When the firm is small, any questions concerningsubordination and division of powers, are solved simply. But it is necessary for her to grow up a bit, and she inevitably begins to experience the difficulties of the "transition" age: some people have too many powers, others do not stand the burden of the duties assigned to them, some simply shirk their work, etc. This situation, I think, is familiar to many. In order to quickly survive this period, the manager needs to think carefully about what firm should have the final organizational structure. Let's look briefly at the advantages and disadvantages of the basic types.
Linear-functional organizational structure
Systems using this type of organizationinteraction, built on the observance of the principles of a rigid hierarchy. This scheme has proven itself in small enterprises and is based on the authority and high professionalism of the manager, who, as a rule, is also the owner of such a firm. The essence of this structure is that employees are subordinated to their immediate supervisors, while individual verticals can perform special functions (OTC, accounting, security).
The advantages of such an organization of labor is that allis adjusted to receive the result of labor, there is good control and discipline here, and the products produced are characterized by consistently the same quality. The main shortcomings that this organizational structure has is a great loss of time for making important decisions, distorting and losing information when it is passed down the hierarchy, and lack of flexibility. Since the current market situation is changing quite quickly, this structure is obsolete and is suitable only for small firms or monopolists like Gazprom.
Divisional organizational structure
This is a form of organization of work thatthe functioning of relatively independent units. Management of such divisions is carried out from the headquarters. The principle of creating subdivisions can be based on the geographical location of fixed assets, product range, orientation to corporate and mass customers, etc. This type of business construction has become quite widespread in our country. Its main advantages are the excellent quality of customer service and flexibility. But the disadvantages are the complexity of controlling the branches (divisions) and the high management costs due to the appearance of a multitude of directors.
Project Organizational Structure
This is the youngest and most progressive typeorganization of interaction between employees. The companies in which this structure was implemented appeared in the second half of the twentieth century. At that time market instability forced many owners to expand their product range in order to be able to benefit in time from changing demand and the current situation. This structure assumes the organization of the unit for each new large client. In this department there is a project director and all the necessary links at different levels of subordination. And the same employees can participate in several projects at once. The advantage of such an organization is maximum flexibility, and the main disadvantages are the high costs of maintaining managers.
Matrix organizational structure
This is a kind of symbiosis of linear-functionalmanagement with the project. Despite the fact that this term has become very fashionable today, it is not so easy to implement the matrix approach in practice. Nevertheless, General Electric, which has perfected its management system for almost 12 years, eventually decided that for her it is the best organizational structure. An example of the success of this and many other companies applying the matrix approach does not give rest to many managers, and therefore it is so popular now.
The essence of this structure is that managementoccurs both vertically and horizontally. That is, instead of one there are several equal centers, in the role of which project managers usually act. For example, all marketers working in each of the verticals are part of the marketing department. The matrix approach is good in that it eliminates the drawbacks of the linear structure - the distortion (loss) of information and the lack of flexibility. However, with its implementation, there is a high risk of conflict of interest. When the principle of one-man management is violated, it is sometimes difficult to find out whose task to perform first and what to do if several orders contradict one another.
Conclusion
As it is easy to see, each type of managementis good in its own way. There is no ideal universal option, and when choosing an organizational structure, one must be guided by those factors that directly influence the activities of each particular enterprise.
