Key Concepts in the Design of an Organization

Key Concepts in the Design of an Organization

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of this topic came from this book:
Consulting and Organization Development - Book Cover

© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

A house should be designed to meet
the needs of the people living in it. Builders of houses must
consider, e.g., the number of people in the house, how much the
owners can afford to pay, etc. The ultimate design of an organization
should be whatever structure best helps the organization to achieve
its goals. The following are the standard concepts in the design of an
organization.

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Key Concepts in Design of Organization

Span of control

– the range of employees who to report to
a managerial position

Authority

– the formally-granted influence of a position
to make decisions, pursue goals and get resources to pursue the
goals; authority in a managerial role may exist only to the extent
that subordinates agree to grant this authority or follow the
orders from that position

Responsibility

– the duty to carry out an assignment or
conduct a certain activity

Delegation

– process
of assigning a task to a subordinate along with the commensurate
responsibility and authority to carry out the task

Chain of command

– the lines of authority in an organization,
who reports to whom

Accountability

– responsibility for the outcome of the process

Line authority

– the
type of authority where managers have formal authority over their
subordinates’ activities (the subordinates are depicted under
the manager on a solid line in the organization chart); departments
directly involved in producing services or products are sometimes
called line departments

Staff departments

– the
type of authority where managers influence line managers through
staff’s specialized advice; departments that support or advise
line departments are called staff departments and include, e.g.,
human resources, legal, finance, etc.


For the Category of Organizational Development:

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