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1. ORGANIZING

Organizing  is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals.

To organize a business involves determining & providing human and non-human resources to the organizational structure. Organizing as a process involves:

• Identification of activities.
• Classification of grouping of activities.
• Assignment of duties.
• Delegation of authority and creation of responsibility.
• Coordinating authority and responsibility relationships.

Organizing is the process of creating a structure for the organization that will enable the various players to work together effectively towards its objectives.

Organizational structure: is the basic framework of formal relationships among responsibilities, tasks and people in the organization. It can be seen as the division of activities into manageable units where everyone knows who is to do what and who is responsible – it removes confusion and conflict.

Organizational design:

Design of an organizational structure involves the task of dividing up the work, allocating responsibility and establishing chains of command.

Organizational Chart:

An organization chart Is a diagrammatic explanation of an organization’s structure. It depicts the organization as a whole, the various components and their interrelationships. It can be compared to a road map – thus a chart is not the organization, but a representation of it.

Reasons for organizing

1. Organizing is necessary to avoid confusion of roles, tasks etc.
2. Organizing clarifies the responsibilities of the employees of the organization
3. It allocates accountability to each employee for the outcomes of the work they are responsible for
4. It establishes clear channels of communication
5. It enables managers to deploy resources (human, financial, informational, and physical) meaningfully and synergy can be reached
6. It enables monitoring of organizational activities
7. Allows for co-ordination of different parts of the organization and different areas of work
8. It provides the flexibility needed to respond to future demands and developments

Organizational Design

Organizational design is the decision-making process through which managers construct an organizational structure appropriate to the plans and strategies of the organization.

Steps in organizational design are:

1. Reflecting on the plans and objectives of the organization
2. Establishing major tasks
3. Dividing the major tasks into sub-tasks
4. Allocating resources for sub-tasks
5. Evaluating the results of the organizing strategy

The organisational structure

The organisational structure is based on the level of management.

The line of authority moves directly from the top level to the lowest level in a step-by-step manner i.e. Lower level managers follow the orders from higher level managers.

The authority and responsibility is clearly defined.

Basic principles of organizing

Effective organizations are guided by the following principles:

• Division of work and specialization – involves dividing total workload into tasks that can be logically and effectively performed by individuals with specialized knowledge
• Departmentation – refers to the logical grouping into manageable sizes of organizational activities belonging together. The departments created constitute the organization’s structure and appear on the organizational chart. (A department is a distinct area, division or branch over which a manager has authority over performance e.g. production, accounts or sales)

1. Coordination – the process of integrating departments both horizontally and vertically. It is achieved through authority relationships, which involve allocation of responsibility and authority to each position in the organizational structure.
2. Chain of command – defines the reporting lines of individuals and groups in the organizations
3. Unity of command – implies that each subordinate must have only one manager to report to
4. Span of control – refers to the number of subordinates working under one manager

The Organizing Process

Organizing creates a vertical hierarchy of positions, which involves structuring authority, responsibility and accountability. The hierarchy is a channel or conduit through which authority, power and accountability flow. While authority and power flow downwards, accountability flows upward and responsibility rests with individuals.

Authority

 It is the right to do something – it is the right of a manager to make a subordinate do something in order to accomplish organizational goals. Managerial authority is the right to command others by making decisions, assigning tasks to subordinates and expecting and requiring satisfactory performance from subordinates. However, being able to enforce this right is a different matter.

Delegation of authority

This refers to the process by which a supervisor gives a subordinate the authority to do the supervisors job. A manager, however, cannot delegate the functions of planning, organizing, leading and control as this would lead to breakdown in organizational performance.

Power

While authority is the right to do something, power is the ability to do it. The sources of a manager’s power are:

1. Ability to give or withdraw rewards
2. Ability to punish or threaten to punish

Power is subjective and is influenced by moral and ethical considerations. The perception that people have about the power of another is more important than the actual power possessed. People in authority sometimes bluff, pretending they have more power than they actually do.

Authority and power must be balanced to avoid conflict. Too much power leads to abuse while less authority leads to ineffectiveness.

Responsibility

This is closely related to authority and power. It refers to the obligation to do something. It is the duty to perform organizational tasks, functions etc. In formal organizations everyone has a responsibility

Delegation of responsibility

 Responsibility cannot be delegated. A supervisor’s responsibility is not diminished because of delegation of authority to a subordinate. In fact, responsibility may increase because in addition to ensuring that the delegated work is done, he has to supervise the subordinate. Whether a manager does the work or chooses to delegate to a subordinate, he retains complete responsibility for the accomplishment of the task.

Source of responsibility

Responsibility is created within a person when accepting an assignment together with the appropriate responsibility. The act of responsibility is created internally when a person agrees to perform a task. Refusal to be responsible for a task leads to disciplinary action or dismissal. Responsibility is not a flow as in accountability and authority but is retained within the person assigned. It is an internal obligation to perform tasks.

Accountability

In addition to personal responsibility to oneself, an employee is accountable to higher authority. Accountability comes into being because the manager has a right to require an accounting for the authority and power delegated and tasks assigned to a subordinate. The subordinate must account/answer to the manager the stewardship of the power and authority granted. “Each employee is obliqued to report to his superiors how well he has exercised his responsibility and the use of the authority delegated to them”

Just as a manager cannot reduce responsibility by delegating, accountability cannot also be reduced.

Problems with imbalance between authority, power, responsibility and accountability

For the sake of organizational stability there must be equilibrium between the above four factors.

1. If authority and power exceed responsibility and accountability there is likely to be abuse of power. Power can be used arbitrarily with little regard on its impact on others. It creates fear of the potential acts of the holder of excessive authority e.g. a dictatorship form of government or the police.

If responsibility and accountability exceeds authority and power, then people would be held accountable for actions beyond their control. People will eventually object and seek additional authority.