1.0 INTRODUCTION
We are taking again another function of management which is called
organizing in our present note. This is one of the functions of management
where the manager is expected to bring his creativity to
bear. He has to be
original and innovative in the discharge of this function. It would be recalled
that in our note 4 where we treated business objectives and the necessary
skills a manager needs to have in other to satisfactorily perform his
functions, design skill is one of those skills. And the design skill is very
much needed in the function of organizing
In note five where we
treated the management functions of forecasting and planning, we did highlight
the importance of forecasting to the manager. We also saw the features of
planning, the steps in planning and decision making, the advantages of planning
and the limitations of planning. We emphasized the fact that other management
functions cannot take place until
planning has been effectively carried out. And after forecasting and planning,
the next logical function of management to follow is organizing. Organizing has
many areas to cover.
As a result, we shall be starting with the nature of organizing,
types of organization and the activities of organizing. Other dimensions
associated with organizing will be covered in subsequent notes of this course.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
By the end of this note, you should be able to:
· Describe organizing
· Explain what is organization
· Discuss the activities associated with organizing
· List the advantages of organizing
3.0 MAIN CONTENT
3.1 Conditions for Organizing
In business or government or even in football there are people.
The people are there because they have some duties to perform. And these duties
are necessary so that the objective(s) for establishing such organizations can
be fulfilled. We call such duties roles.
Every position has roles and the person occupying the position
must play his role otherwise he has no business being there. But for an
organization role to be meaningful, there are conditions that must exist. The
first condition is that there must be objective. I hope you can still recollect
all what we said in our previous discussion on management objective including
of course the features of good business objective.
The second condition that must exist is that there should be a
clear idea concerning the activities or the duties that must be performed. There
is no point creating a role without the accompanying duties necessary to
accomplish the objective(s).
The third condition is the authority that the person occupying a
position must have which he uses to perform his duties. This is necessary so
that at any point in time he knows what at any point in time he knows what he
has to do to accomplish the goals. The last condition is that the person needs
to be supplied with the necessary tools and information needed for good
performance of the role
3.1.1 What is
organizing?
Organizing can be thought of as:
(a) identification and classification of required activities
necessary for the accomplishment of the objectives of the organization;
(b) the grouping of the activities identified in `a'
(c) the assignment of the activities which have been grouped (i.e each
group of activities) to a manager;
(d) provision of commensurate authority to the manager so that he can
be able to supervise the group of activities that has been assigned to him, and
(e) co-ordination which ensures that the group of activities
assigned to a manager has a link with other groups of activities assigned to other
managers in the organization.
3.1.2 Advantages of Organizing
Having explained briefly what is organizing you can easily see
some of the advantages associated with it. By creating the different roles that
make up the structure of an organization arises some definite advantages.
(a) The environment, that is, the internal environment is made
clear. There is a focus of what the objective is, and the need to contribute
one's quota toward the realization of the objective.
(b) Organizing makes it possible to determine who is to do what.
The marketing manager through organizing, for example, knows he is to perform
marketing activities such, as market and marketing researches, segmentation,
pricing, promotion among others. He is not employed to do engineering work
because that aspect of the organizational role belongs to another manager
entirely.
(c) Organizing again makes it possible to identify who is
responsible for what result. Even though the marketing department has to perform
marketing activities, it is the marketing manager that is accountable to a
higher manager all issues relating to marketing. Below the marketing manager,
there are other employees reporting to him. These other employees must also
give account to the marketing manager
and to another manager, outside the marketing department.
(d) Removes obstacles: Through proper organizing all obstacles are
removed. They are obstacles because they not allow do good performance. And the
obstacles arise due to confusion and uncertainties which arise because of
improper or faulty organizing. If personnel in the accounting department are
also to report to the marketing department and the work of personnel department
assigned to production department will definitely create problems. These
problems in the forms of confusions, anger, frustrations, uncertainties among
others are drastically reduced through the management function of organizing.
(e) It makes it possible for smooth decision making network. We have
said it earlier that a manager takes decisions. But he cannot take a decision
if there is confusion and uncertainty surrounding the environment under which
he is managing. He may not know what he is going to decide on and the
importance of his decisions to the organization. But with proper organizing, a
conducive environment would have been created under which the manager has to
make his decisions.
(f) Presence of communication
network: In an organization, nothing would be done without communication.
Decision making involves communication; forecasting and planning cannot be done
in the absence of communication. In fact, no management function can be
performed in the absence of communication which can be oral or written or non
verbal. Communication exists between managers, between managers and their
subordinates, between managers and their superior officers and so on. All these
create network of communication. And the network must be properly designed so
that there will be free flow of communication to and from all the position in
the organization.
3.2 What is
Organization?
The term "Organization" is one word that people use
loosely. In one sense, some people look at the word as including all the
behaviours of the people that work in an establishment. Some other people
regard organization as the total system of social and cultural relationships.
Still others equate an organization with an enterprise, such as Guinness Nigeria Plc, Fan Milk of Nigeria Plc among
others.
We are going to regard organization throughout our courses in
management as the formal internal structure of roles or positions that exist in
an establishment. We have already seen that people who work together must fill
and perform some roles.
And these roles that people are asked to do, somebody must sit
down and design the roles deliberately. This is necessary so that the desired activities
are done and all the activities are fitted together so that people can work
smoothly.
3.3 Types of Organization
In management there are two types of organizations. But these
types of organization are found in organizations. These types of organizations
are simply called formal organization and informal organization.
3.3.1 Formal Organization
A formal organization which is a social system has its roles
deliberately created so that the objectives of the organization can be
achieved. Consequently there features which are associated with formal organizations
are:
(a) There must be policies and objectives. These policies must be consciously
created. And there must be verifiable objectives which are formulated taking
the policies into consideration. These objectives are not only for the entire
organization but also for the departments and sections.
(b) The activities of individuals in a formal organization are coordinated.
This means that one activity must be linked up with another activity. Through
this process the entire activities being carried out in the organization move
in the same direction.
(c) The persons in a formal organization must be able to communicate
with one another through the appropriate channels which have been created.
Consequently, the issue of keeping malice with a fellow worker(s) is ruled out
because nothing works in a formal organization without communication taking place.
(d) The employees in a formal organization must share a purpose. And
the purpose is the reason why the organization is in existence. Such purpose is
usually reflected in the mission statement of the organization.
(e) The workers in a formal organization on the receipt of
necessary directive from their manager must be willing to act. But in acting, it
should not be on individual level; the whole workers must cooperate with one
another in their actions.
3.3.2 Informal Organization
The informal organization is a network of personal and social
relations not established or required by the formal organization but arising spontaneously
as people associate or come together. That is why informal organizations exist
in a formal organization. From here, we can see the features of an informal
organization which are:
(a) the association exists merely as social interactions.
(b) there is no common or consciously coordinated joint purpose among
members even though they may be contributing to joint result.
(c) compatibility is a major criterion for such grouping. Since
the informal groups exist in a formal group they can assist or interfere with
the enterprise interests.
(d) the form of punishment that the informal group members can give
to an erring member is to ostracize him. This means that members of the
informal group will refrain from talking and interacting with the member under
punishment until he turns a "new leaf".
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this note we have looked at various points relating to
organizing. We saw what organizing as a managerial function is, including the conditions
that should exist for organizing to be efficient and effective. We highlighted
the advantages of organizing with the hope that the points raised will provide
necessary incentives for managers to regard this function as important and
consciously carry it out. Thereafter, we saw that there are two types of
organizations, one necessarily existing in the other. We have the formal and
informal organization with the informal organization existing in a formal
organization. The features of formal and informal organizations were also
highlighted.
5.0 SUMMARY
This note has touched on the conditions for organizing, the
advantages of organizing, and the definition of organization. It also looked at
types of organization and the features of the organization. In our next note,
we will be looking at the ways activities are grouped together and assigned to
individuals and groups.
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