Fundamentals of Organizing
Describe the difference between line and staff.
Explain the types of authority in organizations.
Discuss the benefits and costs of downsizing.
Answer the following questions on pp. 121
Read the Case study on p. 123 and answer the following questions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Fundamentals of organizing: Chapter 4 : Michele Dennis
1. The difference between line and staff.
Line personnel carry out the primary activities of a business, such as producing or selling products and/or services. Staff personnel use their expertise to assist the line people and aid top management in various areas of business activities. The line is the main stream and staff serves and assists the main stream, but both are equally important.
2. Three types of authority in an organization are advisory, line, and functional.
Advisory: authority of most staff departments to sere and advise line departments.
Line: the power to directly command or exact performance from others.
Functional: a staff person’s limited line authority over a given function.
3. Discuss the benefits and costs of downsizing.
Downsizing is eliminating unnecessary levels of management.
The benefits of downsizing are: Immediate cost reductions, improvements in management, faster decision making, better communication, quicker response to customers, and higher profits. Costs of downsizing are: staff and middle management lose control. If downsizing is not handled ethically, morale problems exist with the remaining employees. Increased workloads, lower chances of promotion, and threatened job security, also become a problem. In the social aspect, domestic problems, foreclosures, and suicide are potential issues that must be considered.
4. Outline the four stages of organizational growth and relate them to an organization with which you are familiar.
Stage 1: The one-person organization is when one person does all operations such as financing, production, and selling.
Stage 2: Assistants are added to help carry out the primary activities.
Stage 3: Line organization; each person in the organization has clearly defined responsibilities and reports to an immediate supervisor.
Stage 4: Line and staff organization; staff positions are added to serve the basic line departments and help them accomplish the organization objectives more effectively.
In “Big Momma’s House” Childcare facility, we would have a line organization. The lead teachers will be responsible for certain activities and then report to the supervisor.
5. Case study page 123
a. Conflicts present: overlapping authority, good human relations not practiced, department views from a narrow viewpoint instead of looking at the organization as a whole.
b. Duties, responsibility and authority need to be more clearly defined. Time restrictions may be added to the maintenance orders, and possibly train the production supervisor in trouble shooting on the equipment. The maintenance supervisor could assign mechanics to specific areas so that all departments are covered in equal amounts of time.
c. A third party could come in to mediate the situation and make suggestions. But the third party must be neutral and unbiased.
The four stages of organization
1. one person organization which means that one person performs three basic activities financing, producing, selling.
2. The organization with assistants added means someone has to hire 3 assistants to help carry out the three primary activities of his business. This stage is critical because over 50 percent of new businesses fail in the first year from lack of capital,ineffective management or both.
3. The line organization is an organization concerned with the primary functions of the business. In John's case production, sales and finance.
4. The line and staff organization is an organizations structure in which staff positions are added to serve the basic line departments and help them accomplish the organization objectives more effectively.
I will use the doctor I work for as an example. She is a solo practioner, who opened her business 5 years ago. She had to have the financing overhead to make changes in the building we use so that it was a doctor's office and not an apartment. She only had myself and a nurse. She had to cross train both of us in case one of us was out. We have grown over the past 5 years we have had to hire a part-time person and a transcriptionist. It helps having a part-time person to help with busy days and cover for vacations, etc...
Two important principles are unity of command principle which states that everyone should report to and be accountable to only one boss.
Span of control principle which states that there is a limit to the number of people a person can supervise effectively.
Yes-John has lost control of the business and cannot possibly manage 19 people on his own. With the federal government buildin a number of dams and 4 new lakes his business booms and he has had to hire more people to help keep up with the demand of trailers. He is also so busy that he cannot enjoy his higher income. There is also an increase in the costs per trailer. His solution should be to select managers in finance, production, and sales to take the load off of him.
Product departmentalization is a form of departmentalization that groups together all the functions associated with a single product line. Advantages-attention can be directed toward specific product lines or services, coordination of functions at the product division level is improved and profit responsibility can better be placed. To have several excutives who have managerial experience run the total entity.
Disadvantage- requires more personnel and material resources, unnecessary duplication of resources and equipment. Top management assumes a greater burden of establishin effective coordinating and control. They need staff support to create and oversee policies to guide and limit the actions taken by it's division,
Matrix departmentalization-is a hybrid type of departmentalization in whic personnel from several specialties are brought together to complete limited life tasks.
Advantages-opens and permits communication and coordination of activities among the relevant functional specialists. Flexibility enables the organization to respon quickly to change. The response to change is the result of a self imposed and professional desire to respond.
Disadvantage-relates to the lack of clarity and coordination in assigned roles. Conflict can occur when requirements of the project team result in decisions contrary to the view point of the home office. A project team might want authority to make most decisions on sight, while home office wants tight control. To allocate team members on each product conflict is the assignment of team members to more than one project.
Everyone should report to and be accountable to only one boss-there is a limit to the number of people a person can supervise effectively.
Advantage-it pervents duplication and conflict when orders and instructions are passed down, decreases confusion and "passing the buck", everyone including managers are accountable to only one person for an assignment. It provides a basis where a supervisor and an employee can develop a knowledge of each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Disadvantage a plant manager unusually is capable and generally effective. He made a mistake with his employee managers. He violated the principle by periodically conducting inspections and making on the spot suggestions to operative employee's and these were made when the employee's supervisor was not present. Operative employee's were following instructions that their immediate supervisor gave them. Serious morale problems developed when the employee's would stop working on their assigned duties to do what the plant manager instructed.
Span control-states that there si a limit to the number of people a person can supervise effectively.
Advantage- wider span, higher education, management and supervisory development programs. This improved the abilities and capacities of managers and employee's. General supervision is more effective, they can delegate authority and with good results of new developments in management and permit businesses to broaden their span of control and supervise with results without losing control, saves the company money in the long run.
Disadvantage-a narrow organizational structure with many management levels have some disadvantages, higher payroll costs, communication has the possibility of distortion. Oversupervision may restrict decision making by employee's and limit their opportunities of distortion.
The difference between line and staff is line carries out the primary activities of a business and staff have the expertise to assist line people and aid top management. There are not always easily identified. A line and staff organization sometimes lead to excessive conflict between the two. They can be minimized by ensuring that they understand the authority and responsibility relationships between the individuals and departments. You also need effective communication between both people and departments, it can avoid excessive conflict.
Case Study
Unity of command and span of control also the three different type of authority advisory, line, functional.
They both need to understand both jobs are of the same importance, they are not setting a very good example and further more they are bringing down the morale in the business. They need to communicate with their people and also between the two different departments.
A third party is not in either department. They need to sid down and rationally discuss the problem at hand. Listen to both sides and come up with a solution that will suit both supervisor's and their departments. They need to each be effective and be willing to compromise so the supervisor's and employee's both get what they need.
1. The difference between line and staff is:
2. Line personnel carries out the primary activities of a business, such as producing or selling products and/or services.
3. Staff personnel uses their expertise to assist the line people and aid top management in various areas of business activities.
4. The types of authority in organizations is Advisory, Line, and Functional.
Advisory authority is the primary responsibility of most staff departments and severs and advises the line departments.
Line authority is the power to directly command or exact performance from others.
Functional authority is usually a restricted kind of line authority that gives a staff person a type of limited line authority over a given function, regardless of where that function is found in the organization.
5. The benefits of downsizing is the cost reductions that occur almost immediately, the improvements that take place in the way the organization is managed, turnaround time in decision making is speed up, and communications improves in all directions.
Some cost of downsizing are staff and middle management lose control , managers are told they are no longer needed, morale problems, increased workload, diminished chances of promotions , and threatened job security for those remaining.
6. The four stages of organizational growth :
The One Person Organization meaning one person the three basic activities common to all manufacturing operations: financing, producing, and selling.
The Organization with Assistants Added helps to achieve an activity
The Line Organization means each person in the organization has clearly defined responsibilities and reports to an immediate supervisor.
The Line and Staff Organization means to hire several staff experts to perform some of the same activities your line managers presently do.
7. The two important management principles that affect the successful operation of a growing organization is Unity of command and Span of Control. Yes.
8. The concepts presented are Communications skills are not being followed, scheduling interests, certain mechanics to certain lines to help with mechanical issues.
9. A third party could help by making or helping to plan a work schedule that both the supervisors could follow by and eliminating conflicts between the workers and mechanics by creating a troubleshooting method for them to follow by.
10. no clear sign of an authority figure over both parties , and departmental conflict between the two departments
11. The production supervisor needs some more training to trouble shoot before calling a mechanic and assigned line or positions would help. The mechanic supervisor could work out a maintenance schedule for the production lines to follow during certain time periods, and assign
1. The difference between line and staff is Line personnel carry out the primary activities of a business, such as producing or selling products and/or services. Staff personnel use their expertise to assist the line people and aid top management in variious areas of business activities. Line staff is the main stream and staff are the tributaries serving and assisting the main stream.
2. The types of authority in organizations are advisory authority which is the primary responsibility of most staff departments is to serve and advise the line departments. Line authority which the power to directly command or exact performance from others. Functional authority which is a restricted kind of line authority. It gives a staff person a type of limited line authority over a given function.
3. Discuss the benefits and costs of downsizing. The tremendous cost reductions, improvements in the way it is managed, turnaround time in decision making is speeded up, better communication improves in all directions. The organization becomes more responsive to customers and provides faster product delivery. Downsizing removes the tendency for each level to justify its existence by close supervision.
Post a Comment