Core Issues of Organisational Design - Literature review Example

Human Resources Assessment Core Issues of Organisational Design Burton et al. (2008, p. 5), define organisational design as a body of knowledge and techniques which informs organisations about structures and other key aspects necessary for organisational performance. It can be implied that organisational design is the overall set of structural elements and the key relationships among the elements used to manage the whole organisation. Organisations employ organisational design as a means of achieving the goals of the organisation. According to Griffin (2009, p. 378), organisational design has been influenced by the view of the role of the situation as well as that of the strategy on the design of structures within an organisation. The prevailing environment in the organisation, the size of the organisation, the life cycle of the organisation, the strategy at the corporate level and that at the business level are identified as the key features which influence organisational design. There is a strong link between organisational design and the nature of the environment. Environments are either relatively constant or highly varied with respect to changes over time. Organisations which operate in stable environments tend to adopt a mechanistic design characterised by predictable structuring of activities like specialised jobs, rules and central authority (Griffin 2009, p. 379). Such a design is similar to the bureaucratic management system which assumes complete predictability and an absence of uncertainty. On the other hand, organisations operating in unstable and unpredictable environments adopt an organic design. Such organisations are characterised by being both highly differentiated and integrated in their design. Further, organisational design should take into consideration the size and life cycle of the organisation. Organisations with a large number of personnel tend to have a stronger degree of rules, job specialisations, decentralisation and a general breakdown of the use of technology. This is unlike small-sized organisations that tend to develop a technology-based design in their structures. Additionally, as organisations evolve through the life cycle of inception, rapid growth, slow growth and eventual maturity, the design changes to reflect emerging challenges and requirements of the organisation (Burton et al. 2008, p.15). The last factor that influences organisational design is the type of strategy adopted by the management. The type of corporate strategy adopted by an organisation strongly influences its choice of design. Whether an organisation adopts a single product or portfolio corporate strategy, its design will be made to ensure the most feasible and effective management style and control. Closely related to the corporate strategy is the business strategy adopted by an organisation. This may either be defender or prospective in nature (Griffin 2009, p. 380). A business that adopts the defender strategy is most likely to adopt the mechanistic design characterised by more centralisation and a functional approach to decentralisation. On the contrary, business organisations that adopt a prospective business approach will have a design that allows the highest level of flexibility and adaptability. The influence of Organisational Structure on Coordination and Cooperation According to Daft, Kendrick and Vershinina (2010, p. 378), organisational structure involves complex trade-offs which are created by competing demands that require inclusion in the design of the structure of the organisation. For instance, there are competing demands between the benefits of specialisation and the costs of communication, the degree of comprehensiveness of information and the underlying costs of delays in decision making processes, as well as the benefits of truthful communication and the costs of diligent effort within the organisation. The trade-off between coordination and specialisation and how this is influenced by organisational design was examined by Dessein and Santos (2006, p. 962) in a study. There are two key parameters which influence the trade-off between coordination and specialisation in the structure of an organisation: the importance of coordination or interdependence between tasks and how effective communication within the organisation is. The role of interdependence of tasks in organisational design depends on the extent of the use of specialisation in job descriptions. By principle, increased specialisation translates to organisational efficiency, individual speed and ease of performance. However, it is observed that increased specialisation does not necessarily lead to increased coordination within the organisation (Dessein & Santos 2006, p. 967). This is so because increased interdependence of tasks within an organisation often leads to decreased benefits of work specialisation. An increase in task interdependence leads to increased bundling of tasks aimed at increasing the level of flexibility of employees within the organisation. As well, increased interdependence between tasks causes organisations to become less adaptive to their environments of operation. Organisations may be forced to eliminate employee flexibility and introduce specialisation of work in their structures as a result of the diminished need for task bundling. Coordination and specialisation within an organisation is also affected by communication. The level of coordination and specialisation in the design of an organisation is determined by the costs of communication and how effective communication channels are within the organisation. According to Dessein and Santos 2006, p. 967), a decrease in the costs of communication leads to increased organisational specialisation. This happens because decreased costs of communication translate to easier coordination at all levels of the organisation. In addition, an improvement in the quality of communication reduces the need for bundling of tasks because it enables an easy coordination of activities within the organisation. Improvements in coordination enable organisations to increase the level of employee flexibility, thus being more adaptive in their operations. Communication within organisations is exemplified by an unbroken line of authority that links all persons in an organisation. The chain of command is composed of three important elements which influence the level of coordination and cooperation within an organisation: authority, responsibility and delegation (Daft, Kendrick & Vershinina 2010, p. 368). The authority structure of an organisation indicates the level of formal right for decision making. Apart from being vested in positions as opposed to people, authority within an organisation is characterised by being accepted by subordinates and flowing down the hierarchical structure of an organisation. Also, responsibility is the duty to perform tasks assigned to employees. Responsibility and authority are exercised under the framework of accountability and delegation within the organisation. Socio-technical Systems and their Application in the Workplace A socio-technical system is an organisational system that takes into account the human, social and organisational factors in designing the systems of the organisation. Apart from the social and environmental factors, a socio-technical system takes into account the interaction of humans with the technical aspects of the organisation. It is a successful relationship between people, machines and the environment in an organisation – a key feature of organisational performance and eventual success. According to Stranks (2007, p. 99), the socio technical system is an approach to complex organisational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplace. Such an approach is aimed at attaining four key objectives: satisfaction of the users, organisational efficiency, success in implementing systems and effectiveness in change management. The core feature of this system is that it seeks to distinguish between social and technical subsystems in an organisation. The system also proposes that the two different organisational subsystems should not only be optimized in design but also jointly incorporated in the design of the organisation. Further, Parker and Wall (1998, p.15) identified five key characteristics of socio-technical systems in an organisation. The first one is that systems should have interdependent parts. These include the technical, human and environmental. Second, open socio-technical systems are characterized by being focused on the external environment. Under this system, organisational systems focus on the external environment, under which they pursue the fundamental goals of the organisation. Third, the performance of the organisation is affected by the optimisation of different subsystems within it. This implies that a holistic organisational approach is required in order to realize organisational performance and success. The last characteristic of socio-cultural systems is that they have equifinality. The goals of the systems, by virtue of the fact that they can be attained in several alternative ways, require choices in their design at the organisational development level. According to Parker and Wall (1998, p.17), current application of the system is based on a refined set of principles which define its core objectives as: one, minimum specification of the methods of working, handling variances in the work processes at the source of occurrence, resources being fully availed to those who need them, compatibility between design processes and the desired design outcomes; and finally, a multi-functional and multi-skilled approach to jobs. The socio-technical system approach is widely used in the typical workplace environment. The human workforce, the general use of technology in the workplace and the current business environment represent the components of human, technical and environmental aspects of organisational design as conceptualized in the open socio- technical systems. The complex interaction between these three aspects is aimed at attaining efficiency and overall organisational performance. Successful use of the socio-technical system in the workplace is important in attaining results in human-related areas such as job enrichment, satisfaction and team management in the work place (Stranks 2007, p. 101). References Burton, M R, Eriksen, H B, Hakonsson, D D, Knudsen, T & Snow C C 2008, Designing organizations: 21st century approaches, Springer Science – Business Media, New York. Daft, L R, Kendrick, M & Vershinina, N 2010, Management, Cengage Learning, Mason. Dessein, W & Santos, T 2006, “Adaptive Organizations”, Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 114, No. 5, pp. 956 – 994. Griffin, W R 2009, Management, Cengage Learning, Mason. Parker, S & Wall, T 1998, Job and work design: Organizing work to promote wellbeing and effectiveness, Sage Publications, California. Stranks, J 2007, Human factors and behavioural safety, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford. 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