eliminate ambiguity

3. Defining inter-relationship among personnel for productive cooperation

4. Clarifying authority and responsibility for results and logical grouping of activities.

Some definitions of ‘organising’ as a function of management:

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“Organising is the process of defining and grouping the activities of the enterprise and establishing authority relationships among them” – Theo Haimman

“Organising is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively together in accomplishing objectives”. – Louis Allen

“To organise a business is to provide it with everything useful to its functioning: raw materials, machines and tools, capital and personnel”. – Henry Fayol

“In its broadest sense organising refers to relationship between various factors present in a giving endeavor or enterprise”. – William Spriegel

“Organising is the establishing of effective authority relationships among selected work, persons and work places in order for a group to work together efficiently”. – G. R. Terry

What is Organizing in Management – Concepts

Two concepts are prevalent about organisation.

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In other words, there are two meanings of organisation:

(1) Organising as a process, and

(2) Organising as a structure of relationship.

Concept # 1. Organising as a Process:

According to the first concept of organising, it has been considered as a process. In other words, organising is not a function that can be performed at a single stroke, but it is a chain of various functions. It includes getting information about objectives, deciding various activities and grouping them, determining important activities, allowing authority and responsibility, etc.

Organising is related to human beings and human conduct is deeply affected by the conditions of work, their competency and capability, changes in the internal and external environment of the organisation. The process of organising has also to be changed according these changes. Hence, organising as a process can also be described as dynamic element.

Concept # 2. Organising as a Structure of Relationship:

According to this concept, organising is treated as a structure of relationship. Under this various posts are created or established and the mutual relationship of employees working on various posts, their authorities and responsibilities are defined. Relationship lays down as to who is the superior and who is the subordinate. Various posts in different departments of the organisation are mostly permanent. Therefore, organisation as a structure of relationship is called static element.

As a structure of relationship organisation can be of two types – firstly formal organisation, and secondly, informal organisation.

Comparison between both the concepts:

So far as the similarity between both the concepts is concerned, business organisation is looked upon as a group of different parts under both the concepts. These parts are both tangible (like human, material, machine and money) and intangible (like authority, responsibility, function and objective). Both the concepts lay stress upon the establishment of relationship between these two parts.

On the contrary, there are certain differences between both the concepts. According to the concept of ‘organising as a process’ organising is that function which continues throughout the existence of the enterprise and changes go on taking place in it. Herein man is the central point. In other words, many factors affect them and changes have to be introduced accordingly.

On the other hand, according to the concept of ‘organising as a structure of relationship’, posts are established in the organisation and authorities and responsibilities of each post are determined. Therefore, here under this concept more attention is paid to posts which are stable than to men.

What is Organizing in Management – Nature

The nature of organising is discussed below:

1. Division of Labour:

According to Fayol, work of all kinds must be sub-divided and assigned to a number of persons. This helps to make the work being carried out in a simpler and efficient manner. It, thus, leads to specialization and increasing employees’ efficiency. By repeating a small part of work the individual acquires speed and accuracy in its performance. This principle holds true for technical as well as managerial tasks.

2. Coordination:

Different persons are assigned for different functions and yet all these functions have only one aim i.e. accomplishment of the enterprise’s objectives.

To this end, an organisation has to adopt adequate methods to ensure that there is proper coordination of the different activities performed at various work points. This means establishment of correct and adequate relationships between an employee and his work; one employee with another; and one department or sub-department with another.

3. Social System:

All parts of the organisational system are inter-dependent. Each part affects and is influenced by any other part and also in turn by the system as a whole. An organisation is a social system. Its activities are governed by social and psychological laws. People working in an organisation are influenced in their actions and behaviour by their social and psychological needs.

Two aspects of an organisational social system are the formal or official and the informal or unofficial. The organisation social system is dynamic, in the sense that inter-personal and group relationships within it, keep on changing and are not dormant.

4. Objectives:

Any organisation structure is bound together by the pursuit of specific and well-defined objectives. In fact, as objectives cannot be accomplished without an organisation, an organisation cannot exist for long without objectives and goals.

5. Cooperative Relationship:

An organisation ensures co-operative relationship among the members of the group. It cannot be constituted by one person. It requires at least two or more persons. Organisation is a system which helps in creating meaningful relationship among persons both vertical and horizontal.

6. Well-Defined Hierarchy:

Hierarchy acts as a line of communication, as well as command, and shows the pattern of relationships among people. Hierarchy of organisation refers to the positioning of people from the highest level to the lowest rank in the organisation. It also helps to define authority and responsibility attached to each position/person.

7. Communication:

Although every organisation has its own channels and methods of communication. For success in management, effective communication is vital. This is because management is concerned with working with others and unless there is proper understanding between people, it cannot be effective. The channels of communication may be formal, informal, downward, upward or horizontal.

What is Organizing in Management – 8 Main Features

The features of organizing are stated as here under:

1. Division of work – The total work should be divided into many parts for effective performance of the work. Each part of work is to be performed by one person or a group of persons. In this way, the division of work results in the creation of specialized persons.

2. Achieving organizational objective – There is a need of coordination among the employees in the organization. The division of work is done keeping in view the overall objectives of the organization. The organizing process is framed in such a way so as to achieve organizational objectives smoothly.

3. Authority-responsibility structure – The position of each of the executives is defined with regard to the extent of authority and responsibility vested in him to discharge his duties. Organizing arranges for the delegation of authority and responsibility. It tries to bring harmony, authority, and responsibility.

4. Grouping of activities – Activities are needed to be grouped on certain well-defined basis such as function, product, customer, process, territory, etc. This grouping process is called departmentation. It helps in achieving the benefits of specialization and administrative control.

5. Scalar (step-by-step) principle – Authority is delegated from the upper level to the lower level and the responsibility flows from the lower level to the upper level of organizational hierarchy. Provision is to be made for the accountability of the assigned duties. Each employee of an organization must know where his accountability lies.

6. Installing sound communication system – The success of management depends upon effective system of communication. It helps the management by providing information about the duties, responsibilities, authority, positions, and jobs. Coordination can be maintained among various related departments by making exchange of information on a regular basis.

7. Flexibility – The organizing process should be flexible so that any change can be incorporated as and when required. It ensures the ability to adapt and adjust the activities in response to the change taking place in the external environment. The programs, policies, and strategies can be changed as and when required if the provision for flexibility is made in the organizing process.

8. Coordination – Coordination ensures the unity of action in the realization of a common objective. It is an arrangement of group effort to achieve organizational goals. Coordination of different personnel and departments are needed for ensuring higher efficiency and effectiveness.

What is Organizing in Management – 4 Basic Elements: Division of Work, Grouping of Activities, Distribution of Authority and Coordination

The basic elements of organising are as follows:

Element # 1. Division of Work:

It means dividing the work into specific tasks with deadlines to their completion. Once the work is divided, the tasks are distributed to different functional areas of the organisation as production, marketing, finance and personnel.

Element # 2. Grouping of Activities:

The tasks are grouped into different departments on the basis of similarity of their features. This is called departmentation.

The common forms of departmentation are as follows:

i. Functional Departmentation (Grouping Activities by Functions Performed):

Activities can be grouped according to functions (work being done) to pursue economies of scale by placing employees with shared skills and knowledge into departments, for example, human resources, IT, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, and engineering. Functional departmentalization can be used in all types of organisations.

ii. Product Departmentation (Grouping Activities by Product Line):

Tasks are grouped according to a specific product or service. All activities related to the product or the service are placed under one manager. Each major product area in the company is under the authority of a senior manager who is specialist in, and is responsible for everything related to the product line. For a shoe company, the structure could be based on product lines like women’s footwear, children’s footwear and men’s footwear.

iii. Customer Departmentation (Grouping Activities on the Basis of Common Customers or Types of Customers):

Jobs are grouped according to the type of customers served by the organisation assuming that customers in each department have a common set of problems and needs that can best be met by specialists. For example, the sales activities in the organisation can be broken down into three departments that serve retail, wholesale and government accounts.

iv. Geographic Departmentation (Grouping Activities on the Basis of Territory):

If the customers are geographically dispersed, jobs can be grouped on the basis of geographical locations. For example, the organisation structure of a company can reflect its operations in two broad geographic areas – the national sector and the international sector. The national sector could further be divided into north zone, south zone, east zone and west zone.

v. Process Departmentation (Grouping Activities on the Basis of Product or Service or Customer Flow):

Process departmentalisation allows homogenous activities to be categorised in one department because each process requires different skills. For example, the applicants might need to go through several departments namely validation, licensing and treasury, before receiving the driver’s license. Each department looks after specific sequence of the process which increases the speed and efficiency of that process.

Element # 3. Distribution of Authority:

Once the departments are created, members are given authority to perform the tasks assigned. Authority specifies the discretion of employee over his work. In a formally designed organisation structure, employees’ behaviour is bound by rules, regulations and policies but in a comparatively less formal organisation structure, they have a great deal of freedom in deciding how they perform their work. “Authority is the legitimate power of the supervisor to direct subordinates to take action within the scope of the supervisor’s positions.”

Element # 4. Coordination:

When people perform tasks assigned to them at different levels in different departments, it has to be ensured that the tasks are related to each other and aim at unified goals. This requires coordination amongst the tasks of all the organisational members. Coordination is the act of organising, making different people or things work together for a goal or effort to fulfil desired goals in the organisations. It is a managerial function that aims to adjust and interlink activities of the business.

What is Organizing in Management – 5 Important Steps: Determination of Objectives, Enumeration of Activities, Classification of Activities and a Few Others

First the goals and objectives are understood and then divide the work into functional groups into practical units of similar activities. Then each group/department is kept under a manager, who has related functional knowledge and capability. This manager will look after the work of that particular department, by maintaining organizational relationships with other department managers to work toward the goal or objective of the enterprise.

Top management must clearly specify the duties of all departmental managers, by providing them necessary resources. In the words of Terry “Organizing is the establishing of effective behavioural relationships among selected work persons, and work place in order for the group to work together effectively.”

Organizing is the managerial function and this function of organizing is known as process of organization. To organize is to harmonize, co-ordinate or arrange in a logical and orderly manner. Making the rational division of work into groups of activities and tying together the positions representing grouping of activities for accomplishment of desired objectives is the function of management and this function is known as organizing.

Various steps involved in this process are:

Step # 1. Determination of Objectives:

Any business is established or started by entrepreneurs to achieve some objectives. These objectives must be clearly stated so as to understand the very purpose and existence of the business. Depending on the objectives the work to be done is decided and it is divided into groups and they are organized in an orderly way. It is to say that organizations are built around objectives; hence deciding the objectives is the first step in building up an organization.

Step # 2. Enumeration of Activities:

The work of an industrial concern is divided into essential activities. For example, it is divided as production, financing, purchasing, marketing, personnel, like wise.

Step # 3. Classification of Activities:

The next step is to classify activities according to similarities and common purposes and function by taking the available human and material resources into account. For each class of activities, there will be a department and for each sub-class there will be section of the department and so on. For example, marketing may be one department, in which packing, dispatching, sales, consumer service etc. may be sections.

Step # 3. Fitting Individuals into Functions:

Once the departmentalization and formation of sections is over, each section should be allocated to a subordinate and each department should be allocated to one executive. Hence, next duty is to fix a suitable and well-qualified and capable person to fit into these activities. The rule is right peg in a right hole. Each person in the group is given a specific work and made responsible correctly and effectively. This step consists of appointment of workers and defining their responsibility of each one of them.

Step # 4. Assignment of Authority for Action:

Now suitable persons are fitted in their respective jobs and made responsible to accomplish the job. He can only proceed to do the work, when he is given adequate authority to proceed to do the work. The delegation authority to take steps to complete the assigned part of the job is next step in organization. Once the authority is given the concerned manager will have power to command his subordinates and get the work done by them.

All the above supports the definition of organization i.e. Organization embraces the duties of designating the departments and the personnel that are to carry on the work, defining their functions and specifying the relations that are to be exist between departments and individuals.

What is Organizing in Management – Top 26 Principles

Organising is a management process by which people, functions and physical factors are brought together to form a controllable unit. Good organisation is based upon a careful planning of – what is to be done? Who is to do it? Who is to supervise it? and how it is to be done most efficiently? Efficiency means speed, accuracy and low cost. Good organisation results in the creation of well balanced, low-cost, teamwork that performs the necessary work.

The organisation of business activities is a continuing process. It should not be static, rigid or fixed. It should be flexible and adaptable to the changing objectives of enterprise. Because of existence of great varieties of organisations, there can be no standard principles which could be followed in all individual circumstances.

However, there are certain principles which have more or less universal application and which may be used as guidelines for organising business concern.

1. Principle of Consideration of Unity of Objectives:

The objective of the undertaking influences the organisation structure. The organisation is a mechanism to achieve the goals. The objective of an enterprise should be clearly laid down. Not only the objectives be stated in clear terms, the method of achieving them too, should be indicated in detail and in precise terms so that the organisers may know the type of organisation that is needed.

There must be unity of objectives so that all efforts can be concentrated on the set-goals. Organisational structure and generated operations must be measured against the effectiveness in achieving set objectives.

2. Principle of Specialisation:

Effective organisation must include specialisation. Optimum output can be obtained when each person concentrates on doing the thing for which he/she is best qualified. Precise division of work facilitates specialisation. Organisation should emphasise on the law of specialisation. However each area of specialisation must be interrelated to the total integrated system by means of co-ordination in all departments and activities.

3. Principle of Co-Ordination:

Co-ordination express the principles of organisation in toto; nothing less. Co-ordination is the orderly arrangement of group effort to provide unity of action in the pursuit of common purpose. It is the beginning and end of all organised efforts. A manager is mainly a coordinator. Co-ordination is a facilitative function helping the integration of the basic managerial functions – Planning, Organisation, Motivation and Control.

Organisation involves division of work among people whose efforts must be coordinated to achieve common goals, Co-ordination of aims at higher efficiency and effectiveness.

4. Principles of Scaler Chain:

It points out clear and unbroken line of authority. The chain of authority must be clearly defined for sound organisational purposes. It is also called a chain of command. The line of authority flows from the highest executive to the lowest managerial level and the chain of command should not be broken. It should be short i.e. it should have few levels of management. Every subordinate must know as to who is his supervisor and to whom policy matters beyond his own authority must be referred to, for decision.

5. Principle of Commensurate Authority and Responsibility:

According to this principle when an individual is responsible for a certain task, he should be given the authority to carry out that task. Without commensurate authority and responsibility, he cannot be held accountable for the unsuccessful completion of the task as he has very little control over the situation. Authority should be equal to responsibility i.e., each manager should have enough authority to accomplish the task.

6. Principle of Ultimate Responsibility:

The responsibility of higher authority for the acts of his subordinates is absolute. Responsibility to perform a task, is given to a subordinate by the supervisor and the subordinate commits mistake, in such situation the supervisor is answerable to his superiors. He cannot escape responsibility by saying that mistake was committed by a particular worker.

7. Principle of Efficiency:

The organisation structure should enable the enterprise to attain objectives with the lowest possible cost. An efficient organisation structure operates without wasting its scarce resources. It permits maximum use of its human resources and their talents.

8. Principle of Delegation:

The chief executive, for obvious limitations, cannot do the whole work of the organisation himself and hence he takes assistance from others to accomplish the objectives. He divides the whole work into a number of activities and groups then on the basis of their similarity and thus he creates a number of departments. The delegation is the process through which they are tied together by establishing relationship between them for co-operative and integrated action. Delegations may be vertical or horizontal.

This process ties together the whole organisational structure for integrated and co-operative action. If delegation of authority is not carefully done, the very existence of the organisation is in danger and chaos and confusion may be raised.

Authority and responsibility should be delegated as far down in the organisation as possible i.e. to the lowest level of the organisation at which the particular responsibility can be efficiently discharged. Delegation of authority and decentralisation of authority mean the same process.

9. Principle of Unity of Command:

The core of this principle is that a man can serve only one boss. It means that instructions and directions to a subordinate must come from one person only. Each subordinates must have one superior, to whom he should be answerable. This helps in avoiding conflict in command and in fixing responsibility. According to this principle each person should be accountable to a single superior.

Thus, no one in the organisation should have more than one boss. It clarifies authority – responsibility and relationship. If an individual has to report to only one supervisor there is a sense of personal responsibility to one person for results. Let a person receive orders from and be responsible to only one superior.

10. Principle of Span of Control:

The maximum number of employees or subordinates that can be supervised effectively by a person is known as the span of control. The span of control should be limited to a reasonable number according to circumstances. A span of control of six subordinates has been considered to be the most desirable. There is a limit to the number of subordinates which a manager can manage effectively. Grouping must ensure that each supervisor and manager is not over burdened with subordinates.

11. Principle of Balance:

There should be reasonable balance in the size of various departments, between standardisation of procedures and flexibility between centralisation and decentralisation. Similarly, there should be balance between the principle of span of control and the short chain of command.

12. Principle of Communication:

A good communication network is essential for smooth flow of information and understanding and for effective business performance. The line of authority offers a standing channel for downward and upward communication.

13. Principle of Personal Ability:

People constitute an organisation. Proper selection, placement and training need not be over emphasized. Organisation structure must encourage management development programmes and ensure optimum use of human resources.

14. Principle of Exception:

Under the exception principle recurring decisions should be handled in a routine manner by the lower level manager, whereas problems involving unusual matters should be referred to the higher level. The executives at the higher level of an organisation have limited time and capacity. They should not be bothered by routine problems which can as well be managed by subordinates.

15. Principle of Flexibility:

The structure of an organisation must be flexible so that adjustments necessitated by changed circumstances may be planned and incorporated in it. The organisation is expected to provide build-in devices to facilitate growth and expansion without dislocation. It should be adaptable to changing circumstances. It should not be rigid or inelastic.

16. Principle of Departmentation:

It enables the division of activities into specialised groups to attain organisational objectives. A good organisation involves precise and systematic distribution of work and responsibilities between managerial group and administrative group. Departmentation maintains balance and harmony in the working of the organisation.

17. Principle of Division of Work:

Specialisation in organisational functions is necessary for the most effective attainment of objectives. Specialisation depends on division of work. Total activities of an enterprise should be divided and grouped into departmental, sectional and individual activities to facilitate division of work.

18. Principle of Definiteness:

Each activity must contribute to the primary or basic goals of an enterprise with minimum of effort and maximum efficiency on the part of the employees. This contribution should be well defined and definite.

19. Principle of Discipline:

Discipline is vitally important in all types of organisations. In its absence, it is difficult to achieve success.

20. Principle of Simplicity:

The organisation should be kept as simple as possible so that there should not be any confusion and misunderstanding among the superiors and subordinates.

21. Principle of Separation of Line and Staff Function:

Line function should be separated from the staff functions.

22. Principle of Continuity of Operations:

The form of an organisation should be such that it facilitates the continuous performance of all the activities necessary for the continuance and growth of the enterprise.

23. Principle of Leadership:

Organisation structure should create a favourable environment or situation in which the manager can most effectively lead and motivate his subordinates.

24. Principle of Definition:

The duties responsibilities, authority and relations of everyone in the organisational structure should be clearly and completely defined preferably in writing.

An individual will accomplish a task in a given period only when the responsibility for that task is fixed upon him.

25. Principle of Work Assignment:

The work assignment for each individual in the organisation should take into consideration the special strength and talents of the individual. This means that an individual should be given an assignment commensurate with his or her ability and interest.

26. Principle of Employee Participation:

Employees should be encouraged to participate, as much as possible, in the decision making process. Employees are given recognition and are motivated to work harder by encouraging their participation. But, in spite of participation by employees in the decision making process, the ultimate responsibility for the decision must rest with the manager or supervisor.

What is Organizing in Management – 7 Important Trends and Practices

Organisations are not static but are dynamic. Many business organisations have lived for long crossing century mark. GE, The Hindu and many such organisations who are still functioning with force and recognition bear testimony to this. The concepts like “change management” and “learning organisation” pervade all organisations and organisations established long back live today with totally a different structure. Organisational activities expand and restructuring the design and configuring authority relationships as per changed requirement will take place. This is a continuous activity in every organisation.

Effective and efficient management of the organisations are expected throughout their life. Practices such as decentralisation, considering the span of management, chain of command, unity of command, delegation and empowerment, designing the structure and configuring it, establishing departments as per directions, formulating committees, preparing manuals have been the order in every enterprise.

These trends and practices are briefly analysed in the following paragraphs:

1. Chain of Command:

This concept exhibits flow of authority. It is a system whereby authority flows down from the top through a series of executive positions in which each functional manager is accountable to the immediate superior. This is a structure concerning decision-making which shows. The flow of responsibilities from the higher levels of authority to the lower levels. This concept was originated from defence operations. In military hierarchy, the succession of commanding officers from a superior to a subordinate, commands are exercised.

It is a continuous chain of authority that links the most junior worker to the top brass. The concept of the chain of command was first introduced to management theory by Henry Fayol under one of the fourteen principles, he propounded, viz., “Scalar Chain”. According to this principle, people at the top of the organisation have all authority and other individual’s authority scales down as per their relative position in the hierarchy.

Thus, chain of command, which is practiced in military structure is extended to organisations. In the organisational context, it means that the commands or orders flow from the top down the line to last worker of the organisation. Persons or line managers who receive the command from their immediate superior are accountable to them only and they do not normally have direct link with the top management.

Supposing, two or more units are functioning and the command is to be given to both units from one unit officer. The authority flow from the executive of one unit cannot directly take place. It should pass through the unit head of another unit except under permitted circumstances.

The flow of command takes place only in the concerned line and not in lines which are adopted for special purposes such as health cares, sports, etc., activities of the organisation. If any order is to be executed in these units, it should be sent to the unit head in the form of request to implement it or it has to be transmitted through top class.

Thus, chain of command is the flow of authority from top to bottom in written form. The concept which was originated in military operations, is extended to organisations. This indicates the set of relationships as to who gives direction to whom and who reports to whom.

2. Unity of Command:

This concept focuses on “one command” to one issue and not multi-commands. In hierarchical organisation, which is pyramidical in feature. Person in charge of a function (production, finance, etc.) receives command from the top and has to follow it implicitly. The central point in unity of command is that “no subordinate should report to more than one boss”. Receiving two commands from two bosses for one activity will hamper the implementation of that activity. This is one of the principles propounded by Henry Fayol.

If many bosses give order to one individual, the situation leads to confusion and chaos. Because the orders may be conflicting and may contradict each other. Therefore, a subordinate should report to only one boss. Two bosses are not better than one.

3. Span of Control:

The term ‘span of management’ is also referred to as span of control, span of supervision, span of authority or span of responsibility. It indicates the number of persons that a manager can manage effectively. A manager’s ability to manage a large number of subordinates is limited by his time and energy. In order to enable him to give personal attention to work performance, he should have a manageable number of subordinates.

If the manager is made to supervise a large number of subordinates, not only will he have mental and physical strain; but also his supervision may become ineffective. This means, he will not be able to produce satisfactory results, the concept of span of management has a significant influence on the overall performance of an enterprise and hence its importance has been recognised by modern management experts.

4. Delegation and Empowerment:

(i) Delegation

This is a concept concerned with the division of labour and organisational effectiveness. When the organisational grows, irrespective of size, the activities cannot be managed by one boss. Particularly in medium and large-sized business houses many levels of management prevail. The leaders or managers of these levels should have authority responsibility and accountability to carry out the tasks assigned to them. “Delegation” refers to this.

Delegation is a process of giving power or assigning task to someone or to the immediate lower authority so that persons who receive the authority are responsible for part of what they normally do.

When the authority is delegated to any person to do certain tasks, that person has to strictly follow the set of rules or protocol to perform the tasks. Those persons cannot take any independent decision, except that such decisions are well within the approved and delegated framework of authority. Personal innovations which deviate from the set rules, cannot be implemented without the approval of higher ups.

Delegation comprises of the following aspects:

a. Assignment of rights and duties to the right people.

b. Give authority to perform the tasks.

c. Time should be set to complete the task.

d. Critical tasks should be discussed and should not be delegated to do in a routine way.

(ii) Empowerment:

Today, revolution is taking place regarding organisational effectiveness. Organisations are realising that tighter controls, greater pressures more clearly defined jobs and tighter supervisions as found in delegation may not work fully to achieve goals. Attention is shifting to the need for employees to take personal responsibilities for the success of business and hence the empowerment.

Empowerment may be defined as “according official authority or legal power to a person to perform a task independently with strength and confidence on his/her own initiative”. Empowerment instills a sense of power in performer as he/she gets decision-making authority. It creates opportunities to those who have competencies to take independent decisions. This is more concerned with giving someone more control over their own life or situation. Empowerment makes employees full partners in decision-making process and gives them the necessary tools and rewards.

Employment requires shared values, analysing identical or typical situation, identifying commonsense solutions and defining common sense as value. Empowering is a “Mentor-Mentee” process. As a mentor, leader assigns task to competent worker to work independently and monitor the progress. However, certain critical activities cannot be empowered and can only be delegated.

Empowerment allows the performer to assume leadership position but he works under the mentor. Through Empowerment, individual’s potential is converted into productivity. Empowerment is a building block of progressive management. In this process, “Power” is an unlimited resource which authoritarian managers do not give.

A leader who empowers his people not building a great work, but builds great is people. When people are empowered, they will be able to take ownership of the task that they have to perform. The leader need not be present during the course of performing the task as in case of delegation.

Decision to empower the employee depends upon the nature of the task to be assigned. If the competent people are not available, the task has to be delegated.

Empowerment realises and reconceptualises the relationship among tasks, achievements and connectedness. It can serve to re-energise recollective spirit and focuses on out performing our competitors while looking for better to live together. Empowerment has become a building block of progressive management. In this process “power” is identified as an unlimited resource. “The more power you give, the more power you have” has become the dictum.

Authoritarian managers do not like to give more power to their employees. Because of this, empowerment has become slow. But empowered employees who get power in a previously powerless situation have the feeling of control and self-efficacy.

As empowerment is emerging as the order of the day, managements should provide more tools and techniques to their employees to make them empowered.

5. Decentralisation:

As organisations grow, many problems crop up regarding administration. Authority cannot be centralised when the organisation is expanding authority should disperse to the lower levels for smooth functioning of the organisational activities. Decision-making becomes easy at all levels, if authority flows downwards. The process of dispersing the authority to the lower levels of administration is called “Decentralisation”.

“Decentralisation” means the transfer of authority and responsibility for smooth functioning of organisational activities. It may be applied to any type of organisation including the government. It is a complex multifaceted concept. Different types of decentralisation should be distinguished. Because each type has its own features, policy implications and conditions for success. The types, include, political, administrative, fiscal and organisational. Our analyses is made in the context of organisations.

In decentralisation, decision-making process is dispersed or deregularised. But it is a matter of degree. In an organisational structure, if the managerial levels are more, decentralisation of authority will also be more. If the levels or subunits are more autonomous, then the decentralisation will be most effective. In such situations, cost-benefit analysis can be independently made.

Cost is governed by – (i) manager’s perceptions to look at their division and relegating back the overall objectives of the organisation, (ii) costly duplication of services and (iii) increase in cost to obtain information required by the submits.

6. Organisational Design and Configuration

To design various types of structures, certain influencing factors have to be considered. It is really challenging to design an effective and workable organisation structure. The designer has to bear in mind the attributes such as – (i) cultural alignment, (ii) transparency and (iii) communication to have well laid structure.

Besides these three basic attributes, (i) talent retention and (ii) well-defined goals of the organisation and vision have to be considered in designing. Challenges and constraints are also identified in drafting the structure. These aspects are widely discussed with stakeholders to understand the intensity of each attribute across the proposed set-up. This will facilitate the designer to come up with best structure.

7. Designing Other Aspects:

Although fundamental and traditional structures act as base for exhibiting roles, responsibilities and authority relationships to develop an organisation structure today, many softwares have emerged to design a customised structure. Varieties of templates showing different structures have been designed. Any structure shown in the templates can be adopted suiting to be the adopted suiting to the organisational needs. One such template is shown here to understand the possible structures that can be drawn.

Configuration:

The term “configuration” is normally used in computer operations showing the programmes incorporated in it. The programme includes the capacity, volume of things that can be stored etc. This concept is also extended to designing an organisational structure keeping any one of the types of structure shown in the template. Customised structures are designed. Thus, preparing a chart altering the basic structure as per the need may be called “configuration” of organisation structure.

The basic structures, viz., line staff and matrix can be configured according to the purpose, goals and objectives of the organisation. Any number of configured charts can be prepared for any activity of an enterprise.

The examples of configured charts are – (i) Business organisation chart, (ii) Photo organisation charts fixing photos of every individual working at different levels of organisational hierarchy, (iii) company organisation chart, (iv) city organisation chart showing different parts of a city with different hierarchical structure in each branch, (v) city organisation chart showing different branches of an enterprise functioning in different parts of a city with different hierarchical structure in each branch, (vi) Marketing organisation chart showing different sub-functions of marketing plan of a firm, (vii) Human Resources Development Chart, (viii) Financial operations chart, (ix) Team organisational chart, (x) Organisation charts for different activities with hierarchy like, police, school, Hospital, Hotel, IT company, consumer marts, etc.

These are customized charts and are configured as per the needs of the organisation. While designing the structure, certain other issues are considered. These aspects are operational ones and have greater impact one organisational flow and cost of operations. They have to be considered for organisational effectiveness.