People are aware that efficiency is obtained through the order and coordination of the elements that a group has, for this reason it is important to develop Organization and Coordination policies in the Administration; In the following work we will address the subject of Organization and Organizational Structures and their Tools.
The organization is the essence of the structure of the company, to have a clear concept, this article will address the importance, principles, process and design of the organizational structure.
In order to develop the organizational structure it is necessary to use techniques that carry out a rational organization; The main ones are organization charts also known as organization charts, manuals, procedure diagrams, job analysis, and job distribution letter.
In the final part of the article the types or classes of organization that exist will be addressed, exposing the advantages and disadvantages that each one has.
ORGANIZATION IN THE COMPANY
The organization has three meanings, the first comes from the Greek organon which means instrument; the second refers to it as an entity or social group, it is synonymous with a company; the third is considered a directive function since it is in charge of designing the organizational structure to effectively coordinate resources. Establishes the arrangement and correlation of tasks of the group to carry them out and thus achieve the objectives of the company.
The organization can be defined as the coordination of activities of the individuals who are part of a company, to have a better use of resources, whether material, economic or technical at the time of achieving the objectives that the company wants to achieve. The organization has its origin in the human need to cooperate with other people, to achieve goals that individually could not be achieved.
Importance of the Organization
The following fundamentals show the importance of the organization:
- It is continuous in nature, it cannot be said that it is finished since the company and the resources it has are subject to constant changes such as expansion, new products, contracting, among others. Therefore the organization has the need to generate changes It is a decisive element for the failure or success of the company It defines the functions and responsibilities to eliminate duplication of efforts It helps to better establish the option to achieve the objectives of the company Provides methods so that activities can be performed efficiently.
Basic principles of the Organization
There are nine principles that help us establish a rational organization.
- The first principle refers to the objective, each and every one of the activities established in the organization must be related to the objectives of the company.
- The second is specialization, where the activities of employees must be limited for efficient execution.
- The third is related to the Hierarchy, the levels of authority that the company needs are assigned.
- The fourth is Equality between authority and responsibility, each assigned degree of responsibility corresponds to the same degree of authority so that it can be fulfilled.
- As the fifth principle is the unity of command, in each department there must be a single boss to whom the activities must be reported.
- In the sixth principle, dissemination, the obligations of each position must be published and put in writing so that it is available to all members of the company.
- In the seventh, the Amplitude of control, determines the limit of subordinates that each boss must have, to ensure that he is not overloaded and has the possibility of attending other functions.
- In the eighth principle, coordination, all functions must have a balance, they need to support each other and combine to obtain positive results.
- Finally, in the principle of continuity, since it is established, the organizational structure needs to be maintained, improved, and adapted to environmental conditions.
ORGANIZATION PROCESS
Organization Process. Source: (Koontz, 1987)
If the organization is considered as a process, in the first place, the structure must show the objectives and plans, since the functions of the companies are born from these. Second, the structure must manifest the authority that is available to the company's administrators. Authority in an institution is a socially determined right that must be exercised prudently and is subject to change. In the third place, the structure must reflect the environment, since it is always in constant change, therefore it is necessary that the structure be flexible and adaptable. In the fourth place, the institution must supply itself with human capital, considering its limitations and culture in order to develop a good organizational structure.
Organizational structure design
The structure of an organization is defined as the basic scheme for designating activities and responsibilities within the company.
Based on the definition, the distribution of activities together with adequate coordination, gives rise to the formation of different units within the company, establishing lines of link between the units that are formed so that coordination between them can take place.
3.1 Stages of the Organization
The Organizational structure implies the following:
Scheme of the organizational structure
In the division of labor, activities are assigned and determined so that the functions are better developed. To achieve this, the following phases are taken into account.
In departmentalization, tasks are defined and distributed among the staff, grouped into different units.
When forming units, it is convenient to list all the functions of the company, clarify them, group them, assign activities to each group, establish lines of communication between departments, establish the size of the department according to the capacity of the company, specify functions as responsibilities, obligations and authority that each group should have.
There are several methods for departmentalization, the most common are: by function, by product or geographical areas, by clients and mixed.
By functions, it is based on the similarity of the activities.
Structure by functions
By products, when the company provides the consumer with different products, then the departments are grouped according to them.
Structure by Products. (Grajales Lara, N., & Castillo Arriaga, 2002)
By geographical areas, when people are dispersed.
Structure by Geographic Zones
By clients: Primary interest is in serving the client.
Structure by Clients. (Grajales Lara, N., & Castillo Arriaga, 2002)
By process or equipment, when a product is manufactured and has to go through different stages. As an example, an automotive plant.
Organization by processes and teams
In the hierarchy, the structure of the company is defined by establishing the centers of authority. The hierarchical levels established must be minimal and indispensable, clearly defining the type of authority at each level.
Description of functions, activities and obligations, the activities to be performed in each position within the organization's department must be visibly defined.
COORDINATION
It is born with the need to synchronize and harmonize efforts to effectively carry out a designated activity. During the stages of the organization, it is necessary to balance the functions proposed in the company so that the results with the functions are developed easily.
The organization of a soccer team will be taken as an example, it would be useless to have expert players (each one dominating their area), if there is no synchronization, harmony, communication and coordination at the time of the game, the functions they would perform would be useless, each on his own without specifying something.
Efficiency in any organization will always be in direct relation to the coordination obtained through lines of communication. The function of coordination is to achieve the combination and unity of efforts that exist in a social group.
Organization Techniques
They are tools that are needed to carry out a good organization, the main ones are the following:
The charts are a graphical representation of the structure of the company, show the interrelationship with departments and hierarchical levels.
The organization chart must be clear, its hierarchical nomenclature must be uniform, similar functions must be grouped, different shapes or sizes cannot be used. They can be classified by their object, their area and their content.
By object, it is divided into structural, functional and special. Within the structural, it only shows us the administrative form of the company, as for the functional apart from the areas and the relationships they have, it shows us the main functions of them. Only one feature stands out on the specials.
Ways to represent an organization chart.
By area, they are divided into Generals that present the entire organization and the departmentals where the organization of the department represents.
Due to its content, divided into schematics that are prepared for the public without containing details and analytics that are detailed and technical.
There are different ways to represent organization charts:
VERTICAL
Vertical Organization Charts. (Grajales Lara, N., & Castillo Arriaga, 2002)
HORIZONTAL
Horizontal Organization Charts. (Grajales Lara, N., & Castillo Arriaga, 2002)
CIRCULAR
Circular Organization Charts
MIXED
Mixed organization charts. (Grajales Lara, N., & Castillo Arriaga, 2002)
Manuals are documents that contain detailed information about the company. They can be technical, political, positions, procedures, welcome, etc. And they are very useful since they control the fulfillment of the functions, increase the efficiency of the employees, serve as a source of information, help to avoid the leakage of responsibility and define activities, responsibilities and functions.
Another organizational tool are the procedure diagrams, they are graphic representations that show the sequence that a procedure has and there are several types: Operations flow graph, schematic flow graphs, equipment location graphs and form flow.
Through the job analysis technique , the tasks performed in each work group are classified and based on the following:
Job description: indicates what the worker is going to be. It has a title, a generic description; It is a brief introduction to the position and specific description; where the activities carried out are detailed.
Specification of the position: these are the requirements that the applicant needs to fill the position.
Letter of distribution of work or activities is a technique in which the positions that make up a department are analyzed to improve work groups and serve to study related tasks between five or more people.
Types of Organization
They are organizational models or structures that can be implemented in a social organism. The determination of the type of organization depends on factors of the company such as: the turn and magnitude of the company, resources, production volume, etc.
LINEAR
Its main characteristic is a direct line between command and responsibility, each person receives orders and reports their activities to their superior. The line of command is always descending but the line of responsibility is ascending. This type of organization occurs mainly in small businesses.
The advantages it has is that it is a very simple organization, it is easy to understand, it clearly divides responsibility and command, it is stable, orders are passed quickly
The disadvantages are: bosses have work overloads, the loss of one of them can put the organization in danger, they offer resistance to change and are rigid and inflexible.
Linear Organization
FUNCTIONAL
Its creator was Frederick Taylor, who proposed to divide the work of a supervisor among eight specialists. It consists of dividing the work and establishing the specialization so that each person, from the manager to the worker, executes the least possible number of activities.
Its advantages are that it has greater efficiency through specialization, manual work is separated from the intellectual and reduces the pressure on a single boss.
In the disadvantages we find that it is to fix responsibility, it violates the principle of unity of command and has a confusing definition of command, generating conflict between the bosses.
Functional Organization
LINEO-FUNCTIONAL
Here the two previous types of organizations are combined, taking advantage of the advantages while putting aside the disadvantages. From the linear organization, a single boss is taken to assume responsibility and authority for a function. From the functional, the specialization of each activity is taken.
Linear Organization - Functional
STAFF
In this it does not include command instead uses a special advisory relationship between two positions between those who perform it. Its main characteristic is to be an auxiliary authority.
The advantages, the authority and responsibility are present, the experts advise to be able to solve the problems that arise.
Its disadvantages are that it could be ineffective if the advice provided is not supported, by not clearly delimiting the responsibilities and obligations of the advice provided, it can lead to confusion in the company.
ORGANIZATION BY COMMITTEES
Assign various matters to certain committees where they debate and decide the problems entrusted to them.
Steering Committee: The shareholders of the company are in charge of analyzing the problems of the company.
Executive Committee: They are appointed by the Steering Committee and its function is to carry out the agreements that are made.
Vigilance Committee: It is in charge of auditing the work of the employees.
Advisory Committee: they are specialists who, due to their knowledge or studies, issue reports on matters that are consulted.
The advantages, the responsibility is shared in each committee, it allows the ideas to base and criticize, the knowledge is taken advantage of, they give more objective solutions.
As for the disadvantages, the solutions are slower and the committee is difficult to dissolve.
CONCLUSION
The organization is the coordination of all the activities or functions of the personnel who are working within the company, this is done with the purpose of achieving a better use of all the elements that are, whether material, economic or technical, to be able to achieve the objectives or goals of the company.
Bibliographic references
- Grajales Lara, M., N., H., & Castillo Arriaga. (2002). Administration 1. Xalapa, Veracruz.: SEC.Koontz, C. (1987). Nature and purpose of the Administration. In K. O'Donel, Administration (pp. 256,257,258). Mexico DF: Editora de Periódicas.Much, G. (2001). Administration Fundamentals. Trillas Rivera Olga, AN (2008). Organization of companies. In AN Rivera Olga, Business Organization (pp. 10,15,21,27,). Publications of the Universidas deusto.
