Work specialization Show One popular organizational concept is based on the fundamental principle that employees can work more efficiently if they're allowed to specialize. Work specialization, sometimes called division of labor, is the degree to which organizational tasks are divided into separate jobs. Employees within each department perform only the tasks related to their specialized function. When specialization is extensive, employees specialize in a single task, such as running a particular machine in a factory assembly line. Jobs tend to be small, but workers can perform them efficiently. By contrast, if a single factory employee built an entire automobile or performed a large number of unrelated jobs in a bottling plant, the results would be inefficient. Despite the apparent advantages of specialization, many organizations are moving away from this principle. With too much specialization, employees are isolated and perform only small, narrow, boring tasks. In addition, if that person leaves the company, his specialized knowledge may disappear as well. Many companies are enlarging jobs to provide greater challenges and creating teams so that employees can rotate among several jobs. Chain of command The chain of command is an unbroken line of authority that links all persons in an organization and defines who reports to whom. This chain has two underlying principles: unity of command and scalar principle.
Sometimes, however, an organization deliberately breaks the chain of command, such as when a project team is created to work on a special project. In such cases, team members report to their immediate supervisor and also to a team project leader. Another example is when a sales representative reports to both an immediate district supervisor and a marketing specialist, who is coordinating the introduction of a new product, in the home office. Nevertheless, these examples are exceptions to the rule. They happen under special circumstances and usually only within a special type of employee group. For the most part, however, when allocating tasks to individuals or grouping assignments, management should ensure that each has one boss, and only one boss, to whom he or she directly reports.
Authority is the formal and legitimate right of a manager to make decisions, issue orders, and allocate resources to achieve organizationally desired outcomes. A manager's authority is defined in his or her job description. Organizational authority has three important underlying principles:
In addition, authority comes in three types:
Why would an organization create positions of functional authority? After all, this authority breaks the unity of command principle by having individuals report to two bosses. The answer is that functional authority allows specialization of skills and improved coordination. This concept was originally suggested by Frederick Taylor. He separated “planning” from “doing” by establishing a special department to relieve the laborer and the foreman from the work of planning. The role of the foreman became one of making sure that planned operations were carried out. The major problem of functional authority is overlapping relationships, which can be resolved by clearly designating to individuals which activities their immediate bosses have authority over and which activities are under the direction of someone else. Delegation A concept related to authority is delegation. Delegation is the downward transfer of authority from a manager to a subordinate. Most organizations today encourage managers to delegate authority in order to provide maximum flexibility in meeting customer needs. In addition, delegation leads to empowerment, in that people have the freedom to contribute ideas and do their jobs in the best possible ways. This involvement can increase job satisfaction for the individual and frequently results in better job performance. Without delegation, managers do all the work themselves and underutilize their workers. The ability to delegate is crucial to managerial success. Managers need to take four steps if they want to successfully delegate responsibilities to their teams. 1. Specifically assign tasks to individual team members. The manager needs to make sure that employees know that they are ultimately responsible for carrying out specific assignments. 2. Give team members the correct amount of authority to accomplish assignments. Typically, an employee is assigned authority commensurate with the task. A classical principle of organization warns managers not to delegate without giving the subordinate the authority to perform to delegated task. When an employee has responsibility for the task outcome but little authority, accomplishing the job is possible but difficult. The subordinate without authority must rely on persuasion and luck to meet performance expectations. When an employee has authority exceeding responsibility, he or she may become a tyrant, using authority toward frivolous outcomes. 3. Make sure that team members accept responsibility. Responsibility is the flip side of the authority coin. Responsibility is the duty to perform the task or activity an employee has been assigned. An important distinction between authority and responsibility is that the supervisor delegates authority, but the responsibility is shared. Delegation of authority gives a subordinate the right to make commitments, use resources, and take actions in relation to duties assigned. However, in making this delegation, the obligation created is not shifted from the supervisor to the subordinate — it is shared. A supervisor always retains some responsibility for work performed by lower‐level units or individuals. 4. Create accountability.
Despite the perceived disadvantages of delegation, the reality is that a manager can improve the performance of his or her work groups by empowering subordinates through effective delegation. Few managers are successful in the long term without learning to delegate effectively. So, how do managers learn to delegate effectively? The following additional principles may be helpful for managers who've tried to delegate in the past and failed:
Span of control Span of control (sometimes called span of management) refers to the number of workers who report to one manager. For hundreds of years, theorists have searched for an ideal span of control. When no perfect number of subordinates for a manager to supervise became apparent, they turned their attention to the more general issue of whether the span should be wide or narrow. A wide span of management exists when a manager has a large number of subordinates. Generally, the span of control may be wide when
A narrow span of management exists when the manager has only a few subordinates. The span should be narrow when
Keep in mind that the span of management may change from one department to another within the same organization. The general pattern of authority throughout an organization determines the extent to which that organization is centralized or decentralized. A centralized organization systematically works to concentrate authority at the upper levels. In a decentralized organization, management consciously attempts to spread authority to the lower organization levels. A variety of factors can influence the extent to which a firm is centralized or decentralized. The following is a list of possible determinants:
In principle, neither philosophy is right or wrong. What works for one organization may or may not work for another. Kmart Corporation and McDonald's have both been very successful — both practice centralization. By the same token, decentralization has worked very well for General Electric and Sears. Every organization must assess its own situation and then choose the level of centralization or decentralization that works best. What is the process of dividing work into separate tasks or jobs to spread among the employees of an organization?Work specialization, sometimes called division of labor, is the degree to which organizational tasks are divided into separate jobs. Employees within each department perform only the tasks related to their specialized function.
What are the 4 types of organizational structures?The four types of organizational structures are functional, multi-divisional, flat, and matrix structures. Others include circular, team-based, and network structures.
When jobs are grouped into working units What is the process called?The process begins with specialization—dividing necessary tasks into jobs; the principle of grouping jobs into units is called departmentalization.
What do you mean by departmentalization?Departmentalization is an organizational structure that separates people into groups, or departments, based on a particular set of criteria. These departments have their own leadership and work together to complete tasks. With large or complicated projects, multiple departments may work together.
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