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Organizational structure, design and change - Structural types

4 important questions on Organizational structure, design and change - Structural types

Bureaucratic structure → the three central concepts of bureaucracy are: the idea of rational legal authority; the idea of office; and the idea of impersonal order. These ideas are based on:

A continuous organization of official function bounded by rules;
A specified sphere of competence, i.e. differentiation of function;
The organization of office follows the principle of hierarchy;
The separation of members of the administrative staff from ownership of production or administration;
No appropriation by the incumbent of their official position;
Administrative acts, decisions, and rules are formulated and recorded in writing, even in cases where discussion is the rule or is essential.

Flatter structures → in flatter structures, widening the span of control reduces the number of levels in the structure, while retaining the same number of staff. Rules of thumb for determining a span of control are:

The more similar the jobs are at any one level (job standardization), the more people a manager can coordinate and control;
The more decision making is decentralized and therefore reducing the burden on each manager, the broader the span of control can be;
Other factors that affect the span of control are the physical location or geographical spread of subordinates, the abilities of subordinate staff and the ability and personal qualities of the manager concerned.

Horizontal differentiation - the departmentalization of work → the decision on which way to departmentalize relies on the characteristics of the work to be done, the size of the organization, the physical locations of activities and the need to maintain a balance between high-level strategic decision making and lower-level operational imperatives.

Multifunctional structures:
Multidivisional structure
Matrix organization

Matrix organization; solving problems through team action

Matrix structures are appropriate under three important conditions:
1. There needs to be pressure from the external environment for a dual focus;
2. A metric structure is of benefit when an organization must process a large amount of information. This is useful when organizations operate in an environment of unpredictability;
3. There must be pressure for sharing resources which matrices support.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Organizational Change for Pre-MSc

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