An organization is a group of people who come together and work in a coordinated manner to realize specific objectives. Organizations may be profit based, nonprofit based or human service delivery based. In realizing their objectives, organizations make use of various resources which may include human, financial and physical resources which comprise things like offices, furniture, office equipment and accessories as well as other forms of resources which may be appropriate (Johnson 243-425).
Organizational design is the manner in which an organization is structured and entails the relationship between employees in the various positions in the organizational structure. More specifically, it entails the nature of chain of command and how important decisions and policies concerning the organizations are made. Each organization exists in different socio economic, political and natural environments. Organizations also vary in terms of their mission, vision, objectives, resource base and their philosophy. Due to this, they have varied organizational designs, depending on the environments in which they operate as well as on their objectives and scope (Johnson 243-425).
The most common organizational designs are the structured-mechanistic and organic-humanistic designs. As I have already mentioned, each design is suited for certain organizations. The organic-humanistic model of organizational design is mainly characterized by flexibility and a liberalized and decentralized approach to decision making as contrasted to the structured- mechanistic model, which is mainly characterized by rigidity and centralized approach to decision making.
The two models compare in that they both have chains of command, in which decisions are made regarding the organizations. They also compare in that the crucial decisions regarding the organizations, for example policies and strategies for moving the organizations forward especially during times of crisis are made exclusively by the top management without involving the employees. Take for instance a decision on laying-off some of the employees. There is no organization, regardless of its design, which seeks the opinions of the employees regarding the same, but rather, such a decision is just made unilaterally by the top management (Johnson 243-425).
The main difference between the two is that the organic-humanistic model is suited for young organizations which operate in a dynamic environment, which require them to be flexible. With the model, employees at the junior levels are free to make decisions regarding their roles and responsibilities. Due to the changing environments in which they operate, departments in the organizations are integrated and borrow from each other. Employees also interact more often and usually work in groups or teams due to similarity of their tasks (Johnson 243-425).
The strength of this model is that it increases efficiency and effectiveness because there is no much time sped waiting for various individuals to make a decision regarding employees’ roles. It has also the advantage of making work more enjoyable because employees are allowed to bring in their creativity and be flexible in their operations as well as design their own timetables, which minimizes supervision. This in turn increases their motivation and commitment to their work.
The weakness is that the model is prone to the problem of knowing which employees are hardworking and those who are not and thus making it difficult for the management to decide which employees to promote, demote or lay off. The other weakness is that it is hard to measure employees’ contribution to the organization because of the integration of departments and the sharing of duties by the employees.
The structured-mechanistic design on the other hand is suitable for organizations which operate in stable environments and have established themselves. It involves formulation of clear cut roles and responsibilities for each and every employee and there is therefore nothing like group work or integration of departments. Authority and decision making are centralized and the roles and duties of the employees are highly formalized and standardized.
The strength of this model is that it is possible to measure each and every employee’s performance. It also has the strength of making the organization to easily predict their performance because they operate in standardized work environments. It also has the strength of giving the employees an opportunity to do the jobs which they are best qualified for, thus instilling professionalism in the organization.
The weakness is that the centralized mode of decision making makes the organization inefficient because a lot of time may be wasted in making a simple decision, which may affect the productivity of the organization. The other weakness is that the model transforms employees to machines, by making them do their jobs as per the strict guidelines, which makes work boring and monotonous.
The structured-mechanistic model is my favorite model as a guiding framework for organizing the structure and functioning of a bureaucracy because a bureaucracy is characterized by rules and procedures, as well as strict chains of command. The model is also suitable for organizing a bureaucracy because of clear job specifications, job specialization and division of labor which are found in a bureaucratic organizational structure.
Works Cited
Johnson, David. Thinking Government: Ideas, Policies, Institutions, And Public Sector Management In Canada, 2nd Edition. Toronto, ON M5S 2G5: University of Toronto Press, 2006.243-425. Print.