Structures Of Organizations

Definition : Structure is the arrangement of lines of authority, communications, rights and duties of an organization.

Structure is essential for a firm because it allow an optimal functioning. A good structure can promote (favoriser) the development of news projects, can get used to (s’adapter) modification of the environment, can allow the firm to economise its money, etc.

The determination of a structure is the result of an historical evolution and depend on some elements like strategic objectives or external environment. The internal efficiency of firms depend on their capacity to resolve the information problems, that is :

- the capacity to process (traiter) the information to minimize the costs of transmission,

- and the strategic use of information to minimize the consequences of a bad synchronization of information.

Plan

Which are the different elements of an organization who determined the structure ?

Which are the different kind of structure ? (I will talk about the functional structure, the divisional structure and the matrix structure.)

How the firm choose the good structure ?

I will answer at these questions now.

I. Elements of an organization (from Mintzberg)

Mintzberg is a canadian professor who have work about that and about other topics related at the organizations.

What is composed an organization ?

The strategic Apex is composed full time by the top managers. It have for fonction to organize the firm to achieve its objectives efficiently. The strategic apex allocate the resources, resolve the conflicts, controle, informe…

The operating Core is the basis of the organisation, where people do the basic work, the core business: making the products or delivering services.

The middle Line (who begin at the top and who finish down) is a hierarchy of authorities between apex and core. It’s the middle management. Each member of this line do the work define by the strategic apex.

The support staff is the indirect support of the operating core, of the standardised work. It represente the specific functions like the search, the public relations, the maintenance of places…

The techno-structure is composed by analysts who make and adapt the structure. They standardize the work, the results and the qualifications of the staff.

The strategic apex is a strength of centralization, the techno-structure a strength of standardisation, the operating core a strenght of professionnalization, the middle line is a strength of balkanization (it’s the division of organization in little unit of command) and the support staff is a strength of collaboration.

II. The different structures

Now, how organize these elements to create a structure ?

There are many way to organize a structure but we talk about 3 kinds of structure : the functional, the divisional and the matrix structure. First, the functional structure…

1. The functional structure (Taylor)

With this structure, the firm is cut in different fonctions like production, sell, finance…

Schéma

This structure is preconize by Taylor who inspire by the principe of division of work. Each specilist have the power in their speciality and have an impact on the totality of the production.

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