Organizational structure is an important determining factor for the success of a business. It allows a company to align its methods with the goals it desires to achieve, producing the most efficient and cost-effective system. By ensuring that the organizational structure of a business aligns with its interests, capabilities of its employees, and the leadership style of its management, the organization can increase its profits and success on the market. The two types of organizational structure – centralized and decentralized, support diametrically opposite business goals, meshing together with specific types of organizational behavior (“What is organizational behavior?,” 2018). Specifically, a centralized organization supports a climate of constant communication, monitoring and responsibility. With an established chain of command and a need to work as a cohesive team, an organization with the centralized structure encourages its employees to answer to their managers, and work in adherence with project plans.
In such an environment, the use of team goals, deadlines, responsibility delegation and all other activity-related tools is encouraged. Through creating a climate of regulation and control in the workplace, it is possible to take advantage of an existing workplace power dynamics. In an disorganized organizational structure, then, workers are expected to be able to work independently and autonomously, cooperating strictly when needed. The interaction between management and actual workers is minimized, and the leadership can only be connected to ongoing projects as much as their feedback system allows.
It is possible to both effectively and ineffectively utilize structure to affect organizational behavior. For example, if a business wants to gather creative concepts for a bigger project from their employees, the use of a centralized system would have stifled their creative approaches. A dicentralized approach would comparatively bring out a sense of control and creativity from employees, allowing them to exercise autonomy in the workplace. On another side of the spectrum, if a business project needs to be delivered on a tight deadline, the coordination of a centralized business may be more beneficial than allowing the workers to do what they want.
In addition to structure, communication plays a vital role in creating a harmonious and effective workplace. By establishing quick channels of communication, the vision of the leader can be transferred to the employees, coordinating the overall process of managing a project. Furthermore, it also facilitates better communication within teams, delivering the final product quicker (“Managing organizational communication,” 2021). In modern business, communication methods such as emails or fax have generally become obsolete, being replaced by instant messaging. The use of various online apps, both casual and professional, allows employees to maintain constant communication.
References
Managing organizational communication. (2021). SHRM. Web.
What is organizational behavior? (2018). University of Southern Indiana. Web.