Organizational structures and leadership

Organizational Structure

The author of this response is asked to answer several organizational structure questions that pertain to an organization that the author is personally aware of. The questions include what basic organizational structure (or structures) are in play for the organization as well as how committees and formal vs. informal leadership and how this all figures into the same. The author will indeed answer to that among other things.

Questions Answered

As with most health care organizations, the type of structure that is in place is most, but not entirely, a line organization. There is a clear definition of who is in charge and over what for most things. Some powers, committees and organizational structures within the company are ad hoc or matrix-based, but chain of command as well as a clear separation of reporting and administrative duties is upheld the vast majority of the time. That all being said, there are manifestations of informal leadership in addition to the formal leadership strains and habits that are clearly emblematic of a chain of command-based system like a line setup (McGraw-Hill, 2013).

Whether the formal leadership of a firm likes or prefers it, informal leadership rears its head in many to most organizations and this one is no different. There is a clear gravitation to people that are more experience and/or clearly knowledgeable bout the firm, their role or their overall medical and administrative knowledge in general. The firm does not stifle that information discourse so long as the people privy to the informal power are not getting outside their "box" of authority and/or discretion (Kalvar, 2003).

This can indeed be a challenge at times because absence of leadership can lead to a vacuum and people will step in (or will be chosen) to fill that void if/when that happens. To that end, the firm in question does not generally have that problem and most of the informal leadership that occurs is with the full knowledge and consent of the leadership and that same leadership steps in if there is a clear void that is being filled improperly by people that should not be doing so or should not have to be doing so. There is also the use of project teams and committees that are in large part on a volunteer basis although the leaders that should or must be involved in certain projects are not having to have their arms twisted to get engaged. For example, a project that involves the accounting department would clearly need to involve the leadership and other senior members of the accounting team on one level or another. That all being said, stakeholders come in many forms and flavors and the formal leadership is far from being the only example and this organization understands and embraces that rather than shun it (Kalvar, 2003).