Especially by the communication and the hierarchy is a company affected by its structure. The employees have difficulties with working together with another department if the communication is not good. If there is a flat structure in an organization, the employees have difficulties with their job, because they cannot get promotion. This causes a lot of conflicts.
Learning Goals
1. What kind of structures are there?
- Functional structure – this is a type of structure where people are divided in department by their skills. People in the same department has experiences in the same field. This supplies also for the manage, who has the authority. The employee has to communicate to the head of his or her department. The different departments work separate from each other. This can cause troubles in communicating and the will to work with each other. Mostly companies with standard products are using functional structure
(Dam & Marcus, 1995) - Matrix structure – a matrix structure has employees with different skills in a team for a project without taking them away from their main position. The employees have to report to two different person. Often the project manager and the head of their own department. This type of structure is used for special projects in a company (Dam & Marcus, 1995)
- Divisional structure – this a structure that have different departments in an organization. The departments are only taking care of their own activities, but still have to refer back to the head of the organization. The departments are working on different product with its own team. The departments can also compete as separate companies. Especially large organizations have this type of structure (Dam & Marcus, 1995).
2. What is an organigram?
This is a chart that shows the structure of a business. How the different layers are connected to each other and how the hierarchy is divided. The communication is also showed in the chart, who has to report to who (Kaliski, 2001).
3. In what ways are structures different (communication, organisation)?
The communication is in each structure different. In the matrix structure, the employee has to report to the project manager, but also to the head of his or her department. This is different in the functional structure. The employee has to communicate via his or her manager and the manager communicate to the head of the organization (Dam & Marcus, 1995).
4. How is the internal atmosphere affected by a structure?
- Employees in a functional structures work separately from each other, when they work in different departments. This can affect the internal atmosphere, because it can cause difficulty when they have to work together. It affects the internal atmosphere in a negative way. Communicating can have a positive affect when it goes well (Dam & Marcus, 1995).
- When there is a flat structure in an organization, the employees feel respected but have also difficulties with their job, because they cannot get promotion. There is no place for promotion in a flat structure (Fried, 2011).
References:
Dam, N. H. M., & Marcus, J. A. (1995). Een praktijkgerichte benadering van Organisatie en
Management. Educatieve Partners.
Kaliski, B. (2001). Encyclopedia of business and finance. p.669.
Fried, J. (April, 2011). Why I Run a Flat Company. Inc. Retrieved from
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20110401/jason-fried-why-i-run-a-flat-company.html