Organization

Organizational Culture and Change

Organizing
Organization consists of the structure and process which allow the agency to enact its philosophy and utilize its conceptual framework to achieve its goals.

 Organizing also involves establishing a formal structure that provides the best possible coordination or use of resources to accomplish unit objectives.

 It also shows how the structure of an organization facilitates or impedes communication, flexibility, and job satisfaction.

Fayol (1949) suggested that an organization is formed when the number of workers is large enough to require a supervisor. Organizations are necessary because they accomplish more work than can be done by individual effort.

Organizational Structure
refers to the way in which group is formed, its lines of communication, and its means for channelling authority and making decisions.

 Formal Structure provides a framework for defining managerial authority, responsibility, and accountability. Roles and functions are defined and systematically arranged.

Informal Structure is generally social, with blurred or shifting lines of authority and accountability.

Organizational Theory
Max Weber, a German social scientist, is known as the father of organizational theory. Generally acknowledged to have developed the most comprehensive classic formulation on the characteristics of bureaucracy.

 Weber postulated three ideal types of authority or reasons why people throughout history have obeyed their rulers. One of these, legal authority, was based on a belief in the legitimacy of the pattern of normative rules and the rights of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands.

 Weber argued that the great virtue of bureaucracy indeed, perhaps its defining characteristics was that it was an institutional method for applying general rules to specific cases, thereby making actions of management fair and predictable. Other characteristics of bureaucracies as identified by Weber include the following:

 There must be a clear division of labor. A well-defined hierarchy of authority. There must be impersonal rules and impersonality of interpersonal relationships. A system of procedures for dealing with work situations. A system of rules covering the rights and duties of position must be in place.

Components of Organizational Structure

Weber also is credited with the development of the organization chart to depict an organizations structure.

 Organizational Chart
can help identify roles and their expectations. By observing elements, such as which departments report directly to the chief executive officer (CEO), the novice manager can make some inferences about the organization.

Five Major Characteristics of an Organizational Chart

Division of work each box represents the individual or subunit responsible for a given task of the organizations workload.
Chain of Command lines indicate who reports to whom and by what authority.

a.

Solid horizontal lines represents communication between people with similar spheres of responsibility and power but different functions.

b. Solid vertical lines between positions denote the official chain of command, the formal paths of communication and authority. c. Dotted or broken lines represents staff positions, these positions are advisory. A staff member provides information and assistance to the manager but has limited organizational authority.

 Type of work to be performed indicated by labels or description for the boxes.

Grouping of work segments shown by the clusters of work groups (departments or single units). Levels of Management indicate individual and entire management hierarchy. Hierarchy refers to a body of persons or things organized or classified in pyramidal fashion according to rank, capacity or authority assigned to vertical levels with offices ranked in grades, orders or classes, one above the other.

Organizing Principles
In organizing the organizational structure of the nursing department/ service/ division, certain organizational principles must be observed.

1. Unity of command is indicated by the vertical solid line between positions on the organizational chart. This concept is best described as one person/one boss in which employees have one manager to whom they report and to whom they are responsible. This is to avoid confusion, overlapping of duties and misunderstanding.

2. Scalar Principle. - Authority and responsibility should flow in clear unbroken lines from the highest executive to the lowest. The other term for this term is chain of command, usually a military term. Proper definition and delegation of authority and responsibility facilitate the accomplishment of work. In this connection, the following must be observed:

 when responsibility for a particular job is delegated to a subordinate, the latter should have authority over resources needed to accomplish the task when a particular function is delegated to a subordinate, the superiors own responsibility is no way diminished when a person is bestowed the authority for action, he is accountable for his actions to the person that bestowed him such. The conscientious nurse exhibits accountability toward her employing hospital, the patient, the government, her profession and to God.

3. Homogeneous Assignment or Departmentation

Workers performing similar assignments are grouped together for a common purpose. Departmentation promotes the specialization of activities, simplifies the administrators work, and helps maintain effective control.

4. Span of Control
The number of workers that a supervisor can effectively manage should be limited, depending upon the pace and pattern of the working area.

It also refers to span of managerial responsibility and the number which one superior can assist, teach and help to reach the objectives of their own jobs.

 If the workers are highly skilled and are working near each other, their number may be increased.
At the top level of the structure, a 1:6 ratio of supervisor-workers is common, while at the base of the organization, a 1:10 ratio is common. Too many people reporting to a single a manager delays decision making, whereas too few results in an efficient, top heavy organization.

5. Exception Principle
Recurring decisions should be handled in a routine manner by lower-level managers whereas problems involving unusual matters should be referred to the higher level. This will enable subordinates to learn how t make decisions at their own level and free executives from being bogged down by routine details that can be handles as well by subordinates.

6. Decentralization or Proper Delegation of Authority

Decentralization is the process of pushing decision making to the lower levels of the organization. Often, this means that problems can be solved at the level at which they occur. The amount of skills and competence of subordinates and executives determines the success of any program of decentralization. Executive should be developed to handle situations delegated to them.

Types of Organizational Structures

1. Line Structures

In these structures, authority and responsibility are clearly defined , which leads to efficiency and simplicity of relationships.

 Disadvantages:
They often produce monotony and alienate workers Makes adjusting rapidly to altered circumstances difficult Adherence to chain of command communication restricts upward communication

2. Ad Hoc design
Is a modification of the bureaucratic structure and is sometimes used on a temporary basis to facilitate completion of a project within a formal line of organization. Is a means of overcoming the inflexibility of line structure and serves as a way for professionals to handle the increasingly large amounts of available information.

3. Matrix Structure
Is designed to focus on both product and function. Function is described as all the tasks required to produce the product, and the product is the end result of the function. For example, good patient outcomes are the product, and the product and staff education and adequate staffing may be the function to produce the outcome.

4. Service Line Organization

Sometimes called care-centered organizations, are smaller in scale than a large bureaucratic system. For example, the overall goals would be determined by the larger organization, but the service line would decide on the process to be used to achieve the goals.

5. Flat Designs
It removes hierarchical layers by flattening the chain of command and decentralizing the organization. There continues to be line authority, but because the organizational structure is flattened, more authority and decision making can occur where the work is being carried out.

LIMITATIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHARTS

a. The chart does not show the informal structure of the organization.

Every institution has in place a dynamic informal structure that can be powerful and motivating. Informal structure includes employees interpersonal relationships, the formation of primary and secondary groups, and the identification of group leaders without formal authority.

- The informal structure known as the grapevine, also has groups, leaders and channels.
These groups are important in organization because they provide: Workers with a feeling of belonging They have a great deal of power in organization; they can either facilitate or sabotage planned change They have ability to determine units norms and acceptable behaviour to do with socialization of new employees.

b. Organization charts also are limited in their ability to depict each line positions degree of authority. Equating status with authority frequently causes confusion.

c. An organization chart becomes obsolete.

d. Although it defines authority, it does not define responsibility and accountability. The manager should understand the interrelationships and differences among these three terms:

 Authority is defined as the official power to act. Responsibility is a duty or assignment. It is the implementation of a job. Accountability it is similar to responsibility, but it is internalized.