Transforming Organizational Structure

Introduction

In the business world, organizational change is a daily reality especially with new technologies and processes such as ‘just in time’ manufacturing, e-commerce, virtual organizations, and six sigma to name a few. In order for companies to survive and thrive, they must continually adapt to the market or make internal improvements of service or culture

The Encyclopedia of Business defines an organizational structure as "comprised of functions, relationships, responsibilities, authorities, and communications of individuals within each department." An organizational chart is often used to provide a visual representation of a program's structure. Having a clear structure is critical for employees to know how their job relates to others in the department as well as to the institution's mission and goals. Source : by Dr. Betsy Alden
Originally printed in Athletic Management, 22.05 August/September 2010
Organizational structure refers to the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that its work can be performed and its goals can be met. When a work group is very small and face-to-face communication is frequent, formal structure may be unnecessary, but in a larger organization decisions have to be made about the delegation of various tasks. Thus, procedures are established that assign responsibilities for various functions. It is these decisions that determine the organizational structure.
In an organization of any size or complexity, employees' responsibilities typically are defined by what they do, who they report to, and for managers, who reports to them. Over time these definitions are assigned to positions in the organization rather than to specific individuals. The relationships among these positions are illustrated graphically in an organizational chart (see Figures 1a and 1b). The best