TOPIC 2: The Dimensions and Basic Principles of Organizing

BASIC DIMENSION AND PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZING

A good analogy for the organizing function in an organization would be the desk organizer.
Typically, a worker would have a variety of widgets and gizmos things like paper clips,
rubber bands, pencils, erasers, highlighters, papers, pens, highlighters, post-it memo pads,
pin tacks, stapler, staple wires and so on and so forth. Thrown randomly on top of the desk
and drawers, they can be such a clutter. The desk organizer provides order, accessibility
and even aesthetic appeal. Tools and techniques of organizing can provide the same
benefits in relation to management.

 
The Oxford American dictionary defines the verb organizer as:

1. To arrange in an orderly and systematic way

2. To make arrangement for, as in organize a picnic
3. To form (people) into an association for a common purpose
These definitions are very well applicable to management function of organizing. As
presented earlier, "organizing is the process of arranging people and other resources to
work together for a common goal". It is also the process of making the organization's
structure fit with its objectives, resources and environment. Organizing can be done for a
small work unit, a department or division, or the entire organization. An organization is a
pattern of inter-related and concurrent relationships through which its members, under the
direction of leaders and managers pursue their common goals. These goals are products of
decision-making processes. 

The illustration below shows the key dimension of organizations in the context of preceding
discussions:

The significance of the organizing to corporate or institutional productivity cannot

be ignored. It is critical to meeting organizational objectives because:
 It identifies what has to be done and who is supposed to do it.
 It shows reports of whom and who is in charge of whom.
 It establishes channel of multi-directional organizational communication.
 It provides the basis for coordinating the work of people within the organization in pursuit of
organizational strategies and objectives.
 It rationalizes the allocation of both physical and human resources on the objectives that
have to be achieved.

MYTHS ON THE ORGANIZING FUNCTION

There are several misconceptions about organizing that need to be corrected. They are as
follows:

1. Organizing means finding work for people to do.

 Wrong. Organizing means arranging and relating the work that need to be done so
that they can performed effectively and efficiently.
2. The organizational structure is the organizational chart and the listing of people appointed and
designated to different positions. 
 Wrong. The organizational chart is the diagram or visual representation of the
organizational structure. The organizational structure is the broader concept that
covers how work to be done have been identified and grouped together so that the
organization can achieve its key objectives.
3. Organizing involves the identification of people who will fit into the position.
 Wrong. It is the work that is being organized and the set of responsibilities,
functions and tasks are then translated into positions. Thereafter, the recruitment
and placement activities are undertaken to ensure that qualified and suitable
persons are placed in the created positions to perform the work.
4. Organizing is practiced in big companies only and is merely a desirable
management activity in smaller organizations.
 Wrong. The best time to organize is when an organizations is just starting. Thus,
even small and newly established educational institutions could benefit from the
application of the organizing function.
5. Organization is the responsibility reposed only on the top management in
an organizing.
 Wrong. On the contrary, it is not an activity that is reposed on certain executive
officers only. All managers and supervisors need to practice the activities of
organizing by creating the organizational structure in their respective departments
or work units, assigning and delegating work to be done among their people, and
establishing relationships in terms of tasks linkages among them.
 
 THE PROCESS OF ORGANIZING

The process of organizing is presented and summarized of the above illustration:

You can increase your productivity by keeping things and methods organized. You
will save time looking for things and will have more time to work on important
tasks. As organization can improve the flow of organization between you and your
team, you can also make your team more productive. After all, better
communication leads to better results.

The Basic Principles of Organizing and the Role of HR Practitioners

PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZING
 
The principles of organizing according to Henry Fayol, in his book General and Industrial
Management which was published in 1916. While undertaking the management function,
the following basic principles must be considered:

 
I. WORK SPECIALIZATION
 Work specialization is traditionally known as the division of labor, It establishes the degree
to which organizational tasks are divided into defined jobs. The basic premise is an
individual or organizational unit becomes more efficient the more it specializes in the
performance of a set of similar or related activities over time:
This principle is important for the following reasons:

1.
1. It leads to higher levels of performance proficiency because employees contend with
circumscribed and well-defined jobs.
2. Specialization enables the employees gain expertise in their jobs. It also allows for quicker
and easier training of new employees and replacement workers.
3. The person-job match is maximized because work specialization allows for the identification
of the specific KASH (Knowledge, attitudes, skills and habits) requirements for a particular
position.
Too much of work specialization can be detrimental if it would reduce certain jobs to the
performance of minutely detailed and routine tasks. The absence of variety can be
detrimental which is one of the core dimensions of motivating job, can result into boredom
and consequently lead to employee dissatisfaction. However, current practices to overcome
are job enrichment, job enlargement and multi-skilling:
Job Enrichment involves enhancing job depth or control of work. Job depth involves the
extent to which an individual can control his/her own work and is determined by standards,
methods, and the degree of supervision provided by the immediate superior.
Job Enlargement involves expanding job scope or the variety of tasks as against the
repetition of work. Job scope refers to the number of different operations a particular job
requires and the frequency with which the job cycle must be repeated.
Multi-skilling involves providing employees with a variety of skills which will allow him some
flexibility in performing jobs of different nature.

II. UNITY OF COMMAND

The chain of command in an organization is an unbroken line of authority that links all
persons in an organization and provides information as to who reports to whom. It
establishes the former superior-subordinate relationship. This principle simply means that
each person should report to only one superior. Adherence to this principle leads to the
avoidance of confusion, inaction and conflict which can affect efficiency and effectiveness
within the organization.

III. COMMAND RESPONSIBILITY

The military always emphasizes the command responsibility. This principles emphasizes
that a superior in an organization has responsibility and accountability for the
performance of tasks under his jurisdiction. Furthermore, such responsibility and
authority are not obliterated by the act of delegation of wholes or parts of his or her
tasks, authority and responsibility to subordinates or members. The boss is where the
buck stops. There is no instance where the blame for mistakes, shortcomings or failure
to do the work can ever be placed wholly on the lower level employees.

IV. PARITY OF RESPONSIBILITY AND AUTHORITY

Responsibility is defined as the obligation to carry out one's assigned tasks while authority is
the capacity to make decisions, take actions, give and enforce order without having to seek
permission from anyone. It is the type of formal power attached to ones position. The
principle of parity of responsibility and authority means that any person in an organization
who is made responsible for accomplishing certain tasks must be given sufficient authority
to accomplish them.
Organizational members must be given the authority to commensurate the levels of
responsibility associated with their positions. An imbalance can be disconcerting. Too much
responsibility with very little authority will make a job difficult and can lead to instances of
inaction. On the other hand, too much authority with very little responsibility could create
despots and autocrats, Accountability can also be obscured. 

V. CHECKS AND BALANCES

 A work unit in an organization whose function is to check or evaluate activities of another
work unit must not be placed under the control or supervision of the unit that is to be
evaluated. This principle is in the premise on the need to avoid collusion or cover-up of
possible mistakes, wrong doings, either deliberate or incidental, and shortcoming of either
work or unit. Example of this is an internal auditor, to avoid deviations and putting a specific
unit in good light, an internal auditor shall be independent and has no influence,
relationship, or connection to a department/unit he/is going to audit. 

THE HR ROLES IN ORGANIZING

 
 To assist in the effective development of people
o The impact of organizational structure and management policies on the development of
officers or employees are vital concerns of human resource managers. HR practitioners
should maintain strategic management perspectives in the performance of organizing
functions. HR practitioners should contend with issues such as logical arrangement of
functions, centralization or decentralization, work specialization, span of control, checks and
balances and manpower optimization. The objective to be kept in mind is maximizing the
contributions of the human resource management in pursuing the organizational vision,
mission and the core values system, and meeting organizational objectives of productivity
and effectiveness.
 To provide guidance and assistance in developing the organizational structure
o This connotes that HR practitioners should have the requisite conceptual and theoretical
foundations of organizing and should have developed the insights from actual experience in
organizing activities that should serve as inputs to the organizing process. It is important to
care to observe for the development of the structure considering that past characteristics of
the organizational structure tend to persist in the later organizational forms.
 To examine and re-design the organizational structure
o This is a classical intervention of human resource management. When the basic
organizational structure is developed after blessings of top management, the HR
practitioners continued his/her work by developing detailed diagrams, charts and
subsequently the job descriptions. The HR should realized that structure, being one of the
factors of organizational excellence, should be linked with organizational strategy,
organizational culture, the competence and motivation of employees, the adoption of
technology and many other factors related to work improvements.

Organizing is important to all levels of organization. It shall be understood in the premise of

ensuring that all job-related factors are to be put in-placed, likewise improving the
organizational processes such as communication, sharing of information, interpersonal
relations, teambuilding, conflict resolution and other quality system initiatives. This will 
also help and guide organizational members to be efficient and productive in the discharge
of their duties and responsibilities. 
 The Context of Organizational Structure

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

An organizational structure is a relatively stable framework of jobs and departments or work

units. Gibson, et al (2000) define organizational structure as a pattern of jobs in an
organization which is an important cause of individual and group behavior.
A key organizing activity is the development of the structure which defines how tasks are
divided and how resources are positioned. Devising the organizational structure involves the
deliberate, purposeful and formal way of arranging, dividing and coordinating the various
parts of an organization so each component contributes to the achievement of the
organizational strategies, goals and objectives. Organizational structure covers both formal
and informal relationship by which an organization allocates work and distributes authority
and responsibility.

FORMULATION THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

The organizational structure may be pattered as either a mechanistic organization or an

organic organization:
 A mechanistic organization is an internal organization structure wherein people performed
specialized jobs, rules, regulations and guidelines are formulated and strictly imposed, and
authority is centralized in a few decision-makers, normally the top management.
 An organic organization is an internal structure in which jobs are very general, there are
very few roles to observe and decisions are undertaken at different levels if the
organizational hierarchy to include lower level of employees.

These two types find translation in different configurations of the organizational structure.
The design of the structure depends to a large degree on the basic philosophies and
management orientation of the leaders of the organization.

BASIC PRINCIPLES
There are some principles that should be considered in developing organizational structures:
Relevance to Objectives
 Productivity will increase when the employee recognize that the work he/she is performing
is directly related to understood and accepted objectives that connect to the overall
organizational vision and mission. Even a janitor will benefit from the recognition that
his/her efforts towards maintaining the cleanliness contribute to the positive institutional
image and the creation of a healthy work and educative environment.

 
Logical Arrangement
 When the work is arranged logically taking into consideration the coherence of the different
functions associated with a job, higher level of accomplishments and higher personal satisfaction of the
part of the employee doing the job can be generated. To give an employee several sets of unrelated
functions simply because he/she is capable of doing them and is trusted by the
management to undertake such work activities defies organization structure and logic.
Specialization
 Specialization provides individuals in an organization to exhibit greater potentials for efficient
performance. Specialization also promotes a higher level of professionalism at work.
 Span of Control
 The span of control or breadth of responsibility refers to the number of subordinates that a
superior supervises. A wide span of control (many subordinates per manager) create a flat
organization since there will be fewer managers. A narrow span of control (few workers per
manager) creates a tall organization because more levels of organization are needed.
Thus, the more people each manager can effectively supervise, the fewer managers the organization
will need to attain its objectives.

Manpower Optimization
 The fewer the levels of supervision, the smaller the number of people required to perform
the functions in pursuance of organizational objectives. The more people they are in the
organization, the more work they will tend to find to do so they will be able to justify their
employment by means of being simply busy, even as some work that they perform does not
really add value to organizational processes. Organizations should therefore be structured
to accommodate the least number of employees without having to sacrifice critical work that needs to be
done well.
Selective Predisposition
 When managers or supervisors are assigned two or more functions, products or
geographical units to work on, they tend to show preference for one over the others by way
of a selective predisposition. A human resource manager, for example, is responsible for HR
planning, HR administration, HR development, and employee relations as his/her major
functions. If he/she is more inclined towards HR development he/she is most likely spend
most of his/her time doing training programs and employee development interventions,
spending very little time for the other critical functions. In situations such as this, the
superior in the organization should take efforts to make certain that balanced and commensurate
attention is given to the components of the manager's set of tasks.
 Carry-Over Effect
 The past characteristics of the organization structure tend to persist in later organizational
forms. Even is the organization may have grown through the years, the past practices
during the time it was operating as a smaller organization may still be very much evident in
the current organizational structures. Thus if the current organizational structure is no
longer responsive to the current internal and external environment, the efforts at
developing an organizational structure should start at square one and ignore whatever is
existing. This will allow higher levels of objectivity in developing the structure. This design
selected, however should consider continuity by adopting a structure that will be responsive to future
requirements of the organization.

DIMENSION OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

 
There are key dimensions in the formulation of organizational structure which are also bases
for grouping activities together, types of authority relationships among different
organizational units and the coordination mechanisms used for the purpose of executive the
work. These are the following key elements that need to be integrated into the structure:

 
Standardization of Activities
 Management tools and procedures need to be developed and implemented in an
organization to ensure the predictability of work activities. Some of these tools are the
functional chart, organizational chart, job description for different positions and standard
operation procedures.

Coordination of Activities
 There must be procedures in the organization that relate to the integration of functions of
sub units within the organization. The underlying conditions are task linkages and
teamwork.
Centralization and Decentralization
 The location of the decision making powers in the organization is a critical component of the
organizational structure.
o Centralization connotes that most strategic decisions are made by top management.
o Decentralization means that the decision making prerogatives are dispersed through
extensive delegation and empowerment across the various hierarchical levels in the
organization.

`Size of Work Units

 This involves the determination of the optimum number of employees needed in a given
work unit for it to accomplish its prescribed set of functions. Typically, industrial engineering
approaches such as time and motion studies are utilized for this purpose.

Kampini (2018) on Impact of Organizational Structure on Employee Performance, according

to the results from the study, it shows that organization structure has an impact on the employee
performance; a poor organized organization structure means that there will be low
productivity, less delegation of work, no incentives provided and centralized decisions.

Types and Diagramming of Organizational Charts

FUNCTIONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHARTS
 
A chart is a diagram, graph or table that provides information in an orderly manner. In
support  of the organization structures, two charts are commonly prepared:
 functional chart
 organizational chart
 Functional Chart is a graphic representation of the grouping and sub-grouping of critical
functions within an organization. It reflects the logical relationship of the different functions
that need to be performed in the organization to fulfill its mission and meet its objectives.
The functions that are included are comprised of the essential tasks in pursuance of the core
mission of the organization as well the ancillary tasks in support of the key functions.
A functional chart is the reference point for the development of the organizational chart. An
organizational chart that is developed without a functional chart as a basic reference is likely
to be subjective and unresponsive to organizational requirements.

Organizational Chart, is sometimes called the table of organization, is the more common
management tool for the exercise of organizing function. It is a graphical representation
that diagrams a relationship among personnel and work units in organization. The
organizational chart presents elements such as chain of command, indicates departmental
tasks, and provides order and logic in the organization. A typical organizational chart
identifies various positions and job titles as well as the lines of authority and communication
among them. In most organizational charts, the position titles are what are reflected in the
component boxes but the name of the incumbent of the established positions may likewise
be included.
There are several aspects of the organizational that are shown by the organizational chart.
These are:
Division of Work 


o Each box in the chart represents an individual or a work unit that is responsible for a given
part of the organization set of functions.
Reporting Relationships


o The solid lines that appear in the organization indicate the chain of command that provides
information as to which subordinate reports to which superior. The lines also suggest
communication protocol among organizational members.
Nature of the Work


o The different work functions and tasks and the areas of responsibility maybe inferred maybe
inferred from the labels on the boxes indicating position titles or descriptions.
Groupings of Work Units


o The organizational chart indicates the basis for division and grouping of the activities,
whether functional, geographic, by process, product or service type of by clients served.
Organizational Hierarchy


o The pyramid structure of the chart can provide information of the different levels of the
management hierarchy.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

FORMAL RELATIONSHIPS
The chart also illustrates the types of relationships among the elements of the diagram. The
different types of relationships are enumerated and illustrated by the way of examples
below:
 Line Relationship


o This a relationship of direct command. Line personnel are operatives who are responsible for
achieving results for a particular functional area.
Staff Relationship


o This represents a support relationship where no authority or command power is exercised
over other work units in the organization. Staff personnel have specialized technical and
professional skills to provide expertise, to advise, and to deliver other support activities to
line managers and operatives.
Functional Relationship 


o This refers to a relationship where functional authority or supervision is allowed to staff
units or personnel but is limited to a specific problem area. This relationship is established
to achieve uniformity or consistency among various units of the organization.

DIAGRAMMING OF CHARTS
 
Care should be exercised  in diagramming the organizational chart. A wrong presentation
will result in wrong interpretations which could adversely affect organizational operations.
Guideline is preparing the organizational char are presented here. Organizational charts are
 drawn as either horizontal or vertical trees with geometric shapes being used to represent
positions or business units. 

 
 The rectangle is the most  common shapes used to represent a person or department.
However, ovals and other geometric shapes are also accepted symbols.

 Double-linked boxes indicate co-supervisors. This is common in manufacturing firms where

supervisors and workers operate in rotating shapes but it must be emphasized that an
individual worker reports only to one supervisor at a given time. 

 A dashed line indicates an indirect, coordinative or advisory relationship.

 The columnar stack or vertical tree is an alternative. It creates a more compact tree
structure as compared to a horizontal presentation, and thus saves space to
accommodate the visual representation of more positions in the chart.
 The list style or simple enumeration of the position titles saves space by eliminating the
boxes.

 A horizontal attachment outside the vertical hierarchy indicates a staff or assistant position.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

  
Most decisions regarding the type of structure to be adopted involve the process of
departmentalization which is the processes of breaking up the organization into coherent
units. Departmentalization, in turn, becomes the basis for grouping positions into
departments and consequently, departments into the total organization. Practices by
different organizations have resulted in the emergence of three main approaches to
departmentalization. These are more common approaches are the functional structure, the
divisional structure and the matrix structure.

 
Functional Structure
 Under the functional structure, people are grouped together in departments on the basis of
common skills and related work activities. Examples would be the manufacturing
department, operations department, finance department, human resources department,
general services department, and sales and marketing department. Functional organization
is perhaps the most logical and basic form of departmentalization.

Divisional Structure
 When an organization's departmentalization becomes too complex for coordinating, top
management will generally create divisions. The development of the divisional structure
involves departmentalization or putting together in self-contained divisions that are
determined in terms of common products or services, customers, or geographic sphere of
operations.
o Product divisionalization involves the creation of major divisions of a specific product or
service lines . Thus a giant food conglomerate may have its beverage division, consumer
products division, consumer products division and agri-business division.  
o Geographic divisionalization applied to schools with several campuses that are located quite
distant from each other so that each division practically operates as autonomous unit
brought together within a system.
o Customer divisionalization puts together jobs and activities that are serving a unique set of
customers. A multi- national electronics
company operating in the Philippines has two
major divisions, namely consumer
products division and the industrial users
division
 Matrix Structure
 The matrix structure, and sometimes referred to as a "multiple command system", is a
superimposition of the functional and divisional structures. The objective is to optimize the
advantages of the two other types taking functional expertise and divisional focus together.
Given this model, an individual may be reporting to two different superiors (dual authority)
thereby defying one basic principle of organizing which is unity of command. Members of
the matrix may suffer task confusion when taking orders from more than one boss. 

Most productivity and performance issues can be attributed to poor organizational

design. Poor organizational design often results in, among other things, confusion within
roles, a lack of coordination among functions, and failure to share ideas. A company can
have a clear mission, talented people, and great leaders, and still not perform well because
of poor organizational design.
To be effective, the overall organization design must be aligned with the business strategy and
the market environment in which the business operates. It must also have the right
business controls, the right flexibility, the right incentives, the right people, and the right
resources.
Structure will give employees more clarity, help manage expectations, enable better
decision-making and provide consistency. Organizational charts also assign responsibility,
organize workflow and make sure important tasks are completed on time. Employees will be
more focused and therefore more productive, and your organization will benefit from better
communication and operate more efficiently. Good organizational structure and design
helps improve communication, increase productivity, and inspire innovation. It creates an
environment where people can work effectively.