Organisational Design & Structure

              Is an organization well designed? How do we know? What does a well designed organization look like? Therefore this is the types of question that should be discussed when looking at organizational design.   

Organization design can be defined as the process of aligning an organization structure with its mission. This also means that by looking at the complex relationship between tasks, workflow, responsibility and authority and making sure these all support the objectives of the business.  

Good organizational design can increase communication, productivity and innovation in a way. Thus creating an environment where employees can work efficiently.

In addition to that, lack of productivity and performance issue can be link back to poor organization design. For instance, a company whose sales department and production department both work separately. Although so they still have to communicate about customer needs. If both department doesn't cooperate well this also means that the company can be produce products that are not needed by the consumer.

However, without planning an organization design often takes on a hierarchical structure. This is common because business executives and managers can gain control over major decision. Although so, this structure lack of flexibility and and often does get the potential out of their employee. They tend just follow the rules and do whatever the manager or the executive asked. 

Characteristics	Hierarchical structure	Organic structure
Complexity	High-with lots of horizontal separation department	Low-less differentiation or functional separation
Formality	High-lots of well defined lines of control	Lowe-no real hierarchy and less formal division of responsibilities
Participation	Low-employees have low involvement in decision making	High-lower level employees have more influence
Communication	Downward-information starts from the top all the way down to employee	Lateral, upward and downward-information flow better with fewer barriers

                                                                     



                                                                             Matrix Structure

This type of structure combines both tractional departments seen in functional structures with project team. In a matrix structure, individuals work across teams and projects as well as within their own department or function.

For instance, a project or task team is established to develop a new product might include engineers and design specialists as well as marketing, financial and production









In my opinion, organizational design and structure depends on the nature of the company and business. For instance, Macdonalds use the traditional hierarchical structure where the employees at the bottom and the executive all the way at the top. Employees will not have the chance to communicate with the top.