Organisation Chart.

University Degree Architecture, Building and Planning

Shaun Macdonald

Unit 1

Organisation Chart

An organisation chart is the way the functional areas and the jobs within each area look when put into a structure. The charts all come in different styles and shapes but all have the skilled jobs at the top and the unskilled one at the bottom.

The charts can be used in many different ways! They can be used in the company for the worker to see who their subordinate’s or people above them are by looking at the lines of communication. The workers can see who they are supposed to be taking order form e.g. a manager from a different department could be giving you order but they aren’t really supposed to because they could be giving different order from their proper boss.

Different organisations use different organisation structures, there are three different types of organisation structure which a business many chose from depending on the job activity. They can chose from:

Flat Structures
Pyramid/ Hierarchical Structures.
Matrix Structures.

FLAT STRUCTURES

Flat organisation structures are usually found in small businesses that don’t have a lot of workers in it. There are usually only 3 or 4 different lines of communication in flat structures. There is usually 1 director at the top, them 3 or 4 managers bellow them and then they each have eight at the most workers below them.

Companies with flat structure are usually have great communication between all the workers, every one in the organisation usually knows every one else which make it work place nice to work in and work is more effective. Being small information is passed quickly and correctly through the company with out being distorted, this makes the company good at responding so thing can be done quickly and effectively. Worker in flat organisation are usually vary flexible, if there is a problem with deadlines the manager would be able to help or over time could be given but every one in the functional area would get if so no favouritism will be shown. If the company gets over worked then they may need to higher more workers. But the managers would get over worked because there would be too many people to supervise, this means they would need to higher supervisors or assistant managers and this would add more lines of communications and the structure would end up turning into a pyramid structure.

HIERARCHICAL/ PYRAMID STRUSCTURE

This is a preview of the whole essay

HIERARCHICAL/ PYRAMID STRUSCTURE

A hierarchical organisation structure is a lot longer than a flat structure, the reason this is because there are more levels. Hierarchy is a system wear grade or importance is placed one above the other. The structure is sometimes called a pyramid structure because of the shape if forms. There will be only five or six managers but on the shop floor there can be hundreds of different workers, so the structure forms a pyramid. The more job roles there are the steeper the chart will be. The difference from this structure to the others is that each of the different functional areas has there own specific workers and there own job roles. Each worker has there own to do task and are more specialised in there work. In these organisations each individual worker will have official job role and will be on a specific job role depending on type and level of work they do. In pyramid structures the different functional areas work separately and don’t really work together unless there is some happening they means they must come together. Because of the size of the organisation the communication between all the workers will easily get distorted. In Flat structures there aren’t a lot of workers and each worker will work close to every one else so every one know each other. In pyramid structure there are so many workers that you will probably never know every one in the organisation. A message can be passed to so many people the message that was first give is totally different to there original like in a game of chine whisper. Ideas may take weeks before they come into affect no matter how good they are because of the amount of people that must be consulted first. There are many different advantages to a business that have a Pyramid structure:

The workers a clear job role and no exactly they have to do and how they are supposed to do it.
There is always a good chance of promotion within the business
They have excellent payment structures
There is a wide range of facilities for the workers e.g. car park, diner and staff clubs …etc
There are also opportunities to join different unions.

MATRIX STRUCTURE

The last type of organisation structure is called a Matrix structure. This is nothing like the other two structures. This is sometimes used within one of the other two structure for one of projects that the business is taking part in. It is also found in some large construction companies. When these teams are constructed a project manager is chosen to look after the project and run it, but he will need help from the function managers to find out his budgets and designs and which are the best staff to use for the project. The team will then work until the project is completed and then all the workers will go back to their original job role. There are a lot of advantages of using this type of structure. All the workers that are working on the project will have been chosen because they work the hardest and they are the best at their job, this means the project will be done to the best of the firm’s abilities. In large business there are workers in the Human Resources and Finance that specialise in supporting the projects which means that thing are done faster and the teams run properly and that the workers are being treated good and they are working to the best of there abilities. Because of the way the structures are formed they can easily be put together. A team can be created in a week or two depend one how much work the workers have to do. Most people won’t refuse to work in the projects because they may get bonuses at the end. It is also easy to add people to the structure. If there is a problem in the team and work is not being done properly then people may easily be removed the structure and can be replaced with almost no effort. After the project is over the teams can also be removed easily.

There are also may disadvantage of using this type of structure in a business. There can be a lot of communication problem arising from these structures. Because there is a team manager the workers may be getting contradicting orders from them and their normal managers and may bet in trouble because of doing one thing instead of the other. The staff members are there because they are the best at what they do so they will only be doing that one thing. This means that the workers will not get also of experience ad doing other thing in the business which may affect there chances of promotion in the business. When business use this type of structure it helps the workers from the different functional areas to interact with other, where in a Pyramid structure they don’t really get the chance.

International Motors group

IM is an extremely large company but only has around 350 people working for them. IM uses two of the different organisation structures in the business. The first and most important one is an Hierarchal structure, this shows IM Group which International Motors is a part of with all the different subsidiaries they have such as Subaru UK, Daihatsu UK, and IM Properties. The other structure they have is a Matrix structure, this is for the one of side projects that they some times take part in e.g. motor shows…etc. The way that IM chose to place the different subsidiaries in to the structure was by putting them is an order of which was the bigger company and the time they join the organisation. IM organisation structure is always changing because companies could leave the company at the end of their contracts and go to another imparting firm, and other car companies could join them and add to the organisation structure.

William King

William King is a steal company in the secondary sector, they obtain steal from their suppliers and mould them into different thing then sell them on to other companies. They produce things like springs for car Volvos, exhaust pipes and many other things. They are now a relatively small company but were big until the decline of secondary sector in England. The type of organisation structure they chose to use was s flat structure, there are only four levels in their structure at the top are the different manager, and at the bottom are the shop flour workers. They like all organisation structures are built by what skills and qualifications they have. At the top is the manager with high qualifications and must have a variety of skills and at the bottom are the shop floor workers who have standard qualifications and will properly only have skills in the area they work in.

Comparison

The two businesses are extremely different, one is an flat structure (William King) and the other is a Hierarchy (IM). Out of the two IM is the bigger organisation. The are both in two different industrial sectors and do totally different job activities. IM is in the Tertiary sector and William King is in the secondary sector. They are both based in West Bromwich and are not to far from each other.