This document provides an overview of a university course on management functions. It discusses organizing as a management function and key aspects of organizational design such as structure, departmentalization, and centralization/decentralization. It also covers traditional and contemporary organizational designs and challenges managers face in keeping a dispersed workforce connected. The document emphasizes that organizational structure should support effective and efficient work to accomplish goals.

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MGF1010: Introduction to Management
Week 6:
Functions of Management (O):
Organising

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Assignment Reminder: Case Study
Report
• Friday, May 8, 2015
• Case Study Style
• 2000 words (+/- 10%)
• Worth 30%
• Case: Bahfen and Associates (Moodle)
• Minimum 5 Journal Articles
• Moodle is the place for lots of information goodies

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Learning objectives
Explain why organising is important.
Describe six key elements in organisational design.
Contrast mechanistic and organic structures.
Identify the contingency factors that favour either the
mechanistic model or the organic model of organisational
design.
Describe traditional organisational designs.
Discuss contemporary organisational designs.
Describe today’s organisational design challenges.

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ORGANISING
- is how an organisation’s structure is created
-Organisational structure
is the formal arrangement of
jobs within an organisation.
-Managers need to establish
structural designs that will
best support and allow
employees to do their work
effectively and efficiently
Organisational design is the process of
developing or changing an organisation’s
structure.
This process involves decisions about six
key elements: work specialisation,
departmentalisation, chain of command,
span of control,
centralisation/decentralisation and
formalisation.

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Elements of organising
Work specialisation: is the degree to which tasks in an organisation are
divided into separate jobs. Another term for this is division of labour .
Departmentalisation: process of grouping tasks (function, geography,
process, customer and product).
Chain of Command: is the line of authority that extends from the upper
organisational levels to the lowest levels and clarifies who reports to whom. Three
concepts related to chain of command are authority, responsibility and unity of command
.
Span of Control: refers to the number of employees a manager can effectively
and efficiently manage.
Centralisation/de-centralisation: address who, where and how
decisions are made in organisations.
Formalisation: refers to the degree to which jobs within an organisation are
standardised and the extent to which employee behaviour is guided by rules and
procedures.

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ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN
• Mechanistic
Organisation
Rigid, Tightly Controlled
– High Specialisation,
– Rigid
Departmentalisation,
– Narrow spans of control,
– High formalisation,
– Limited information
network
– Little participation in
decision making by low-
level employees.
• Organic
Organisation
Highly adaptive and flexible
– Little work
specialisation,
– Minimal formalisation,
– Little direct supervision
of employees.

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ORGANISATION DESIGN
Traditional
organisational
designs
E.g. bureaucracy
Simple structures
Emerging/Contempo
rary organisational
designs
E.g. Outsourcing
Teams
Virtual teams
Global teams

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REVIEW QUESTIONS
• Explain why organising is important.
Organising, which involves arranging and structuring work
to accomplish the organisation’s goals, is important for
managers because an appropriate structure allows
employees to effectively and efficiently do their work while
accomplishing organisational goals and objectives.
Organising results in the development of an organisational
structure, which is the formal framework by which job tasks
are divided, grouped and coordinated.

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• TRADITIONAL
The traditional view of work
specialisation was that it was seen
as an unending source of increased
productivity—and for a time it was.
Discuss the traditional and contemporary
views of work specialisation .
• CONTEMPORARY
The contemporary view of work
specialisation is that it is an
important organising mechanism but
not a source of ever-increasing
productivity. Managers recognise the
economies it provides in certain
types of jobs, but they also
recognise the problems it creates
when it is carried to extremes.

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EXPLAIN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
• Strategy and Structure
Structure should follow strategy.
Most current strategy–structure frameworks tend to focus on three dimensions: (1)
innovation, (2) cost minimisation, and (3) imitation. Innovators need the flexibility and free
flow of information from the organic structure, whereas cost minimisers seek the efficiency,
stability and tight controls of the mechanistic structure. Imitators use structural characteristics
of both—the mechanistic structure to maintain tight controls and low costs and the organic
structure to mimic the industry’s innovative directions.
• Organisational size and Structure
Organisational size influences structure in that large organisations tend to have more
specialisation, departmentalisation, centralisation and rules and regulations than do
small organisations.

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Describe the factors that influence the amount
of centralisation and decentralisation.
Factors that influence greater centralisation include stable
environments, when lower-level managers are not as capable or
experienced at making decisions as upper-level managers, when lower-
level managers do not want to have a say in decisions, when decisions
are significant, when the organisation is facing a crisis or the risk of
company failure, when the company is large, and when effective
implementation of company strategies depends on managers retaining a
say over what happens.
Factors that influence greater decentralisation include when the
environment is complex and uncertain, when lower-level managers are
capable and experienced at making decisions and want a voice in
decisions, when decisions are relatively minor, when corporate culture is
open to allowing managers to have a say in what happens, when the
company is geographically dispersed, and when effective
implementation of company strategies depends on managers having
involvement and the flexibility to make decisions.

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DESCRIBE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF
A LEARNING ORGANISATION
A learning organisation is one that has developed the
continuous capacity to adapt and change because all its
members take an active role in identifying and resolving
work-related issues.
The important characteristics of a learning organisation
revolve around organisational design, information sharing,
leadership and culture.
Some organisational design experts even go so far as to
say that an organisation’s ability to become a learning
organisation may be the only sustainable source of
competitive advantage.

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Discuss the organisational design challenges facing
managers today in relation to keeping employees
connected.
Many organisational design concepts were developed during the
20th century, when work tasks were fairly predictable and
constant, most jobs were full-time and continued indefinitely, and
work was done at an employer’s place of business under a
manager’s supervision. Today’s challenge for managers is to
develop structural designs that keep widely dispersed and mobile
employees connected to the organisation. The fact is that
whether you are a large or small company in today’s business
world, changes in information technology and globalisation have
made old hierarchical structures less suitable in this new
environment.

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Describe the design of virtual and
network organisations.
A boundaryless organisation is one whose design is not defined
by, or limited to, the horizontal, vertical or external boundaries
imposed by a predefined structure. Two types of boundaryless
organisations are virtual and network.
A virtual organisation is an organisation that consists of a small core of full-
time employees and which temporarily hires outside specialists to work on
opportunities that arise.
A network organisation is a small core organisation that outsources major
business functions.
A number of factors have influenced the increasing emergence of
boundaryless organisational designs. First there is the increasing
globalisation of markets and competitors. Another factor is the
rapidly changing technology that permits boundaryless
organisations to work. Finally, the need for innovation has
contributed to the evolution and development of the boundaryless
organisation.

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Assignment Two
Executive Summary (10%)
– This section should comprise a brief overview of the case, giving a
brief background of the current situation to set the scene for the
report and noting any important assumptions made. (You will not
have all the information you would like - so you may need to make
some assumptions). As well as this, you should give a synopsis of
your case report, outlining the major problems identified and
– the recommendations that have been made in the report. This
should be NO more than one page double spaced. The executive
summary should be on its own page. It is numbered in ROMAN
NUMERALS – eg ii or iii.
– Separate Page
– What you found
– Recommendations, 150-250 words

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Assignment Two
• Problem Identification and Analysis
(25%)
– Analysing the case
– Identify the theories that are relevant
– i.e. Motivation
> e.g Maslow (Hierarchy of Needs)
> e.g McClelland (Three Needs)
– I want to see the theorists and I want you to reference
them (not the textbook)
– Don’t tell me the theory, tell me the case and explain
the theory through the case.

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Assignment Two
• Statement of Major Problems (5%)
– Clearly what are the major problems
1. Leadership
a) Lack of transformational leadership
b) Too focus on process and not on people
2. Motivation
a) Employees feel a lack of equity
b) Employees need to be intrinsically motivated

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Assignment Two
• Generation and Evaluation of a Range of
Alternate Solutions (20%)
– Under each of the problem headings speak about 2 to 3
recommendations for each problem
– Advantages and disadvantages of each
– Be able to link them to the relevant theory
– Make it clear and creative
– Ensure that they are practical solutions
– You must reference!

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Assignment Two
• Recommendations (15%)
– Choose one recommendation for each problem
– So for the sake of this example 4 recommendations
– Justify why using theory
– You must reference
– Make sure you are suggesting things that would actually
work!

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Assignment Two
• Implementation (10%)
– What are the steps for implementing this change
– What will happen
– Who should be responsible for each step
– How will it be implemented
– What are the costs
– This can be in a table if it is nicely presented

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Assignment Two
• Presentation (10%)
– The paragraphs are correct
– Spelling and grammar
– Consistency of wording
– Double spaced
– Page numbers at the bottom right hand corner
– Sub-headings (report)
– Size 11/12 font Times / Calibri
– Justify the paragraphs

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Assignment Two
• Referencing (5%)
– 5 Journal Articles APA Style
> Peer-reviewed journals
> Business Week / New York Times is not a journal
> A book is not a journal
> Big Dog Little Dog Blog is not a journal
> Wikipedia is not a journal
> Sparknotes is not a journal
> Lecture Slides are not a journal
> Websites are not a journal
> Mickey Mouse is not a journal

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Case Study:De Best Fashions
You are consultants.
• Group 1: Accenture
• Group 2: Delloitte
• Group 3: Ernst & Young
• Group 4: KPMG Consulting
• Group 5: PWC (Price Waterhouse Coopers)
Lighthart has contacted you because Wishnoski has
suggested she is not happy with another raise, and is
looking for another job. Lighthart wants to know what to do
next.

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Next Week
• Read Chapter 18 pp. 649-661, 667-668
• Answer related review questions
• Download Fresh Produce from the Moodle, read and prepare
for discussion next week.