UntitledCommon Elements: ScheinThe four common elements of an organization include common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority.  Organizational psychologist Edgar Schein proposed the four common elements of an organization:

Common purpose

Coordinated effort

Division of labor

Hierarchy of authority

Common purpose is the means for unifying members. An organization without purpose soon begins to drift and become disorganized.

The common purpose unifies employees or members and gives everyone an understanding of the organization’s reason for being.Coordinated effort entails working together for the common purpose. The common purpose is realized through the coordinated effort of all individuals and groups within an organization. Although it’s true that individuals can make a difference, they cannot do everything by themselves. Individuals who join together and coordinate their mental and or physical efforts can accomplish great and exciting things .Division of labor, also known as work specification for greater efficiency, is the arrangement of having discrete parts of a task done by different people.

 

With division of labor, an organization can parcel out the entire complex work effort to be performed by specialists, which results in greater efficiency. By systematically dividing complex tasks into specialized jobs, an organization can use its human resources efficiently (Figure 2.4).Hierarchy of authority, or the chain of command, is a control mechanism for making sure the right people do the right things at the right time. Even in member-owned organizations, some people have more authority than others, although their peers may have granted it to them. In addition, authority is most effective when arranged in a hierarchy. Without tiers or ranks of authority, a lone manager would have to confer with everyone in his or her domain, making it difficult to get things done.Source: https://www.boundless.com/management/organizational-structure–2/components-of-an-organization/common-elements-schein/CC-BY-SABoundless is an openly licensed educational resource Other Common ElementsOther common elements of an organization include span of control, departmentalization, centralization and decentralization.  Span of control is a means of ensuring proper coordination of and a sense of accountability among employees.

 

Span of control refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has. It is important because it determines the number of levels and managers an organization has as well as the number of employees a manager can efficiently and effectively manage. In the execution of a task, organizations usually have different levels of task processes, and workers at various levels send reports on their progress to the next levels until the work is completed.In the past in hierarchical business organization it was not uncommon to see average spans of one-to-four; that is, one manager supervised four employees. In the 1980s corporate leaders flattened many organizational structures, which caused average spans to move closer to one-to-ten. That was made possible primarily by the development of inexpensive information technology. As it developed further and eased many middle manager tasks – tasks like collecting, manipulating, and presenting operational information – upper managers found they could hire fewer middle managers and thus save money.

 

Departmentalization is the process of grouping individuals into departments and departments into total organizations. Different approaches include:Functional – departmentalization by common skills and work tasksDivisional – departmentalization by common product, program, or geographical locationMatrix – a combination of Functional and DivisionalTeam – for accomplishing specific tasksNetwork – independent departments providing functions for a central core breakerWhen the decision-making authority is centered near the top organization levels, this is known as centralization. Centralization increases consistency in the processes and procedures that employees use in performing tasks. In this way, it promotes workplace harmony among workers and reduces the cost of production. Centralization is usually helpful when an organization is in crisis and or faces the risk of failure.

 

Times of crisis make it necessary for workers to perform as efficiently as they can, hence the need for management control. To achieve greater efficiency, management must reduce or remove poor performance.With centralized authority, important decisions are made by higher-level managers. Very small companies tend to be most centralized. An advantage in using centralized authority is that there is less duplication of work, because fewer employees perform the same task. Another advantage of centralization is that procedures are uniform and thus easier to control (Figure 2.5). Decentralization is found when the location of decision-making authority is near lower organizational levels. With decentralized authority, important decisions are made by middle-level and supervisory-level managers. An advantage in having decentralized authority is that managers are encouraged to solve their own problems rather than to buck the decision to a higher level.

 

In addition, decisions are made more quickly, which increases the organization’s flexibility.Source: https://www.boundless.com/management/organizational-structure–2/components-of-an-organization/other-common-elements/CC-BY-SABoundless is an openly licensed educational resource KEY POINTSThe four common elements of an organization as proposed by Edgar Schein include common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority.Common purpose unifies employees or members and gives everyone an understanding of the organization’s reason for being.Coordinated effort is the coordination of individual efforts into a group or organization-wide effort.Division of labor is the arrangement of having discrete parts of a task done by different people for greater efficiency.Hierarchy of authority is the control mechanism for making sure the right people do the right things at the right time. KEY POINTSOrganizational psychologist Edgar Schein proposed four common elements of an organization; however, other elements exist as well.

 

Span of control is a means of ensuring proper coordination of and a sense of accountability among employees. It refers to the number of subordinates a supervisor has.Departmentalization is the basis by which an organization groups tasks together. There are five known bases: functional, divisional, matrix, team, and network.When the location of decision-making authority is near top organization levels, this is known as centralization. Centralization increases consistency in the processes and procedures that employees use in performing tasks.Decentralization is found when the location of decision-making authority is near lower organizational levels. With decentralized authority, important decisions are made by middle-level and supervisory-level managers. Common Elements: ScheinOther Common Elements Section 2 Components of an Organization Common Elements: ScheinOther Common Elements

This matrix describes the division of labor on Wikipedia according to some statistics. Division of Labor 86 87 88 Centralization is found when the location of decision-making authority is near top organization levels. Decentralization is found when the location of decision-making authority is near lower organizational levels.

Centralization vs. Decentralization