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Within the planning
framework we advocate, once the Charter,
Vision and Mission
have been decided upon and documented, it becomes a practical
proposition to design a first cut Organization structure
based on the aims and aspirations expressed in the foundation
papers.
Organization Structure Elements
After careful research we have identified six Organization
element types using which it is possible to construct a
comprehensive model of any Organization They are:
|
Element Type |
Definition |
| Department |
A business activity that has clearly defined borders
or areas of responsibility within the Organization Ideally,
within the framework, they should be capable of being
identified by a single noun or adjective. For example
"Warehousing" or "Finance" |
| Sub Department |
A sub set of the Department. it is often the case
that within a department, there are teams, typically
task related, that do not carry out core functions but
have a support role that is nevertheless pivotal in
ensuring the Department is able to function effectively. |
| Supplier |
External groups who supply some kind of service or
commodity to the Organization |
| Stakeholder |
External groups who have some sort of impact or influence
on the Organization but are not suppliers. Stakeholders
will be classified as "deciders" or "providers". |
| Purpose |
From time to time Organization elements will be created
that have a specialist short term function that is peculiar
to some specific task. |
| Committee |
Organization elements that have an authoritative,
cross business boundary responsibility that, typically
is used to determine things like corporate policy or
is brought about in response to some specific situation
or circumstance. |
Communication Channels
In addition to the Organization elements described above,
there will be a need to describe communication links between
them. Within our planning framework there are two broad
communication channel types, formal, and informal.
Why map informal Organization channels? In our experience
it is often the case that much useful work is done in (say)
the company sports and social club or other such mechanism.
Tracking that kind of informal communication line is an
extremely useful exercise.
Layer the Model
The combination of symbols and communication links described
above can generate quite complex models of the way an Organization
is structured. It is useful therefore to have some kind
of layering feature such that levels of detail in a model
can be increased or reduced.
Add Additional Features When Required
Finally, for this section of the framework, using add ons
to the Performance Organiser, it is
possible to build in to the model additional layers or symbols
to show things like the supporting IS/IT infrastructure,
or a devolved budget structure.
Value
to the Planning Framework?
In the context of the framework we advocate, the organization
structure improves on the foundations laid by the Charter,
Vision and Mission. The organization chart provides the
means to describe the management structure, identify communication
centres, identify the relationships between the organization
and stakeholders and carry out some simple organization
assessment through the use of techniques like PEST and SWOT
analysis.
Note:
It will be noticed that customers are not mentioned in
this section, from our framework perspective, the relationship
between the Organization and customers is mapped at process
level and is used to determine things like service level
agreements, internal job descriptions etc.
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