The answer to the problems of today's organizations is usually worrying or rugged, and the structure is rarely adequate. And all this is due in part to the lack of ability of the established models, since to understand why companies are so slow to adapt to changes, and it should not surprise us that the most frequent causes are all variables such as how:
- All the systems that frame issues that are no longer used, and its management style that gives results totally contrary to the strategy established with the useless system The lack of higher goals that seek to link to the company from a Common purpose: The absence of treatment of human labor problems and every opportunity for organizations. (Mintzberg & Quinn, 1993).
The scheme of the 7 circles
It is said that all administrators and consultants have the knowledge that an organizational process involves much more than simple graphs or text boxes, dotted lines the description of a position and more things that could be mentioned in the form of an illustration; This is why we often behave as if we were unaware of things, since if we really want things to change we must make structural changes, even when some of them are very important, taking into account that even if it is a change it will be productive for the organization. much more than a simple change in structure, taking into account that strategy is said to be very critical. The central idea that an organization is effective has to do with different factors and their interaction, to give an example let's look at figure number 1.
The scheme of the 7 circles
- The multiple factors that affect the ability of an organization to modify its own change system. This image aims to show the interrelation that exists of each of the variables with the idea that by achieving some significant advance in some area of the organization where by logic the other areas will be affected. Fortune magazine in one of its articles on strategies makes the comment that perhaps the strategy planned with caution can be raised by 90%, it will not work as it would lead us to the consequence that there is a lack of attention in any of the other circles.As you can see in the image it has no beginning or end,Even though all the circles converge, it is not possible to determine exactly which is the circle that will modify the beginning of change within the organization.
One of the central problems of the organizational structure does not turn out to be in which most designers waste their time, being in how to design the tasks for each individual if not in the matter of coordination, this is in how to achieve that things function correctly, the real challenge is to have the ability to achieve those areas that are most important for the growth of the organization and thus find the right approach to carry out the changes. (Waterman Jr, Peters, & Phillips, 1980).
Strategy
Strategy is understood to be all actions that are created by an organization to have a rapid response to changes in its external environment, this is its competition and its common and potential customers.
This represents how we should do things to be able to face our rivals (the competition), we can look for different methods to achieve it, perhaps with a low cost of distribution or production so that the price is decisive in market profit, or increasing a value to our products such as promotions, discounts, etc. It can also be achieved by dominating with sales or consumer services, thus being the original value our best profit.
"Structure follows strategy"
This is the phrase of organizational wisdom.
The systems
What do we understand by system?
They are each and every one of the informal or formal procedures that are carried out within organizations to make things work, for example:
- Investments Training Costing and accounting procedures Human resources Production budgets Marketing products
These are some points that should be decisive within the organization since to know it it is necessary to know how its systems work.
For most administrators the word system has a real concept of hustle and bustle, although it turns out that in most cases changes in systems can greatly increase the effectiveness and growth of the organization.
The style
It is said that the personality does not change this being a popular saying, but one of the styles of the administrators is that in an optimal way their time can be divided, there is a multiple way in which the administrators focus their efforts on some things, without attending correctly Each and every demand on their time, to quote Henry Mintzberg, top executives are defective in meeting every demand on their time and only use about 9 minutes to treat each aspect in a dedicated way.
What can be done in 9 minutes?
If any comment about how the tasks are being carried out, try to give force to a message, give the correct form and cause to a task or to some thought of the collaborators, of course this ability is a factor that greatly supports the changes in an organization. Taking into account that personality greatly influences the behavior of other people and the organization, therefore, this being a behavior of a senior executive.
the staff
A human resources administrator must channel the functions of the collaborators so that their tasks are done in a more pleasant way and controlling in a practical sense the activities of individuals, taking into account that human resources is a source that must be nurtured day by day For the proper functioning of the organization, it must be developed, correctly and adequately locate each individual in their work and protect the rights and benefits of workers. We are not surprised to hear phrases such as, if we achieve a good structure, employees will adapt quickly to it, or do not expose the company to people, or the right person makes the organization work properly,In none of these cases are these statements correct since the staff is a fundamental part of the organization but it is only one of the 7 variables that an organization has.
The abilities
This variable tells us about the attributes that organizations have, the additional capabilities that each organization has is known as skills, we realize that organizations very frequently have great dysfunctions in business and need something more than a simple, "change focus or strategy", most of the times they must implement a new skill, this great need for additional capabilities usually gets lost when we have a change in strategy or failing that, the structure in the organization changes, it is necessary have eradicated previous skills to gradually build new skills that support the growth of the company.
Higher goals
We understand that the phrase higher goals means that it is something with a much larger order than simple goals to follow, thus understanding that these will serve as a guide for future actions, being a group of aspirations that in most cases are not even if want written and that go above the objectives determined by the companies, these ideas make up the message on which the business is developed as such, and they are usually the values that we take into account the most, being intimate related to the signals and mandates that the management group of the company is in charge of disseminating it among the collaborators for the future path of the organization.
They convey meaning to people, and conveying meaning is one of the main functions of leadership.
When we manage to make the higher goals have a cascading effect on the organization and the signal that some manager launched reaches the desired result is known as leadership.
Control systems planning
For more than 20 years the growth of knowledge about planning within organizations has made significant progress, Chandler's strategy and structure have given the beginning of modern research on corporate structures, however the following research has as part central situations beyond a simple structure in what are known as organizational attributes.
All organizations contain:
- ObjectivesStructureProcessesSystemsPersonalGoalsMissionVisionClientsSuppliers
In common, all organizations work in close coordination and collaboration with senior executives, the main objective being the common goal that each individual in the company seeks, normally the objective to be achieved in the vast majority of companies is that the organization can or manage administrative planning to achieve your higher goals such as cash flows, return on investments or, failing that, profitability.
A well-structured analysis of the scheme that we saw previously, that of the 7 circles, should be carried out, which will help us to establish a solid base of our planning process and the reasons why this constitutes the starting point to start a process of correct planning.
The managers or senior executives of the company must have a deep-rooted bond, with the collaborators who are at the lowest levels of the company to be able to solve the really problems that exist, their weaknesses and their strengths, to mention some of them are:
- Optimal plan of total activity Planning of long-term objectives Senior executives with quick reaction decisions Plan expenses and costs of the organization Have measurement indicators that allow us to know which department requires special attention or, failing that, permanent control. the activities of subordinates.
The main thing in managing controls at this point is:
- Have the organization's total Development projects The number of your company's departments
Verify if the company really has correct control systems.
Obtaining the data from these items will allow us to carry out the correct analysis of the operation of each of the departments, collaborators and systems that the organization has in order to have a correct decision-making and to be able to plan the specific recommendations that lead us to improvements within the company. (Anderson & Schwab Inc.)
The structure of organizational systems
At the beginning of this century our concept of what we call organizational structure was closely linked with the approach of having a better form, there is an incorrect and correct way to make a system, or an organization, for this reason the correct approach is all depends on … In which the structure has to reflect the correct current situation of the organization. The form, controls and decentralization of the planning systems as well as the general structure must be carried out in a logical and systematic way throughout the company and not independently.
The basic parts of the organization as a system
The basic parts of the organization as a system
- Core of Operations: Base of the organization. Workers and basic tasks of production and / or services Strategic apex: Collaborators who are aware of the correct functioning of the systems Middle line: Managers, administrators, or department heads Techno-structure: tasks independent of the traditional operation called staff Support Administrative: Legal advice, public relations, etc. Ideology: Well-supported or firm culture.
Coordination mechanisms
Mutual adaptation
We must learn to achieve short-term goals through informal communication, people support each other to carry out work and this occurs in the operational core of organizations, it is a mutual adaptation that turns out to be the most common and most used within companies., being really the only form of trust that interrelates employees in situations of extreme difficulty.
Direct supervision
Direct supervision, as its name indicates, is the relationship that exists between the boss and subordinates for the correct action of the tasks within an organization. This happens at the apex of the operations nucleus and the administrator turns out to be the leader of the operation.
Work standardization
Procedures to follow, the analysts schedule the work of the different people to coordinate it rigorously. It occurs from the Techno structure to the Operations Core. It is also a synonym for specification or programming.
Within the company policies we find that there is a real and systematic way of doing each of the actions, jobs or tasks for their correct elaboration and allows a tighter control of the processes, this occurs in the techno-structure within operations core and is also known as job specifications or scheduling.
Standardization of results
All tasks must have a result and there is a way to measure each work done within the organization, this occurs in the techno-structure part of the operations core and its task is to measure the work performed to obtain common objectives.
Skills standardization
Within the company, when hiring or training new personnel, the skills of each individual are known, precisely the organization must have a standard of these tasks since the tasks must be done in a systematic way so that they are standardized, this occurs outside of the organization, and with this we can determine what we are going to receive from each of them.
Standards standardization
As the tasks within the organization become more complex, the systems can change and the adaptation of direct supervision, seeking to standardize the processes, norms, results and work skills, in order to return to a mutual adaptation for the benefit common and organizational.
All companies have common objectives, which are shared among all employees of the company since common results are sought for the growth of the organizations and stability in the market.
Management and control systems
Within an organization it is essential to have a control system since the different activities of the different departments, sections or divisions of the same must be controlled and coordinated to obtain results. The vast majority of these systems have evolved from an action orientation, which is why they become obsolete systems, for example a collaborator has few actions to be able to repair a problem that was caused three weeks ago.
Managers, on the other hand, have most of their settings with a futuristic vision and they manage to regulate these settings through analysts, thus creating more suitable climates within the company and quality in the work of the workers.
In most cases, the controls or standards set by managers, despite the fact that they are only estimates, in most cases are usually correct, since they have the ability to correctly understand the control systems and this allows them to make early analysis with little chance of error. The vast majority of these administrators would be much more correct in establishing a range instead of giving an exact number, so the change of the rules would be more correct and successful.
There are three fundamental ways that make a good and successful control system.
- Planning and control The human side of the control process Evaluation, training and reward
There are few managers who really consider that they must provide a framework for the system that controls the company, if the vision, mission, strategies and objectives of the company change their plan, obviously the controls must also change, unfortunately this rarely changes and With the certainty that it occurs in the core of the company, this is the high command and for logical reasons the repercussions transcend at all levels.
Frequently also the norms, policies and procedures of a control system have been dragged from previous years and do not change due to the new objectives set by the company, this unfortunately turning into that the personnel of the lowest levels end up becoming pawns and not employees, based on the factors with the lowest knowledge and those that really have little influence within the organization, thus direct supervision being a declining direct form of control.
All this is based on a form of planning and control as we see in the figure below.
Management and control systems
Planning and organizing two fundamental functions in management systems have become the most popular research in recent times. Control, one of the functions of the administration, has, although it seems illogical, very little attention, but as it was pointed out previously, administrators should consider the aspects of each one of the behaviors in the process of "Control System" in this way, workers must be considerate and motivated for the fulfillment of assigned tasks. (ACCEL Team Development, 2010).
conclusion
Management: Organizational process with the use of resources to achieve predetermined objectives.
Mintzberg marks management functions and bundles them like planning, leadership and control, staffing and organization interrelated with each other. Although planning is the main one and directly affects each of them.
Planning and control are almost inseparable. Planning without control is not useful and not having control planning does not make any sense. Thus, what we sometimes call "Siamese twins" of management. If people are committed to achieving goals and objectives then they are of benefit if the company does not walk without a fixed rein. Through control, it is the way in which we can observe if the organization's plans have the correct direction and the efforts have a focused sense. (National Open University of Nigeria, 2008).
Bibliographic citations
- ACCEL Team Development. (2010). Team building training and development. Retrieved February 9, 2011. Management Planning and Control Systems: Anderson & Schwab Inc. (nd). Anderson & Schwab - Business Consultants. Retrieved February 8, 2011. Mintzberg, H., & Quinn, JB (1993). The Strategic Process. Concepts, contexts and cases. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, National Open University of Nigeria. (2008). National Open University of Nigeria's Online Course Library. Retrieved February 9, 2011. Waterman Jr, RH, Peters, TJ, & Phillips, JR (1980, June). Structure is Not Organization. Business Horizons. Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.
