An organizational structure refers to a system established to oversee the organization’s flow of activities to achieve its goals, which include roles, rules, and responsibilities. There are several organizational structures, such as product, functional, matrix, customer, and geographic. I prefer the functional one because it categorizes individuals as per their particular functions. The accounting, human resource, and purchasing departments have distinct secured zones from which they operate, thus independently managed. Another example of the functional organizational structure’s events is that there is a director to whom managers of various functional areas report (Young & Ghoshal 2016). The director acts as the overall in charge of the operations of the organization.
One of the vital advantages of the functional organizational structure is the fact that functions are run on the basis of expertise, which allows for maximum productivity of each individual because they are engaging in duties in which they are most efficient. However, a disadvantage of this system is that departments may tend to operate as solo units, which may lead to failure to support the functions of the other areas of expertise, thus making the organization lose its sense of unity, which is pivotal in any organization’s success. I also prefer an organizational structure that operates by some guidelines, which are of massive benefit to the organization. The functional Organization structure works by these guidelines. One of the guidelines includes having goals of the organization defined by those at high levels, such as the director of operations. There are also apparent job descriptions present for each job, ensuring each worker knows what is expected of them. There should also be clear lines of responsibility and authority that guide everyone’s behavior. Another guideline is that top management is the one that makes crucial organizational decisions—all these sum up a preferred organizational structure.
Reference
Young, C., & Ghoshal, S. (2016). Organization theory and the multinational corporation. Springer.