Bureaucracy centralization-decentralization-1322

Bureaucracy: Centralization & Decentralization By GROUP-8 Debojit Roy – H66 Sritanu Das Mahapatra – H57 Abhisek Sahu – H3 Krishnakant Pandey – H25 Biswajit Ghosh – H12

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
A social unit deliberately constructed to seek specific goals
Characterised by:
planned divisions of responsibility
power centres to control its efforts
an explicit hierarchy and a well defined structure
a communication network
All organisations are ‘goals led open systems’

Six key elements to be addressed when designing structure:
Work Specialisation
Departmentalisation
Chain of Command (Scalar Chain)
Span of Control (Number of subordinates reporting directly to a manager or supervisor.)
Centralisation and Decentralisation
Formalisation

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE - KEY TERMS
Formalisation - The degree to which jobs within the organization are standardized .
Specialisation - degree to which tasks are divided into separate jobs
Centralisation - describes the locus of decision making in the organisation; centralised organisations are characterised by a concentration of decision making at the top of the management hierarchy
Departmentalization - The basis by which jobs are grouped together.

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE - KEY TERMS
Chain of Command - The unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports to whom.
Decentralization - The degree to which decision making is spread throughout the organization.

Bureaucracy
A structure of highly operating routine tasks achieved through specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command.

Hierarchy
Tall and flat forms
Span of control
Time span of discretion
Bureaucratic structure

CLASSICAL APPROACH
Emphasis on purpose, formal structure, hierarchy of management, technical requirements and common principles of organisation.
This perspective was concerned with structuring organisations effectively.
Two major sub-groupings of this approach are:
Bureaucracy
Scientific Management (sometimes categorised as an approach in its own right)

CLASSICAL APPROACH
Major Contributors :
Henri Fayol
Linda Urwick
Max Weber – most
prominent of the three.
Weber proposed a bureaucratic form of structure that he believed would work for all organisations.

Max Weber 1864-1920
German sociologist
Taught law, political economy and economics
Professor of sociology Vienna 1918
conservative liberal - known for "Die Protestants Ethic und der Geist des Kapitalismus 1930" - debate with (the spirit of) Marx about idealism vs. structural materialism.
Classical underpinning for organisational studies: Gouldner, Etzioni, Burns & Stalker, Mintzberg, Kanter .......

CLASSICAL APPROACH
Weber’s Ideal Bureaucracy
Job Specialisation
Authority Hierarchy
Formal Selection
Formal Rules and Regulations
Impersonality
Career Orientation
Criticisms of Bureaucracy
Lack of attention to the informal organisation.
Restriction of psychological growth
Bureaucratic dysfunction

TALL STRUCTURES :
Thought by classical theorists to be inefficient because of:
Increased overheads
Communication problems
Ill defined management roles
Duplication of effort
Planning and co-ordination problems
However, a contemporary view is that tall structures may facilitate team working, with all its attendant benefits

FLAT STRUCTURES:
Result in delegation (motivational)
Facilitate communication
Clarify management hierarchies
Result in meaningful progression for employees (less frequent promotions, but greater increases in authority between levels)

Flat Tall In order to work, a flat structure requires thorough training for staff at each level

Tall or Flat Bureaucracy?
Tall bureaucracy
If tasks are high in ambiguity
If the time span of discretion of the top job is very long (20 yrs  7 levels)
Flat bureaucracy-make as flat as possible, especially if
jobs are very standardized
decisions are decentralized
If the time span of discretion of the top job is short (1 yr  3 levels)
Note: time span of discretion = how long it takes to see the outcomes of your decisions

SPAN OF CONTROL
Basic building block of organisational structure
Simply - number of subordinates who report to each manager
1 - 10: narrow span
11+: wide span
Determines whether the organisation has a TALL or a FLAT structure

SPAN DETERMINED BY:
Manager’s ability
Subordinates’ abilities
Similarity of subordinates’ work
Nature of potential problems
Amount of ‘self help’ available to subordinates
Nature of controls required
Availability of managerial support

1 4 16 64 256 1,024 4,096 (highest) 1 8 64 512 4,096 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 organisational level Members at each level ASSUMING SPAN OF 4 ASSUMING SPAN OF 8 Operatives: 4,096 Operatives: 4,096 Managers (levels1-6): 1,396 Managers (levels1-4): 585 Ratio of 1:4 Ratio of 1:8 Levels and span of control

Centralisation and Decentralised
Centralisation - refers to the concentration of authority and responsibility for decision making in the hands of managers at the top of an organisation.
Decentralisation - refers to authority and responsibility for decision making being dispersed more widely downwards and given the to operating units, branches and lower-level managers.

CENTRALISATION
Senior mgt can exercise greater control
Procedures can be centralised for organisation as a whole
Decisions can be taken from a global perspective
Easier to maintain ‘balance’ between departments and functions
Senior mgt more experienced decision makers
Centralised management better in times of crisis

DECENTRALISATION
Reduced stress and burden on senior management.
Greater job satisfaction for subordinates
Subordinates may have better ‘local’ knowledge
Delegation increases flexibility and responsiveness to change
Decentralisation can be used to train managers
Decentralisation may lead to improved control

Difference
Centralised
greater uniformity in decisions;
more control;
fewer skilled managers required;
Less extensive plan and reporting procedures;
Faster decision process.
Decentralised
Lower-level decisions are easier;
Lower-level management problems can be dealt on the spot;
Greater motivation and better opportunities for lower-level managers;
Top-level managers have more time for strategic planning.

Examples
Centralized Structure:
Tata Telesrvice Ltd.
Decentralized Structure:
Infosys.

Bureaucracy centralization-decentralization-1322

by Dhanupg Naik

Accessibility

Upload Details

Usage Rights

Statistics

Bureaucracy centralization-decentralization-1322 Presentation Transcript