Lesson 5vDiscussion
One of the key elements to organizational design is the establishment of an organization chart. Consequently, the organizational chart establishes the chain of command. Why is the chain of command so important in healthcare?
Organizational Structure Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 230 ( 2016 ) 455 – 462 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect 1877-0428 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Ardabil Industrial Management Institute doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.057 3rd International Conference on New Challenges in Management and Organization: Organization and Leadership, 2 May 2016, Dubai, UAE Organizational Structure Gholam Ali Ahmadya, Maryam Mehrpourb,*, Aghdas Nikooraveshb aAssociate Professor of Rajai University, Humanistic science department, Educational management, Tehran, Iran bAzad University, Garmsar branch, Humanistic science department, Educational management, Garmsar, Iran Abstract Conceptualization of organizational structure is the manifestation of systematic thought. The organization is composed of elements, relations between elements and structure as a generality composing a unit. Structure is high combination of the relations between organizational elements forming existence philosophy of organizational activity. Systematic view of organization to structure shows that structure is composed of hard elements on one side and soft elements on the other side. The review of literature views structural relations from various aspects. Organizational structure is a way or method by which organizational activities are divided, organized and coordinated. The organizations created the structures to coordinate the activities of work factors and control the member performance. Organizational structure is shown in organizational chart. The present study is descriptive and library method is used for data collection. © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the Ardabil Industrial Management Institute. Keywords: Organization, Structure, System 1. Structure Structure refers to the relations between the components of an organized whole. Thus, structure concept can be used for everything. For example, a building is a structure of the relationship between foundation, skeleton, ceiling and wall. The body of human being is a structure consists of the relations between bones, organs, blood and tissues (Jo. hatch, 2014). Organizational structure is the framework of the relations on jobs, systems, operating process, people and groups making efforts to achieve the goals. Organizational structure is a set of methods dividing the task to determined duties and coordinates them (Monavarian, Asgari, & Ashna, 2007). Organizational structure is a * Corresponding author. Tel.: +98-912-619-2931; fax:+0-000-000-0000 . E-mail address:
[email protected] © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Ardabil Industrial Management Institute http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.057&domain=pdf http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.057&domain=pdf 456 Gholam Ali Ahmady et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 230 ( 2016 ) 455 – 462 method by which organizational activities are divided, organized and coordinated. The organizations create the structures to coordinate the activities of work factors and control the members’ actions (Rezayian, 2005). 2. Organization structure definition Minterzberg (1972): Organizational structure is the framework of the relations on jobs, systems, operating process, people and groups making efforts to achieve the goals. Organizational structure is a set of methods dividing the task to determined duties and coordinates them. Hold and Antony (1991): Structure is not a coordination mechanism and it affects all organizational process. Organizational structure refers to the models of internal relations of organization, power and relations and reporting, formal communication channels, responsibility and decision making delegation is clarified. Amold and Feldman (1986): Helping the information flow is one of the facilities provided by structure for the organization (Monavarian, Asgari, & Ashena, 2007).Organizational structure should facilitate decision making, proper reaction to environment and conflict resolution between the units. The relationship between main principles of organization and coordination between its activities and internal organizational relations in terms of reporting and getting report are duties of organization structure (Daft, Translated by Parsayian and Arabi, 1998). 2.1. Conceptualization of organizational structure Conceptualization of organizational structure is the manifestation of systematic thinking. Organization consists of elements, relations between elements and structure of relations as a generality composing a unit. Structure is high combination of the relations between organizational elements forming existence philosophy of organizational activity. Systematic view of organization to structure shows that structure is composed of hard elements on one side and soft elements on the other side. At the end of hard dimension, there are tangible elements as groups and hierarchy organizational units. The relations between these units and groups show soft element in organization structure. At the end of soft continuum dimension, judgment of organization people to structure can be observed. The review of literature views structural relations from various aspects. According to the study of Schine (1971, 1988) regarding the identification of three dimensions: Hierarchy, functional and inclusion, it is a unique study. Three dimensions of his study are as followings: Hierarchy dimension: It shows relative ranks of organizational units by similar method of organizational chart. Functional dimension: It shows different works performed in organization. Inclusion dimension: The close or far distance of each person in organization to central core of organization. The proper combination of mentioned dimensions shows formal structure as manifested in organizational chart. The reality is that there are many organizational forms and they cannot be easily explained by organizational chart (Foruhi, 2004). 3. Dimensions of organizational structures Organizational structure is manifested in organizational chart. In planning organizational structure, there are three principles: 1- Organizational structure determines formal relations and reporting in organization and it shows the number of levels in the hierarchy and it defines the span of the control of managers. 2- Organizational structure determines the position of people as working in group in a unit and it divides the units in the entire organization. 3- Organizational structure includes the design of systems by which all units are coordinated and effective relation in organization is guaranteed. Organizational structure can be affected by goals, strategy, environment, technology, organization size. These variables are key and content-based and indicate the entire organization and its position between the organization 457 Gholam Ali Ahmady et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 230 ( 2016 ) 455 – 462 and environment. Content variables can be important as they show organization and the environment in which there are structural variables. Structural variables indicate internal features of an organization and present a basis by which the organizations can be measured and their structure features can be compared with each other. The content variables affect structural variables. Complexity, formality and centralization are important examples of content variables. Content variables affect structural variables and by their combination, different types of structural designers are created (Rabinz, Translated by Parsian and Arabi, 2012). 4. Different types of organizational structures The organization theorists consider mostly two types of structures: Physical and social structures. Physical structure refers to the relations between physical elements of organizations as buildings and geographical places in which the works are done (business). In organization theory, social structure refers to the relations between social elements as people, positions and organizational units (e.g. departments and sectors). 4.1. Different types of social structures Simple structure: This is a set of flexible relations and due to limited separation, it has low complexity. The members of such organization can design organization chart with focusing on leaders and there is no need to formality. Considering the duties or management order is done by mutual agreement and coordination and supervision are direct and informal. Functional structure: The organization with increased complexity is managed based on simple structure. Normally, functional structure is used as a tool to fulfill the increasing needs of separation. This is called function as in this structure, the activities are classified based on logical similarity of work functions. The functions that are created based on dependent duties and shared goals. In functional structure, re-work of activities is limited and this structure is efficient. The aim of this plan is maximizing saving of specialization scale. Multidivisional structure: In organizational development path, if functional structure is developed, it is turned into multidivisional structure as a tool to reduce the decisions responsibility by top manager. Multidivisional structure is a set of separate functional structures reporting a central center. Each functional structure is responsible for management of daily operation. The central staff is responsible for supervision and management of organization relation with environment and strategy. Matrix structure: This structure is created with the aim of creating a type of structure composed of functional and multidivisional structures. The aim of matrix structure is combining the efficiency of functional structure with flexibility and sensitivity of multidivisional structure not only based on product logic, customer or geographical region, but also based on functional logic in multidivisional structure. In matrix organization, functional specialized employees work in one or some project teams. This delegation of activities to employees is done via negotiation between functional and project managers and sometimes with the presence of people of teams or potential members. Hybrid structure: In hybrid structure, one part is dedicated to the type of structure and another part to another type of structure. The reason of formation of hybrid structures is combination of advantages of two structures by designers or the organization is changing. As in hybrid structure, by moving from one section of structure to another structure, the relations basis is changed and hybrid forms can be unclear. On the other hand, hybrid structure enables the organization in which the best and flexible structure is used. Network structure: The networks are formed when the organizations are faced with rapid changes of technology, short life cycles of product and dispersed and specialized markets. IN a network, required assets are distributed among some network partners as there is no unified organization in a network to generate the products or services and the network is producer or supplier. In a network structure, the partners are associated via customer supplier relations and a type of free market system is created. It means that the goods are traded among network partners as in a free market, they are traded (Jo. hatch, Translated by Danayifard, 2014)