Question

Identify six basic elements of organizational design that today’s managers use to bring about change. In particular, describe how the organization of today’s work activities, decision-making, and employee supervision have changed.

Answer 1

Today's managers focus on these six basic elements to bring about the change in the working environment of the organization:-

1. Work specialization: work is highly specialized in today's organization and it is effectively distributed based on the level of competency of the employees and their potential by the managers.

2. Departmentalization: the entire organization is divided into different structures that are self-sufficient that bring together the different function that is required by the company in order to create highly specialized work.

3. Authority and responsibility: the authority is given according to the abilities, goals, potential of the working personnel which is also Saas on their skills which they use to bring about a change in the organization.

4. The span of control: this is the process that is based upon the dynamic in the teams and the workforce which provides the authority to the workers based on responsibility, line authority, staff authority and unity of command.

5. Centralization vs decentralization: which essentially means creating the structure of the organization based on the factors which require the use of either a centralized chain of command or a decentralized one.

6. Formalization: which basically means the chain of command, authority and responsibility of the workers for every provided task and the structure of the organization.

Today's decision making is not just in the hands of the chain of command but due to the job structure, specializing and departmentalization, the employees are allowed some level of creativity and freedom while making decisions which can also be seen in the tasks that they perform. Usually, the structure followed allowed the workers to work based on the guidance and the abilities of the management and the team leaders hut now, the employees act with a self-motivation, a self-assessment and the drive to perform better in order to stay competitive and have an edge while working on any particular stage or level.