Reframing Organizations Ch 3

Sub optimization

emphasis on achieving unit goals rather than on the overall mission

How to group people into working units

-functional groups based on knowledge or skill -units created on basis of time (shift) -groups organized by product -groups established around customers or clients -groupings around place or geography -grouping by process

Strategy and Goals

-future orientated, concerned with long-term direction

Other state goals not in pursues

-honorific (fictitious goals with desirable qualities) -taboo (not talked about) -stereotypical (goals any reputable organization should have) -existing (quietly pursued even through inconsistent with stated values and self-image)

Nature of workforce

-human resource requirements -better-educated workforce expects and often demands more discretion in daily work routines

Performance control

-imposes concrete outcome objectives without specifying how the results are to be achieved -less successful when goals are ambiguous

Information technology

-made flatter structures both possible and inevitable because information-based organization needs far fewer levels of management than traditional command-and-control model

Structure functions

-not machinelike or inflexible -stable environments

Differentiation

how to allocate work

Integration

how to coordinate diverse efforts once responsibilities have been parceled

Challenges of global organization

numerous forces affecting structural design create a knotty mix of challenges and tensions

Task forces

-assemble when new problems of opportunities require collaboration of diverse specialties or functions -project teams

Authority

-basic and ubiquitous way to harmonize efforts of individuals, units, divisions -works best when authority is both endorsed by subordinates and authorized by superiors

Matrix structures

-business or product lines on one axis and countries or regions on the other

Two issues around structural design

-differentiation -integration

Structural imperatives

-every organization needs to respond to a universal set of internal and external parameters -organization's size, age, core process, environment, strategy and goals, information technology, and workforce characteristics

Networks

-evolving into interorganizational networks -horizontal linkages supplement and supplant vertical cordinations

Weber's monocratic bureaucracy model features

-fixed division of labor -hierarchy of offices -set of rules governing performance -separation of personal from official property and rights -use of technical qualifications for selecting personnel -employment as primary occupation and long-term career

Vertical Coordination

-formal chain of command -higher levels coordinate and control work of subordinates through authority, rules and policies, planning and control systems

Meetings

-formal gatherings and informal exchanges

Six assumptions undergird the structural frame

-organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives -organizations increase efficiency and enhance performance through specialization and appropriate division of labor -suitable forms of coordination and control ensure that diverse efforts of individuals and units mesh -organizations work best when rationality prevails over personal agendas and extraneous pressures -structures must be designed to fit an organization's current circumstances -problems arise and performance suffers from structural deficiencies, which can be remedied through analysis and restructuring

Two major approaches to control and planning

-performance control -action planning

Core technology

-raw materials -activities that turn inputs into outputs -underlying beliefs about links among inputs, activities, and outcomes

Standard operating procedures

-reduce variance in routine tasks that have little margin of error

Rules and policies

-reduces particularism -makes sure behavior is predictable and consistent

Size and age

-size and age affect structural shape and character -problems crop up if growth or downsizing is not matched with fine-tuning of roles and relationships

Action planning

-specifies methods and time frames for decisions and actions -works best when it is easier to assess how a job is done than to measure its product

Core process

-structure is built around organization's basic method of transforming raw materials into finished products -research and teaching -far more complex and less predictable than core technology

Lateral coordination

-through meetings, committees, coordinating roles, task forces and network structures -less formal and more flexible

Coordinating roles

-use persuasion and negotiation to help others dovetail their efforts -boundary-spanners -work with different groups and put it all together

Vertical or Lateral?

-vertical coordination is efficient but not always effective, and depends on employees' willingness to follow directives from above -lateral coordination is often more effective but costlier

Designing a structure that works

-vertical or lateral? -structural imperatives

Method to coordinate individual and group efforts and link local initiatives with corporation-wide goals

-vertically -laterally

Intellectual roots of structural view

-work of industrial analysts bent on designing organizations for maximum efficiency -German economist and sociologist Max Weber

Standard

benchmark to ensure that goods and services maintain a specified level of quality

How structure influences workplace

blueprint for officially sanctioned expectations and exchanges among internal players and external constituencies

Particularism

responding to specific issues on the basis of personal whims or political pressures unrelated to organizational goals