Organisational Structure

&
HRM
• Formal & Informal Organisation
• Tall & Flat Organisation structure
• Responsibility , Authority and Accountability
• Line & Staff Functions

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Organisational Design & Organisational Structures

• Organisational Design : The determination of

organisational structure that is appropriate for
the strategy, people, technology and task of
the organisation.

• Organisational Structures : The way in which

an organisation’s activities are divided,
organised and coordinated.

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 Organizational Design

1. The Classical Approach –

• Fredrick Taylor- (1911)
• “One Best Way to Accomplish the task”

• Henry Fayol – Principles of

Management
• Max Webber- Bureaucracy

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Formal & Informal Organisations
• Formal Organisation:
• Set-up of roles for the achievement of organisation
goals
• Reporting channels and job description is rigid
• Accountability and responsibility are fixed

2. Informal Organizations
• Formation is ad-hoc and follows no structure
• They generally share same interest, ideas or
information.
• They donot contribute directly to organisations
goals.

4
 Tall & Flat Org. Structure
Span of Control
Defines the number of people that one person will
supervise. There may be a narrow span or a wide span of
control.
1

4
1
16

64 8

Span of Control of 4 :256 64 Span of Control of 8:

Total employees = 4096 1024 512 Total employees = 4096
Managers at levels 1-6 = 1365 Managers at levels 1-4 = 585
4096 4096

Difference in managers equals 780.

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 Span of Control

Members at each level

1 1
4 8
16 Span of 8 64
Span of 4 64 512
256 4096

1024 Managers = 585

4096
Managers = 1365

6
Matrix Structure

7
 Network Structure

• Workers or worker
groups contribute to
multiple organizational
tasks
• Work groups are
reconfigured when the
tasks change
• Relationships among
groups are governed
by the requirements of
the task

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Responsibility, Authority & Accountability
• Responsibility: One’s obligation to perform the
function assigned to the best of one’s ability in
accordance with directions received.

• Key principles to be considered :

• Delegation should improve org. working
• No two employees should be assigned the same
responsibility
• The boundaries of the responsibility should be
fixed.
• Org. cannot afford gap in the delegation chain.

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 Authority
• Authority:
• It refers to the right to give orders
and the power to exact obedience
from others in the process of
discharging duties
• It enables managers to act, exert
influence and make decisions in
carrying out their responsibilities.

10
 Accountability

• An employee’s answerability on
using the authority in discharging a
responsibility is termed as
accountability.

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 Line & Staff Functions
• Line function: The department or
employees of the firm that performs
core activity that contributes to its
business directly.

• Staff Functions: The department or

employees of the firm that performs
a support function that contributes
to its business indirectly.

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 Line & Staff Conflict
• Expectations & complaints from line :
2. HR staff don't see the whole picture
3. HR Staff try to steal the lime light
4. HR doesn’t provide the right support.

• Expectations & complaints from staff:

7. Line function is prejudiced & biased
8. Doesn’t understand importance of
developing the employees
9. Doesn’t value contribution of HRD

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