Creativity fostered by organizational structure

“The only difference between a mob and a trained army is organization.”

Ken Robinson has written much on creativity in the organization. I was reading something by him the other day where he was talking about how to foster creativity in the enterprise. It struck me as a very lean way of thinking:

“The role of a creative leader is not to have all the ideas; it’s to create a culture where everyone can have ideas and feel that they’re valued. So it’s much more about creating climates. I think it’s a big shift for a lot of people.”

This is so the key. Taylorism is such a blow to any creativity in an organization. Rather than pulling value and innovation from the bottom up, it is the norm in organizations today where we see strategists at the top, worrying about the future, with little idea what is really going on outside the glass-walled conference room. 

Today, I will be talking about the aim of learning this POM course. Finally, we all will either land up in an organization or eventually start of our own. Either way, there lies an underlying concept which is of prime importance i.e. the structure of your firm. It paves the way ahead of how the short term goals translate into future prospects.

Organization Structure:

An organizational structure consists of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. It can also be considered as the viewing glass or perspective through which individuals see their organization and its environment.

Learning Organizational Structure:

The definition mentioned above may sound intimidating to some. Also, people have a notion that such structures are only found in organizations.

Basic elements of Organization Structure:

a) Span of Control: Number of people directly reporting to the next level in the hierarchy. Width of span is affected by:

1.               Skills and abilities of the manager

2.               Employee characteristics

3.               Characteristics of the work being done

4.               Similarity of tasks

5.               Complexity of tasks

6.               Physical proximity of subordinates

7.               Standardization of tasks

b) Centralization: Degree to which formal decision authority is held in a small group of people, typically those at the top of the organizational hierarchy.

c) Decentralization: Organizations in which decision-making is pushed down to the managers who are closest to the action.

d) Formalization: Degree to which organizations standardize behavior through rules, procedures, formal training, and related mechanisms.

e) Departmentalization: Organizational charts that specifies how employees and their activities are grouped together.

f) Work specialization: The degree to which tasks in the organization are divided into separate jobs with each step completed by a different person. However, over specialization can result in human dis-economies from boredom, fatigue, stress, poor quality, increased absenteeism, and higher turnover.

g) Chain of Command: The continuous line of authority that extends from upper levels of an organization to the lowest levels of the organization and clarifies who reports to whom.

·         Authority- The rights inherent in a managerial position to tell people what to do and to expect them to do it.

·         Responsibility- The obligation or expectation to perform.

·         Unity of command- The concept that a person should have one boss and should report only to that person.

Importance of Organizational Structure:

Organizational structure affects organizational action in two big ways.

a) Provides the foundation on which standard operating procedures and routines rest.

b) Determines which individuals get to participate in which decision-making processes, and thus to what extent their views shape the organization’s actions.