Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The engineer manager needs to acquire various skills in management, including those for organizing technical activities. In this
highly competitive environment, the unskilled manager will not be able to bring his unit, or his company, as the case may be, to
success.
The value of a supervisor organizational set-up has been proven dramatically during the Second World War when a smaller
American naval force confronted the formidable Japanese navy at Midway. Military historians indicated that the Americans
emerged victorious because of the superior organizational skills of their leaders.
Even today, skills in organizing contribute largely to the accomplishment of the objectives of many organizations, whether they
are private businesses or otherwise. The positive effects of business success become more pronounced when they come as a
result of international operations. International businesses, however, cannot hope to make huge profits unless they are
properly organized to implement their plans. The opportunities offered by skillful organizing are too important for the engineer
manager to ignore.
Organizing is undertaken to facilitate the implementation of plans. Ineffective organizing, steps are undertaken to break down
the total job into more manageable man-size jobs. Doing these will make it possible to assign particular tasks to particular
persons. In turn, these will help facilitate the assignment of authority, responsibility, and accountability for certain functions
and tasks.
After a plan is adopted, management will proceed to form an organization to carry out the activities indicated in the plan.
The formal organization is “the structure that details lines of responsibilities, authority, and position”. What is depicted in the
organization chart is the formal organization. It is “the planned structure” and it “represents the deliberate attempt to establish
patterned relationships among components that will meet the objectives effectively”.
The organizational chart is a diagram of the organization’s official positions and formal lines of authority. The organizational
manual provides written descriptions of the authority relationships, details the function of major organizational units, and
describes job procedures. The policy manual describes personnel activities and company policies.
INFORMAL GROUPS
Formal organizations require the formation of formal groups which will be assigned to perform specific tasks aimed at achieving
organizational objectives. The formal group is a part of the organizational structure.
There are instances when members of organizations spontaneously form a group with friendship as a principal reason for
belonging. This group is called an informal group. It is not a part of the formal organization and it does not have a formal
performance purpose.
Informal groups are oftentimes very useful in the accomplishment of major tasks, especially if these tasks conform to the
expectations of the members of the informal group. The informal organization, useful as it is, is “vulnerable to expediency,
manipulation, and opportunism,” according to Valentine. Its low visibility, Valentine added, makes it “difficult for the
management to detect these perversions and considerable harm can be done to the company.”
The engineer manager is, therefore, warned that he must be on the lookout for the possible difficulties that the informal groups
may do to the organization. It will be in his best interest if he could make the informal groups work for the organization.
Before the commencement of activities, the decision-makers in an organization will have to decide on what structure to adapt.
Depending on the size and type of operations, a certain structural type may best fit the requirements.
Organizations may be classified into three types. They are the following:
1. Functional Organization
- this is a form of departmentalization in which everyone engaged in one functional activity, such as
engineering or marketing, is grouped into one unit.
2. Product or Market Organization
- this refers to the organization of accompany by divisions that bring together all those involved with a
certain type of product or customer.
3. Matrix Organization
- an organizational structure in which each employee reports to both a functional or division manager and to
a project or group manager.
Functional Organization
Functional organization structures are very effective in smaller firms, especially “single-business firms where key activities
revolve around well-defined skills and areas of specialization.”
The product or market organization, with its feature of operating by divisions, is “appropriate for a large
corporation with many product lines in several related industries.”
Matrix Organization
The matrix organization has some disadvantages, however. They are the following:
1. There is frustration and confusion from a dual chain of command.
2. There is high conflict between division and functional interests.
3. There are many meetings and more discussion than action.
4. There is a need for human relations training for key employees and managers.
5. There is a tendency for power dominance by one side of the matrix.
TYPES OF AUTHORITY
Staff departments include all those that provide specialized skills in support of line departments. Examples of staff
departments include those which perform strategic planning, labor relations, research, accounting, and personnel.
1. Personal staff—those individuals assigned to a specific manager to provide needed staff services.
2. Specialized staff—those individuals providing needed staff services for the whole organization.
3. Functional authority is one given to a person or a work group to make decision-related to their expertise even if this decision
concerns other departments. This authority is given to most budget officers of organizations, as well as other officers.
When certain formal groups are deemed inappropriate to meet expectations, committees are oftentimes harnessed to achieve
organizational goals. Many organizations, large or small, make use of committees.
A committee is a formal group of persons formed for a specific purpose. For instance, the product planning committee, as
described by Millevo, is “often staffed by top executives from marketing, production, research, engineering, and finance, who
work part-time to evaluate and approve product ideas.”
Committees are very useful most especially to engineering and
manufacturing firms. When certain concerns, like product
development, are under consideration, a committee is usually
formed to provide the necessary line-up of expertise needed to
achieve certain objectives.