Organizational structure and comm incl assignm comm kc

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Organizational Structure& Communication

Organizational Structure & Communication• Organization uses communication to

balance with its environment: stakeholders, target audiences.

• Structure of organization influences how it reacts on changes in its environment.

• This behavior makes it more/ less attractive for its employees, customers, investors etc.

Assignment• Analyze the structure of your organization and

conclude which Structural Configuration according to Mintzberg is valid here.

• Explain why you conclude this.

7 structural configurations of organizations (Mintzberg p110)

1. Entrepreneurial organization

2. Machine organization

3. Professional organization

4. Diversified organization

5. Innovative organization

6. Missionary organization

7. Political organization

Which Structural Configuration fits your organization?

First we should understand the Structure of Organizations.

Structure of Organization:Organogram of simple organization


Operating core

Strategic apex

Middle line

Strategic apex: oversees whole system.


Operating core

Strategic apex

Middle line Support Staff

Techno-structure


Operating core

Strategic apex

Middle line Support Staff

Techno-structure

Ideology (culture)

Six Basic Parts of the Organization (Mintzberg p99)

Six Basic Parts of the Organization (Mintzberg p98)

• Operating core: those people who perform the basic work of producing the products and rendering the services.

• Middle Line: a hierarchy of authority between the operating core and the strategic apex.

• Strategic Apex: oversees whole system.• Technostructure: analysts outside the hierarchy who

perform administrative duties: plan & control. • Support Staff: provides internal services: cafeteria,

mailroom, legal counsel, PR, etc.• Ideology: culture; traditions and beliefs of an organization

that distinguishes it from other organizations; it infuses a certain life into the skeleton of its structure.

Assignment

• Analyze the structure of your organization and conclude which Structural Configuration according to Mintzberg is valid here.


• Check Prime Coordinating Mechanism;• Check Key Part of Organization; • Check Type of decentralization • Decide which Structural Configuration seems most appropriate.

7 structural configurations of organizations (Mintzberg p110 - 237)

Entrepreneurial organization

Start-up

Machine organization

McDonald’s; Swiss Railroad

Diversified organization

Result of merges: ABN Amro; ING

Professional organization

University

Innovative organization

= “adhocracy”; Google

Missionary organization

Norms & beliefs in place of standards & procedures; Toyota

Political organization

Finding order & integration by power, not structure

Adhocracy: no strong hierarchy. Reacts ad hoc to impulses: no rigid strategy that can’t be changed. Opposite of Machine Organization.

Any organization can be a political organization at a stage in its existence.

7 structural configurations (Mintzberg p110)

Key Part of Organization


Strategic apex

Machine organization Technostructure


Operating core


Middle line


Support staff


Ideology

Political organization None

Coordinating the Six Basic Parts

1. Mutual Adjustment: coordination by informal communication between two employees.

2. Direct supervision: one person issues orders/ instructions to several others.

3. Standardization of work processes: coordination by specifying work processes of people carrying out interrelated tasks.

4. Standardization of outputs: coordination by specifying results of different work.

5. Standardization of skills (& knowledge): different work is coordinated by offering several employees the same trainings.

6. Standardization of norms: everyone functions according to the same set of beliefs.


Prime Coordination Mechanism


Direct supervision

Machine organization Standardization of work processes


Standardization of skills

Diversified organization Standardization of outputs

Innovative organization Mutual adjustment


Standardization of norms

Political organization None

Decentralization: diffusion of decision-making power. (Mintzberg p105)

• Centralized: all power rests at a single point in an organization.

• Decentralized: extent to which power is dispersed among many individuals.

In case of rapid change, which form would work best, centralized or decentralized? Why?

What could be advantages of a decentralized structure?

Decentralization: vertical & horizontal(Mintzberg p105)

• Vertical decentralization: delegation of formal power down the hierarchy to line managers.

• Horizontal decentralization: the extent to which formal or informal power is dispersed out of the line hierarchy to nonmanagers (operators, analysts and support staffers).

Decentralization:selective & parallel (Mintzberg p105)

• Selective decentralization: the dispersal of power over different decisions to different places in the organization.

• Parallel decentralization: the power over various kinds of decisions is delegated to the same place.

For example: decisions about communication & media are made by the communication department.

For example: the communication department is consulted for almost any decision.

6 types of decentralization (Mintzberg p105)

1. Vertical & horizontal centralization: all power rests at strategic apex.

2. Limited horizontal decentralization (selective): strategic apex shares some power with technostructure that standardized everybody else’s work.

3. Limited vertical decentralization (parallel): managers of market-based units are delegated the power to control most of the decisions concerning their line units.

6 types of decentralization (Mintzberg p105)4. Vertical & horizontal

decentralization: most of the power rests at the operating core.

5. Selective vertical and horizontal decentralization: the power over different decisions is dispersed to various places in the organization, among managers, staff experts, and operators who work in teams at various levels in the hierarchy.

6. Pure decentralization: power is shared more or less equally by all members of the organization.

6 types of decentralization (Mintzberg p105)

1. Vertical & horizontal centralization

2. Limited horizontal decentralization (selective)

3. Limited vertical decentralization (parallel)

4. Vertical & horizontal decentralization

5. Selective vertical and horizontal decentralization

6. Pure decentralization

Check which type of Decentralization

is most appropriate for your organization.


Type of Decentralization


Vertical and horizontal centralization

Machine organization Limited horizontal decentralization


Horizontal decentralization


Limited vertical decentralization


Selected decentralization


Decentralization

Political organization Varies

7 structural configurations of organizations (Mintzberg p110)

Configuration Prime Coordination Mechanism

Key Part of Organization

Type of Decentralization


Direct supervision Strategic apex Vertical and horizontal centralization


Standardization of work processes

Technostructure Limited horizontal decentralization


Standardization of skills

Operating core Horizontal decentralization


Standardization of outputs

Middle line Limited vertical decentralization


Mutual adjustment Support staff Selected decentralization


Standardization of norms

Ideology Decentralization

Political organization None None Varies

7 structural configurations of organizations (Mintzberg p110 - 237)


Start-up


McDonald’s; Swiss Railroad


Result of merges: ABN Amro; ING


University


= “adhocracy”; Google


Norms & beliefs in place of standards & procedures; Toyota

Political organization

Finding order & integration by power, not structure

Entrepreneurial organization (Mintzberg p117)

Structure• Simple, informal, flexible, with

little staff or middle-line hierarchy

• Activities revolving around the chief executive, who controls personally, through direct supervision.

Context• Simple and dynamic

environment.

• Strong leadership, sometimes charismatic, autocratic.

• Startup, crisis, and turnaround

• Small organizations, “local producers”

Strategy Often visionary process, broadly

deliberate but emergent and flexible in details

Leader positions malleable organization in protected niches.

Issues Responsive, sense of mission

But

Vulnerable, restrictive Danger of imbalance toward

strategy or operations

Machine organization (Mintzberg p132)

Structure Centralized bureaucracy Formal procedures, specialized work, sharp

divisions of labor, usually functional groupings, extensive hierarchy

Key is technostructure, charged with standardizing the work, but clearly separated from middle line

Also extensive support staff to reduce uncertainty

Context Simple and stable environment. Usually larger, more mature organization. Rationalized work, rationalizing (but not

automated) technical system External control -> instrument form Otherwise can be closed system form. Common in mass production, mass service,

government, organizations in business of control and safety.

Strategy Ostensibly planning process, but

that is really strategic programming

Resistance to strategic change, necessary to overlay innovative configuration for turnaround

Hence quantum pattern of change: long periods of stability interrupted by occasional bursts of strategic revolution.

Issues Efficient, reliable, precise,

consistent But

Obsession with control leads to Human problems in operating

core, leads to Coordinating problems in

administrative center, leads to Adaptation problems at strategic

apex.

Diversified organization (Mintzberg p155)

Structure• Market based “divisions” loosely

coupled together under central headquarters.

• Divisions run business autonomously , subjected to performance control system that standardizes their outputs.

• Tendency to drive structures of divisions toward machine configuration, as instruments of headquarter.

Context• Market diversity, especially of products

and services.

• Typically found in largest and most mature organizations, especially business corporations but also, increasingly government and other public spheres.

Strategy

• Headquarter manages “corporate” strategy as portfolio of businesses, divisions manage individual business strategies.

Issues• Resolves some problems of integrated

functional structures (spreading risk, moving capital, adding and deleting businesses, etc.)

but

• Conglomerate diversification sometimes costly and discouraging of innovation; improvements in functioning of capital markets and boards may make independent business more effective than divisions.

• Performance control system risks driving organization toward socially unresponsive or irresponsible behavior.

• Despite tendency to use in public sphere, dangers there even greater due to non-measurable nature of many goals.

Professional organization (Mintzberg p174)

Structure Bureaucratic yet decentralized,

dependent on training to standardize the skills of its many operating professionals.

Key to functioning is creation of systems of pigeonholes within which individual professionals work autonomously, subject to controls of the profession.

Minimal technostructure and middle-line hierarchy, meaning wide spans of control over professional work, and large support staff, more machinelike, to support the professionals.

Context Complex yet stable. Simple technical system. Often, but not necessarily, service

sector.

Strategy Many strategies, largely fragmented,

but forces for cohesion too. Most made by professional judgment

and collective choice, some by administrative fiat.

Overall strategy very stable but in detail continually changing

Issues Advantages of democracy and

autonomy

But Problems of coordination between the

pigeonholes, of misuse of professional discretion, of reluctance to innovate.

Public responses to these problems often dysfunctional.

Innovative organization (Mintzberg p198)Structure

• Fluid, organic, selectively decentralized, “adhocracy”

• Functional experts deployed in multidisciplinary teams of staff, operators, and managers to carry out innovative projects.

• Coordination by mutual adjustment, encouraged by liaison personnel, integrating managers, and matrix structure.

Context• Complex and dynamic environment,

including high technology, frequent product change, temporary and mammoth projects.

• Typically young due to bureaucratic pressure with aging.

• Common in young industries.

• 2 basic types: 1.operating adhocracy for contract project work; 2. administrative adhocracy for own project work.

Strategy

• Primarily learning, or “grassroots” process.

• Largely emergent, evolving through a variety of bottom-up processes, shaped rather than directed by management.

• Characteristic cycles of convergence and divergence in strategic focus.

Issues• Combines more democracy with less

bureaucracy.

• Effective at innovation

But

• Effectiveness achieved at the price of inefficiency.

• Also human problems of ambiguity and dangers of inappropriate transition to another configuration.

Ideology & Missionary organization (Mintzberg p223)

Ideology Rich system of values & beliefs

that distinguishes an organization

Rooted in sense of mission associated with charismatic leadership, developed through traditions and sagas and then reinforced through identifications.

Can be overlaid on conventional configuration, most commonly entrepreneurial, followed by innovative, professional and then machine.

Sometimes so strong that it evokes its own configuration: The Missionary Organization.

Missionary organization• Clear, focused, inspiring,

distinctive mission.

• Coordination through standardization of notms (“pulling together”), reinforced by selection, socialization, and indoctrination of members.

• Small units (“enclaves”), loosely organized and highly decentralized but with powerful normative controls.

• Reformer, converter, and cloister forms.

• Threats of isolation on one side, assimilation on the other.

Politics & Political organization (Mintzberg p236)

• “I am no fan of politics in organizations. (…) politics can be seen as an organizational illness, working both against and for the system. On one hand, politics can undermine healthy processes, infiltrating them to destroy them. But on the other, it can also work to strengthen a system, acting like fever to alert a system to a graver danger (…)”

• “Political activity can be found in every organization (…).

Politics & Political organization (Mintzberg p237)

Politics Means of power technically

illegitimate, often in self-interest, resulting in conflict that pulls individuals or units apart.

Expresses itself in political games, some coexistent with, some antagonistic to, some that substitute for legitimate systems of power.

Usually overload on conventional organization, but sometimes strong enough to create own configuration: Political Organization.

Political organization• Conventional notions of concentrated

coordination and influence absent, replaced by the play of informal power.

• Dimensions of conflict – moderate/ intense, confined/ pervasive, as well as enduring/ brief – combine into 4 forms: confrontation, shaky alliance, politicized organization, complete political arena.

• Can trace development of forms through life cycle of impetus, development, resolution of the conflict.

• Politics and political organizations serve a series of functional roles in organizations, especially to help bring about necessary change blocked by legitimate systems of influence.

Do you think that informal communication is more or less relevant in Political Organizations than in other organizations? What does that mean for the communication professional?

Attraction of organization is also dependent on context

Context factors (Mintzberg p106-109)• Age & Size

• Technical system

• Environment

• Power

Relevant for Communication & Media professionals who want to promote the organization to employees, customers, investors, etc.

Hypothesis about Context: Age and Size

• The older an organization, the more formalized its behavior.

• The larger an organization, the more formalized its behavior.

• The larger an organization, the more elaborate its structure.

• Structure reflects the age of the industry from its founding.

Find Age & Size of your organization, and conclude if these hypotheses are correct.

Would you like to work at an old, large organization? Why?

Hypothesis about Context:Technical System

• The more machines control the work of employees, the more formalized the work & the more bureaucratic the structure.

• The more complex the machines, the more elaborate & professional the support staff.

• Automation of the operating core transforms a bureaucratic administrative structure into an organic one.

Find out what kind of machines etc. are used in your organization, and conclude if these hypotheses are correct.

Would you like to work at an organization dominated by machines? Why?

Hypothesis about Context:Environment

• The more dynamic an organization’s environment, the more organic its structure.

• The more complex an organization’s environment, the more decentralized its structure.

• The more diversified an organization’s markets, the greater the propensity to split into market-based units.

• Extreme hostility in its environment drives any organization to centralize its structure temporarily.

Find out your organization’s markets, political climate, economic conditions etc., and conclude if these hypotheses are correct.

Would you like to work at an organization in a dynamic, complex environment? Why?

Hypothesis about Context:Power

• The greater the external control of an organization, the more centralized and formalized its structure.

• A divided external coalition will tend to give rise to a politicized internal coalition.

• Fashion favors the structure of the day (and of the culture) sometimes even when inappropriate.

Find out powers in the environment of the organization, and conclude if these hypotheses are correct.

Would you like to work at an organization subject to strong external powers? Why?

Assignment

• Analyze the structure of your organization and conclude which Structural Configuration according to Mintzberg is valid here.


• Check Prime Coordinating Mechanism; Check Key Part of Organization; Check Type of decentralization & decide which Structural Configuration seems most appropriate. • Then read the accompanying chapter & conclude to which extent this Structural Configuration fits – perhaps the organization also has elements of other Structural Configurations, mention this too.

Further readingMintzberg, Henry (1989) Mintzberg on Management, Free Press

• Ch6 Deriving Configurations (20p’s)• Ch7 The Entrepreneurial Organization (15p’s)• Ch8 The Machine Organization (21p’s)• Ch9 The Diversified Organization (19p’s)• Ch10 The Professional Organization ( 22p’s)• Ch11 The Innovative Organization (35p’s)• Ch12 Ideology and the Missionary Organization

(14p’s)• Ch13 Politics and the Political Organization (16p’s)

Documents

Organizational structure and comm incl assignm comm kc