Organizational Design: In Addition to Being Referred

Organizational Design:

In addition to being referred to as position management, organizational design incorporates the analysis of individual position and their arrangement in the entire organization. Therefore, an efficient organizational design supports clear lines of authority, responsibilities of the authorities, cooperation and trust, effective communication, smooth and timely work flows, cost efficiency, and flexibility to changing situations.

Clues of Problems in the Design of an Organization:

Organizational design has various functions in an organization including the determination of the extent of focus, product/service range, target market initiatives, and the number of targeted niches. The structures of individual positions and organizational design have a direct effect on cost-efficiency and effectiveness of achievement of organizational goals ("Organizational Design," n.d.). In case of problems with the design of an organization, some of the major clues a manager may have include:

Slow Decision Making:

Slow decision making occurs when the design is not optimized to the appropriate decision making authority or when the decision making process involves a multiple layer of management before the rendering of an outcome. However, a departmental or smaller decision making process may be an effective way to facilitate innovative spirit in the organization.

Unclear Communication Lines:

The routine disregard of the standard or established chain of command by employees within an organization is the other clue of problems with the design of the organization. Managers may have this clue through observation or feedback from employees either in form of complaints or suggestions. While workers need to feel that their concerns are heard through the standard management path, poor organizational design forces them to go directly to the department head or the Chief Executive Officer to express their complaints or concerns.

Unequal Workload:

As a good organizational design promotes effective work processes, problems with the structure often result in the unequal distribution of work between the various divisions. In this case, some departments may have difficulties in finding work to keep all employees busy whereas others are understaffed and work overtime to meet the needs of the workload.

Low Productivity:

The final yet important clue about problems with an organizational design is low productivity caused by poor resource and workload allocation, poor communication lines, and poor work environment (Acevedo, n.d.).

Changing an Existing Organization vs. Designing a New Structure:

The process of changing an existing organization is a different task from designing a new structure because of various reasons. First, changing an existing organization may require an overhaul of the entire organizational goals and management while designing a new structure only incorporates designing of individual positions and their placement in the organization. Secondly, designing a new structure basically involves the identification of problems with the existing one while changing an existing organization involves converting all components of the organization.