CHAPTER OUTLINE

 Describe Contemporary Organization

Design?

 Discuss How Organizations Organize For

Collaboration?

 Explain Flexible Work Arrangements Used By

Organization?

 Discuss Organizing Issues Associated With A

Contingent Workplace?

 Describe Today’s Organizational Design

Challenges?
CONTEMPORARY ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGNS:

A contemporary structure empowers working-level employees,

reduces centralized control and holds all organizational levels
responsible for their own decisions. In an organization, they use
organizational structures for their works. We can identify there
are three traditional organizational design such as simple,
functional, divisional. Organizations face more strength and
weakness in these structures. Now days they try to ignore that
weakness and develop these organizational designs as,

 Team Structure

 Matrix Structure

 Project Structure

 Boundary Less Structure

 Learning Structure
Team Structure:

In the team base structure, the entire organization is made up of

work groups or teams that perform the organization’s work. In the
team base structure, employee’s empowerment is crucial because
there is no line of managerial authority from top to bottom. Rather,
employee teams are free to design work in the way think is best.
However, the teams are also held responsible for all work activity
and performance results in their respective areas.

MATRIX STRUCTURE:

The matrix structure of contemporary assigns specialists from

different functional departments to work on one or more projects
being led by project managers. In matrix structure one employee
should report to two managers. So the employee faces conflict when
they address their superiors. To whom should I report firstly, and to
whom should I obey or directly responsible.

Project Structure:

An organizational structure in which employees continuously work

on projects called a project structure. In a project structure has no
formal departments to which employee return at the completion of a
project. Instead employees take their specific skills, abilities and
experience to other work project. All work activities in project
structures are performed by teams of employees who become part
of a project team because they have the appropriate work skills and
abilities.
Boundary less Organizations:

In a boundary less organization, the boundaries that divide

employees such as hierarchy, job function, and geography as well as
those that distance companies from suppliers and customers are
broken down. A boundary less organization seeks to remove vertical,
horizontal, and external barriers so that employees, managers,
customers, and suppliers can work together, share ideas, and
identify the best ideas for the organization.

Types of boundary less Organizations:

 Network Organizations
In a network organization, various functions are
coordinated as much by market mechanisms as by
managers and formal lines of authority.
 Virtual Organizations
The most interesting networks are dynamic or virtual
organizations. In a Virtual organization an alliance of
independent companies share skills, costs, and access
to one another’s markets.

Learning Organizations:

The concept of a Learning Organizations doesn’t involve a specific

organizational design. Learning Organizations is an organization that
has a developed the capacity to continuously adopt and change
because all members take an active role in identifying and resolving
work related issues. In a Learning Organizations, employees are
practicing knowledge management continually acquiring and sharing
new knowledge and are willing to apply that knowledge in making
decisions or performing works.

ORGANIZATIONS ORGANIZE FOR

COLLABORATION:

Collaboration is often seen as an activity that involves team

members working on a project together. True collaboration is
more than an activity, however. It is a process with
associated behaviors that can be taught and developed. It is a
process governed by a set of norms and behaviors that
maximize individual contribution while leveraging the
collective intelligence of everyone involved.

1. Internal Collaboration

When managers believe that collaboration among employees is

needed for more coordinated and integrated work efforts, they can
use several different structural options. Some of the more popular
include cross-functional teams, task forces, and communities of
practice.

 Cross Function Team

A cross-functional team is a work team composed
of individuals from various functional specialties.
 Task force
A task force is a temporary committee or team
formed to tackle a specific short-term problem
affecting several departments.

 Communities of practice
Communities of practice are groups of people
who share a concern, a set of problems, or a
passion about a topic, and who deepen their
knowledge and expertise in that area by
interacting on an ongoing basis.
2. External collaboration:

External collaboration efforts have become quite popular for

organizations, especially in the area of product innovation. We’re
going to look at two forms of external collaboration: open innovation
and strategic partnerships. Each of these can provide organizations
with needed information, support, and contributions to getting work
done and achieving organizational goals. But it’s important that
managers understand the challenges of how each might fit into the
organizations
Structural design.

 Open Innovation Open innovation expands

the search for new ideas beyond the

organization’s boundaries and allows innovations
to easily transfer inward and outward.

 Strategic Partnership: Strategic partnerships

are collaborative relationships between two or more
organizations in which they combine resources and
capabilities for some business purpose.
FLEXIBLE WORK ARRANGEMENTS USED BY
ORGANIZATIONS:

As organizations adapt their structural designs to these new

realities, we see more of them adopting flexible working
arrangements. Such arrangements not only exploit the power
of technology, but give organizations the flexibility to deploy
employees when and where needed. In this section, we’re
going to take a look at some different types of flexible work
arrangements including telecommuting and compressed
workweeks, flextime, and job sharing. As with the other
structural options we’ve looked at, managers must evaluate
these types in light of the implications for decision making,
communication, authority relationships, work task
accomplishment, and so forth.

 Telecommuting Tele commuting is a work arrangement

in which employees work at home and are linked to the
workplace by computer.
 Compressed workweeks compressed workweek
is one in which employees work longer hours per day but fewer
days per week.
  Flextime Flex time is a scheduling system in which
employees are required to work a specific number of hours a
week but are free to vary those hours within certain limits.
 Job sharing Job sharing is when two or more people

split a full-time job.

ORGANIZING ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH A

CONTINGENT WORK FORCE:

Contingent workers are temporary, freelance, or contract

workers whose employment is contingent upon demand
for their services. Organizing issues include classifying
who actually qualifies as an independent contractor;
setting up a process for recruiting, screening, and
placing contingent workers; and having a method in
place for establishing goals, schedules, and deadlines
and for monitoring work performance.
TODAY’S ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN
CHALLENGES:

As managers look for organizational designs that will

best support and facilitate employees doing their work
efficiently and effectively, they must contend with certain
challenges. These Challenges include keeping
employees connected and managing global structural
issues.

 Keeping Employees Connected: Many

organizational design concepts were developed during the

twentieth century when work was done at an employer’s place
of business under a manager’s supervision, work tasks were
fairly predictable and constant, and most jobs were full-time
and continued indefinitely. But that’s not the way it is today at
many companies. For instance, thousands of Cisco Systems
employees sit at unassigned desks in team rooms interspersed
with communal break areas. At some IBM divisions, only a
small percentage of employees—mostly top managers and
their assistants—have fixed desks or offices. All others are
either mobile employees or they share desks when they need
to be at work.
 Managing Global Structural Issues

Are there global differences in organizational structures? Are

Australian organizations structured like those in the United
States? Are German organizations structured like those in
France or Mexico? Given the global nature of today’s business
environment, managers need to be familiar with this issue.
Researchers have concluded that the structures and strategies
of organizations worldwide are similar, “while the behavior
within them is maintaining its cultural uniqueness. What does
this distinction between strategy and culture mean for
designing effective and efficient structures? When designing or
changing structure, managers may need to think about the
cultural implications of certain design elements. For instance,
one study showed that formalization—rules and bureaucratic
mechanisms—may be more important in less economically
developed countries and less important in more economically
developed countries where employees may have higher levels
of professional education and skills.