Organizational Structure Part 5

• Departmentalization by Business Function
• Advantages
• Ideally suited to a stable organizational environment
• Requires less internal coordination
• Facilitates the development of expertise
• Not dependent on interpersonal and managerial skills
• Disadvantages
• Response time to issues can be slow
• Bottlenecks occur due to sequential nature of the organizational decision making process
• Innovation may suffer
• Strong demand on senior managers to coordinate
• Conflict emerges from prioritization issues
• Departmentalization by Product
• Advantages
• Ideal for organizations experiencing fast change
• Clearly Defined Roles & Responsibilities
• Facilitates High Product Visibility
• Disadvantages
• Allocation of resources can become a political battle for priority
• Coordination of activities can decline
• Expertise may decline
• Departmentalization - Matrix
• Expertise can be realized across the organization to tackle organizational projects
• Project Teams can be drawn from various Functional Units
• Project Manager Appointed to Operate a Project
• Solid lines indicate line of command
• Dashed lines indicate shared authority between project manager and functional manager
• Advantages
• Allocates Expertise Across the Organization
• Greater Flexibility in Tackling Organizational Issues
• Realizes Top Management Expertise
• Develops Employee Skills
• Disadvantages
• Encourages Power Struggles
• Highly dependent on the interpersonal skills of staff
• Project manager may assume to much authority
• Project Manager may isolate other members
• Costly to implement
• Networks
• Internal Network
• Dynamic - Loosely Completed Network
• Vertical Network
• Virtual Network:   "The virtual organization is a temporary network of companies that come together quickly to exploit fast-changing opportunities"
• Virtual
• Technology
• Opportunism
• Trust
• No Borders
• Excellence

Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/

How do you manage your time?

Not having enough time has become a very common complaint both at home and at work. The essence of good time management is prioritizing what is most important to you and then disciplining yourself to accomplish those highest priorities first.

Time management is not so much about checklists, calendars, and scheduling as it is knowing what is most important in your life and making sure that the activities of your life are aligned with your values and priorities. 

Stephen Covey developed a Time Management Matrix to prioritize the activities of our lives.  There are two dimensions to the matrix:  urgent and important. 

• Urgent matters are those that demand immediate attention, such as the telephone call from an irate customer, the report the boss asked for right away, etc.  We are reactive to the urgent.
• Important matters are those that are aligned with long-term values, priorities, and goals, such as learning new skills, developing new products, or getting a college degree.  Important issues require us to be more thoughtful and proactive.

The way we get more time for those things that are most important to us is to stop doing the not urgent and not important:  time wasters such as idle chat, busywork, junk emails, mindless TV shows. Minimize the time allowed for the urgent but not important:  some meetings, some phone calls, some emails.  Successful people do this by saying “no” frequently.  Learn to say “no” to unimportant activities.

Time management is up to you.  Take some time and think about exactly what your true priorities are.  Spend more time on those things that are truly important to you.

If you are interested in learning more visit our website for information on our Time Management webinar.

Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/