Today, almost every specialist should have managerial skills. Modern pace does not allow us to relax for a minute - neither in personal life, nor, especially, at work. So what is the secret of management? The structure of this science is quite simple, but sometimes abstract concepts will baffle even a high-class professional.
We will deal with one of the fundamental elements of management - the organizational structure. Indeed, the success of the entire enterprise depends on how the chain of information transfer is built.
What is an organization structure?
The ability to achieve goals and the effectiveness of interaction with the environment to a large extent depend on the hierarchy of subordination, which adhere to in a particular organization. In other words, the management structure is one of the most important components of the success of an enterprise.
What do we mean by this? Firstly, the orderliness of the interconnected divisions of the company. Secondly, focus on solving the tasks. Unfortunately, this is sometimes very difficult to achieve due to the fact that the instability of the external environment requires flexibility from the enterprise. And the management structure implies a rather tight and rigid framework.
Therefore, the modern leader has to find a compromise between totalitarianism and democracy in governance. Since rational methods are quite stable, simple and understandable, they do not require genius from employees in various positions. On the other hand, the flexibility of innovative management makes it possible to better respond to the dynamics of the macro environment.
Associations
The increasingly complex economic relationships require the creation of new principles for constructing management systems that will reveal the potential of each employee and direct his abilities to achieve common goals. That is why the issues of enterprise reorganization are becoming more popular.
The management structure as a category of management is a certain framework of the system. It reflects the relationship of subjects and objects of leadership. Connections in an organization are built not only on a vertical basis. Sometimes it’s much more important to have horizontal opportunities for receiving information by various departments, since in this case the time for sending a message and receiving a response is minimized.
Vertical connections are the degree and level of subordination, and horizontal ones are coordination of actions of employees of different departments, their direct communication.
Division of labor
The interaction of units may be linear or functional. The linear structure of the management system assumes that the information flows converge to the managers who are solely responsible, if not for the activities of the entire company, then for their division. Functional ties unite employees into subsystems on the basis of common operations.
The diversity of work makes adjustments to the organization of each particular enterprise. Nevertheless, specialists in the field of management highlight some common features common to all firms. First of all, this concerns the division of labor into simple operations and determining the degree of responsibility of each employee.
From the uniqueness of the enterprise to the typical organization
The horizontal structure of the control system appears as a result of the allocation of all specific tasks.To achieve specific goals, someone needs to adjust this work, which means that a control vertical appears. Actually, when management is separated from the activity itself, a hierarchy of subordination (division of labor) arises.
The fulfillment of one’s duties is, in principle, possible in any organizational form. It is important that this form is best suited to the content and methods of the company.
In life, the management structure takes the form of several well-defined systems of relationships. With all the variety of operations, you can count on fingers the really important distinctive patterns.
Linear control
The linear management structure is built in such a way that each manager adjusts all types of activities of his subordinates. The main advantages of such an organization are simplicity and unity of command. But its drawback is that the leader should be an illustration of the saying "and the Shvets, and the reaper, and the dude is a dude ...". The narrow specialization of modern business almost left no place for such a manager and, accordingly, for such an organizational structure.
Functional units are the key to effective work
Functional structure Management is characterized by the creation of departments that specialize in clearly defined tasks and responsibilities. Most often, the separation occurs in the directions of the company (production, marketing, marketing, etc.).
The advantages of such a management are narrow specialization, reduction of duplication of operations and resource consumption, and quick response of the management to any changes. But there are also disadvantages: an interest in one's own success can imbalance the activities of the entire enterprise.
If necessary, a linear subordination is used within each unit. Such a model is not uncommon in a modern system. The functional-linear management structure is used in order to avoid complications of communication processes in relatively stable external conditions with a small nomenclature of production and the prevalence of standard management problems.
International corporations
The globalization of economic relations requires restructuring not only from Western companies. The functional management structure is being modernized, large production units are being highlighted, which may well exist autonomously. Such business entities are called divisions.
Organizational management structure allows you to concentrate on the product, the target consumer or a particular region. Due to this, the enterprise responds more easily to the dynamics of the external environment. Another advantage of this system is the simplification and facilitation of communications. But it was not without a fly in the ointment: duplication of certain functions and even simple operations leads to an increase in the cost of the final product on the market.
Adjust to the macro environment
To regulate and drive into a general framework all production operations becomes more difficult. The uncertainty of external factors and the pace of their development require the use of adaptive structures. With their help, you can create temporary units aimed at solving the problem in the existing macro environment.
Foreign companies in the late 80s of the XX century developed models that received the names of "matrix" and "project structure of enterprise management." They are characterized by the formation of interim local leadership in the implementation of the most important general management issues at corporate headquarters.
Temporary Working Groups
The essence of the project lies in the fact that in one group the most qualified employees for different tasks are recruited to fulfill the task.After completing the work, such an organization is dissolved, and each contractor is free to search for new projects. An example of such a company can be a theater troupe created to stage an enterprise.
The matrix management structure of the organization, in contrast to the project, attracts employees of one company to implement the intended. The main drawback of such a system was the simultaneous subordination of performers to two heads: on the one hand, there is the head of a temporary project, and on the other, the head of the functional unit, in which a particular employee is constantly registered. Despite this, the matrix structure allows a more flexible approach to the issues of solving current problems.
How to upgrade
And again about the globalization of world production. In modern conditions, when the firm’s strategies are aimed at diversifying production, expanding production and business operations, and penetrating international markets, it is necessary that the organization’s management structure is flexible and relatively simple.
An increase in the number of branches, for example, leads not only to an increase in administrative costs, but also to a lengthening of communication channels. Such companies are almost doomed in comparison with firms that are managed from one center. However, structural differentiation is not going anywhere. Consulting experts recommend highlighting the following system restructuring options:
- clearly define the scope of responsibility of each autonomous unit in order to offload the central governing bodies of the corporation;
- switch to the use of quantitative parameters for monitoring the activities of units;
- improve the motivation of the company employees.
The structure of enterprise management is significantly dependent on the state of the external environment. Therefore, experts recommend not using templates when building their own systems, but looking for optimal solutions in each case.
What to look for when creating an organizational system
To build a system it is very important to study the characteristics of the external environment. It is necessary to clearly determine the factors of direct impact and fully describe those that have an indirect effect. As for the internal relationships of the company, here it is necessary to correctly separate the objects and subjects of management.
The most important for the formation of the system are the goals, principles and methods of work. The organizational structure of enterprise management substantially depends on the characteristics and requirements of the market.
Of particular importance is the need to divide activities not horizontally, but vertically. This is what forms the complexity of the relationship and determines the degree of responsibility of each employee.
Factors of indirect effects most often include technology, personnel and equipment. These parameters affect only organizationally - the management structure does not change the essence, but can be modified due to the uniqueness of one of them.
How many people to subordinate
The most important factor that affects the type of organization is the rate of controllability. The number of employees in each department, the number of divisions, and the number of management levels depend on it. Starting from kindergartens, where for each age the number of kids per teacher is determined, and ending with sports competitions, in which each country is allocated a quota of the number of participants, we have been busy throughout our lives calculating the rate of controllability. Overblown staff, as well as understaffing, lead to malfunctions of the entire system. It is precisely at such rates of population per inspector that the structure of public administration is built.
We have to admit that the solution to the seemingly elementary task of distributing work by level and degree of responsibility depends on a combination of many factors. These are the goals and scope of work, the availability of information technology and the degree of communication of each employee, the personality of the leader, etc. As a result, it comes to understanding that the ability to form an effective and efficient organizational structure is an art.
