Lets talk about the invisible organizational structure

Hopefully there have been visitors to my blog, else, my writing is in vain! :) Keeping in mind of busy schedules, I ll try to be concise.

To continue about org structure, my real concern about org structure is from the initial review of so many org structures of our fellow current and past VDPs' . My intention is really to urge all of you to take a second look at the importance of this management tool.

The illustration I gave had the following impact on the department I was working for:
The flat invisible organizational chart with mismatched capabilities, roles and responsibilities in Slide 2 had these following results:

1. Nobody knew what the other person was doing.
2. Some good and reliable staff were overloaded with work while those who did not perform had so much less work.
3. The accountability of the supervisors, including executives and senior executives was not clear .

4. The employees were demoralized by the unfair workload and lack of objective performance evaluation.

5. The procurement processing period was extremely long with grievous incorrect reporting and documentation of transactions.

6. Inferior quality of work due to the absence of review and analysis by superiors.

7. Frequent stockouts of critical items and 83% of purchases was delivered late.

8. Frequent stockouts of spare parts.

9. No value added practices were carried out such as monthly printouts of 7000 + line items of spare parts and physically stored in our office ( as well as the list of 3000+ vendors registered with our companies!)

In many organization, the invisible organization structure will determine how well a company works. The invisible organizational structure simply means that;

1. The org chart was poorly formulated and did not address the real needs of the company.
2. The job functions and accountability of each person were not clearly defined.
3. There was a lack of mechanism available to control the performance of employees.
4. There was a lack of mechanism in delegating power while still controlling the crucial function of management.

As a result, the department manager had to call in every hour to run the department even when he was ill in a hospital bed!

My value proposition to you as entrepreneurs will be as follows:

REVIEW HOW YOU ORGANIZE YOUR COMPANY AS A PART OF YOUR STRATEGIC PLAN. The key question is on how to maintain your control of the company while delegating authority to your employees.

WHAT IS AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE?
"A key issue in accomplishing the goals identified in the planning process is structuring the work of the organization. Organizations are groups of people, with ideas and resources, working toward common goals. The purpose of the organizing function is to make the best use of the organization's resources to achieve organizational goals. Organizational structure is the formal decision-making framework by which job tasks are divided, grouped, and coordinated.Formalization is an important aspect of structure.

It is the extent to which the units of the organization are explicitly defined and its policies, procedures, and goals are clearly stated. It is the official organizational structure conceived and built by top management. The formal organization can be seen and represented in chart form. An organization chart displays the organizational structure and shows job titles, lines of authority, and relationships between departments. " (MODERN MANAGEMENT, Gemmy Ellen 1998)

The organizational chart is a CRUCIAL tool in making your company an effective and manageable company. I will talk about the tools I implemented to improve the department in my next blog, Insha Allah. In the mean time, lets have an exciting week ahead of us, with no Monday blues! :)