What are the different types of organizational hierarchies/business structures?
An organizational hierarchy shows the chain of command, with the different levels describing who is in authority in the organization's management. The hierarchy is shown in a business organizational chart that shows the organizational structure, describing the management's span of control in the organization.
A flat structure would indicate a wider span of control as there would be many subordinates reporting to a single manager but shorter chain of command, enabling quicker decision-making.
If the organization structure is tall, the management would have a narrow span of control, as each manager have fewer subordinates to supervise, but longer chain of command. Decision-making may take a longer time as many layers of management in the hierarchy needs to be consulted. However, with delegation, more decisions and task can be assigned to employees within the chain of command.
What must an organizational chart have?
The organizational chart must clearly show
Which manager is in-charge of which department/functional unit,
What does each department specialize on, and
Who is responsible for any specific task, function, project, product, customers, region, department or team
How are information or decision-making escalated or communicated, and
Who is responsible for making those decisions
What does an actual organizational chart look like?
RELEVANT CONCEPTS
Organizational Hierarchy
Organizational Chart
Delegation
PAST YEAR QUESTIONS
Is having too many levels of hierarchy good for a large business? (6 marks) May/June 2020/11
Identify and explain advantages of having tall hierarchical organisation structure (4 marks) May/June 2019/11
What is meant by chain of command (2 marks) Feb/Mar 2019/12
What is meant by ‘span of control’? (2 marks) Oct/Nov 2019/11
Do you think you should delegate some tasks to employees? Justify your answer. (6 marks) Feb/Mar 2019/12
Reference
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-osintrobus/chapter/organizational-design-considerations/
Read all post from Unit 2 - People in Business