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Organizational Behavior: Solutions for Management
Paul D. Sweeney, University of Central Florida
Dean B. McFarlin, University of Dayton
Structuring Companies for Effective Competition

Chapter Objectives


1

In this chapter, we move beyond the personal (perception, motivation) and interpersonal (power, conflict, communication) issues to organizational issues such as company structure and culture.

2

While structure is important to understand and control, it is also complex. For example, decisions must be made or remade about how to divide up tasks. There are a dizzying array of organizational choices, including product-based, customer-based, and matrix structures, among others. Each type of structure includes both pluses and minuses.

3

Organizations also need to consider how to divide up power and decision-making capability. This includes how tall or flat the hierarchy needs to be, the exact span of control, and the degree of centralization you seek to have.

4

Centralization (or decentralization if you choose) is very complex in and of itself. But decisions about how and when to delegate are an important managerial skill that should be cultivated.

5

An organizational also must decide how formal it wants to be. An extremely formal organization is a bureaucracy. While not all bad, many feel that bureaucracies have largely earned their reputation. Bureaucracy-busting is a common theme among popular management writers.

6

Most types of structures have their place. Important factors such as size, technology, and environmental stability affect the choice of a particular type of structure.

7

The distinction between mechanistic and organic structures provides a useful way to summarize how the many dimensions of organizational structures (centralization, formalization, etc.) might be more or less functional in various environments.




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