The Organizing Process - Essay Example

The Organizing Process Organizations have carefully applied and worked out processes that intend to achieve organizational objectives. Organizational processes are involved in the determination of the work that is needed for the accomplishment of organizational goals, arrangement of people in a decision-making framework and assignment of tasks. Organizational processes lead to the achievement of unified departments or entities within an organization that act in harmony in order to execute tasks. The organizing process comprises of five steps. The first step involves reviewing objectives and plans. Objectives are activities that must be completed in order for the organization to achieve its goals. In this step, the organization shapes the activities needed for the achievement of organizational goals. Managers need to examine plans and identify the need for change as new goals are formulated. The second step is the determination of work activities that are necessary for the accomplishment of the objectives. This step requires managers to list and analyze all the tasks that are central to the achievement of organizational goals. The third step is the classification and grouping of the work activities into manageable units. Managers group activities based on the four models of departmentalization that is geographical, functional, customer and product. The fourth step is the assignment of activities and delegation of authority. Managers assign defined work activities to people within the organization. The assigned individuals are empowered to carry out their duties in accordance with the mission and vision of the organization. The last step is the design of a hierarchy of relationships (Plunkett, Allen & Attner, 2013). Managers begin by determining the horizontal and vertical relationships that exist in the organization. In addition, managers develop an organizational chart, which shows the relationships. Concept of Authority The concept of authority presupposes specific types of power. The mark of authority is in the index of recognition that usually accompanies authority that makes power legitimate. Authority has the potential to influence and foster change within an organization. Authority gives a leader the power to influence others in order to drive change (Atkinson, 2011). The application of management processes and techniques is not sufficient to change business cultures or behaviors. Reliance on authority and power helps managers to create an environment of change. Managers can use authority as a soft tool to facilitate or foster power. In this case, authority is used as a pervasive social phenomenon. It is applied at different hierarchical levels to foster change. Authority gives an individual the power to implement change processes because they can persuade manage conflicts and employ influence strategies. Why People Resist Change People resist change because of different factors. Resistance to change can be manifested as rebellions and sabotage of organizational processes. People are resistant to change because they fear that change will lead to the loss of control. Change processes interfere with autonomy that makes people fear that they have lost control over their jurisdiction, territory or workplace (Petrescu, 2010). People are also resistant to change because it increases uncertainty. Most employees feel that change does not chart a definite future for the organization (Connor, 2010). They prefer the status quo because they know the likely outcome of the organizational process. Change is resisted when people are not consulted or involved in the change process. Some leaders prefer to implement change programs without consulting other people in the organization. These people are left feeling undermined and worthless to the organization. Current business and organizational environments experience change. Several strategies can be used to overcome change in an organization. The first strategy requires the management to address personal concerns. In most of the cases, people are resistant to change because of personal concerns. Change agents have to deal with the concerns raised by people who are affected by change. They should not focus on the benefits of change to the organization, but on the impact of change to employees and customers. The second strategy of overcoming resistance to change requires the management of organizations to tailor information about the change process to the expectations of people (Connor, 2010). The aim of this strategy is to enable people to change their desires, beliefs and feelings progressively rather than instantly. In addition, the management should tie successful implementation of the change process to a form of compensation. In this case, the management creates goals and milestones measured throughout the year. Reports on performance should be made public and people who meet their goals need compensation. An Organization That Went Through a Significant Change Cisco Information Technology is one of the major global organizations that went through a significant organizational change. Cisco is an information technology firm that has 300 offices or business operations in approximately 90 countries. In addition, the firm has 46 server rooms and data centers that support 65,000 employees (Cisco Systems, Inc, 2009). Before the introduction of the change process, Cisco IT had a traditional silo organizational structure. In this case, employees of the firm were performing operational and implementation work. In most of the cases, operational processes were disrupted when employees were deployed to a different workstation. The traditional organizational structure led to numerous instances of duplication of effort andlack of focus towards the goals of the organization. The traditional organizational model had regional voice and network teams that were responsible for implementing services and operating their environments. The main challenge with this organization structure is that it disrupted the organization from focusing on its goals. In addition, the firm’s operational infrastructure was unavailable and unreliable. The management of the firm decided to implement organizational changes in order to refocus the operations of the firm. The firm’s shift from traditional technology and silo based organizational structure enabled Cisco to improve its operational metrics. For instance, the number of technical fault cases reduced by 60 percent, while the time to repair technical faults decreased by 70 percent (Cisco Systems, Inc, 2009). The new structure gave Cisco an opportunity to refocus towards its core operational duties. Conclusion Five steps are used during the implementation of an organizing process. The first step is the review of goals and plans, and the second step is the determination of work activities. The third step is the classification and grouping of activities. The fourth step is the delegation of duties and assignment of work and the fifth step is the designing of a hierarchy of relationship. The organizing process is vital during the design and institution of a change process. It provides opportunities for influencing and fostering change, in addition to overcoming resistance to change. One of the major international companies that went through a significant change was Cisco. The firm went through a change process because its organizational structure was limiting its ability to achieve its goals. References Atkinson, P. (2011). The Power To Influence: Change Management. Operations Management. Number 2. Cisco Systems, Inc. (2009). How Cisco It Implemented Organizational Change And Advanced Services For Operational Success. Cisco Systems, Inc. Connor, D. (2010). Managing At the Speed of Change. New York, NY: Random House. Petrescu, R. (2010). Organizational Change Process-Steps to a Successful Change. University Of Craiova. Plunkett, W. R., Allen, G. S., & Attner, R.F (2013). Management: Meeting and exceeding customer expectations. (10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More