Organizational Design Line Structure

¶ … organizational structure type from chapter 6 of the class text. The author is also asked to select an organization that uses such a structure. It is to be explained why the structure works, why it does not work and what can be done to improve the structure. The traits of the selected department including the population protected and the resources it has will also be looked at. The New York City police department is very massive and has a huge amount of resources available to it but they must be vigilant and prudent in how they manage those resources.

Sample Agency

As noted in the introduction, the selected agency being looked at today is the New York City police department. Also as intimated by the introduction, they enjoy a regimented line structure that is based on chain of command and structure. This department protects the city of New York City, which is the largest city in the United States. When accounting for actual population of the city in question and eschewing the size of the metropolitan area, it is not even close as New York has more than 8 million with the closest city behind that being Los Angeles with nearly four million. The New York city police department is divided into precincts that are managed by staff and leaders specific to that area. Each precinct ranges from the precinct chief down to the front line officer and specialized departments such as robbery, narcotics and so forth (NYPD, 2013).

Line Structure

The line structure is a strong one and one that is effective because it clearly demarcates who is responsible to who and who answers to who. It removes a lot of the ambiguity regarding who is in charge and who is accountable for the performance of a given area. However, line structure is not a panacea. Even in a regimented line structure, it still has to be defined who is personally accountable for what tasks. Some are easy to assign and associate with a given team or leader while others are more ambiguous and hard to pinpoint. Another potential downside of the line structure is that there can be a disconnect between what the higher leaders are doing and what the middle leaders are enforcing. If there is a difference between what the high and middle leadership finds important, than the desires of the high leadership can be lost in the shuffle (Boundless, 2013).

The New York City Police Department has operated pretty well and this includes a heavy amount of direction and influence from its mayors over the years, former Mayor Giuliani in particular. The outside influence of other agencies does not stop with the Mayor, who is answerable to by the entire police department, but the mayor is by far the major one. The agency also has to take into account its relationship and affects from and by the media as well as the broader public. As far as what organizational theories are in play, there are several that are obviously in play. First, the presence of stakeholders that may or may not be part of the regimented organizational structure is one thing that has to be taken into account. The media and public examples mentioned above are just two example of ones that are not official stakeholders and not officially part of the organization but must be taken seriously. The mayor is the leader but is also a stakeholder and the mayor is subject to political and other sources of influence and actions that may be counterintuitive to leading an organization properly. The recent implementation and criticism of the "stop and frisk" policy is an example of a situation where the public, the media and political forces in general can wield a huge amount of pressure on the police (NYCLU, 2013). All organizational structures have upsides and downsides as well as situations and examples where they are best used and best not used. There are also situations where the line structure can be abused. For example, people can asked to "fall on the sword" even if they are not totally at fault, if they're at fault at all.