a) Discuss the traditional and contemporary views of each of the six key elements of organizational designs. b) Contrast the three traditional organizational designs.
a)The key elements in organizational design are work specialization ,chain of command, span of control, departmentalization, centralization- decentralization, and formalization. Traditionally, work specialization was viewed as a way to divide work activities into separate job tasks. It makes efficient use of the diversity of skills that workers have. In most organizations, some tasks require highly developed skills; others can be performed by employees with lower skill levels. If all workers were engaged in all the steps of say ,a manufacturing process, all would need the skills necessary to perform both the most demanding and the least demanding jobs. For example,McDonald’s uses high work specialization to get its products made and delivered to customers efficiently and quickly that’s why it’s called fast food . One person takes orders at the drive- through window, others cook and assemble the hamburger , another works the fryer, another gets the drinks, another bags orders, and so forth.
Secondly, the departmentalization are grouped together. Five common forms of departmentalization are used, although an organization may develop its owns unique classification. For example, a major Japanese electronics firms organizes its divisions along functional lines, its manufacturing units around processes, its sales units around seven geographic regions, and its sales regions into four customer groupings.
Thirdly, the chain of command is the line of authority extending from upper organizational levels to lower levels, which clarifies who reports to whom. Managers need to consider it when organizing work because it helps the employees with questions.
