Organising in Management: What, Definition, Principles, Importance

What is Organising?

Organising is a managerial activity that involves arranging and structuring of responsibilities and work of the employees for attaining the desired result. The organising function requires effective skills, a proper chain of command, authority, a delegation of work, and efficient control.

The activities are defined in terms of allocating the duties and responsibilities to different employees of various departments in a coordinated manner for a common purpose. Organising also involves the integration of the various relationships among different activities and job responsibilities for attaining the goals of the enterprise.

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Organising Definition in Management

According to Kimball and Kimball, Organising embraces the duties of designating the departments and the personnel that are to carry on the work, defining their functions and specifying the relations that are to exist between the departments and individuals.

In the words of Mooney and Railey, Organisation is the form of every human association for the attainment of a common purpose.

According to George Terry, Organising is the establishment of effective authority relationships among selected work, persons, and workplaces for the group to work together efficiently.

According to Stoner, Organising is the process of arranging and allocating work, authority, and resources among an organisation’s members so that they can achieve the organisational goal.

Organising is an important function of management and requires various skilled managers and employees for completing tasks.

The various activities involved in the organising function are:

• Division of work among employees
• Coordinated efforts of employees to achieve specific objectives
• Implementation of predetermined strategies

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Principles of Organizing

The concept of organising is based on the following principles:

• Chain of command
• Delegation of authority
• Span of control

Chain of command

The chain of command involves the hierarchical structure of the organisation and the line of authority that connects them in the organisation.

The chain of command works on two basic principles, which are as follows:

• Unity of command: This principle ensures that all the employees working in an organisation report to a single manager who is the functional authority. The line of command is defined clearly and all the employees are supposed to follow that line.
  
  Having to report to two or more managers can lead to conflicting demands from different supervisors at a time.
  
  
• Scalar principle: The scalar principle involves the line of command and the defined line of authority that involves the workforce of the organisation from the top level of the hierarchy to the lower level of the hierarchy.
  
  The process facilitates a clear and unbroken chain of command that ensures the linking of every person within the organisation from the higher levels of authority up to the employees.

Delegation of authority

Effective organisation is possible through efficient delegation of authority. With the delegation of authority, employees get the power to complete the assigned tasks in their own ways. The process helps in increasing employee job satisfaction and leads to ensuring better job performance.

The ability of the managers to successfully delegate responsibilities and effectively utilise the talent and strength of their employees leads to the achievement of the set targets.

Span of control

The span of control is the method of ensuring control over the workforce by defining their roles and responsibilities and monitoring their activities. It helps in limiting the number of people who need to be guided, monitored, and controlled by the supervisor. It is easy for the authority to control the limited number of people in the team that can improve the quality of work and prove the efficiency of the supervisor.

The span of control is also dependent on organisation and gets limited by the organisational structure of the enterprise. In the centralised system of organisational structure, the power of authority is concentrated with the top management.

On the other hand, in the decentralised system, the authority level is spread at the lower and middle levels of the enterprise.

The factors that influence the level of control are dependent upon the following:

• The environment in which the company operates
• Nature of decision making
• Ability and authority of managers
• Organisational structure

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Importance of Organising

The management of a company gets immense benefits by following a comprehensive approach to organising. Various resources of a business enterprise are aligned with the help of the organising function to achieve a common goal. Organising is important for all aspects of management.

For instance, a multinational company puts together its four major divisions to function as a group. The grouping made sense for making synergy in terms of financial and marketing cooperation.

However, the manufacturing departments of the grouped divisions had little in common. There was lack of internal direction, and no overall coordination. The parent company was challenged with a number of major capital appropriation requests from all manufacturing departments.

The process of organising is the main backbone of the management function that assists in planning through well-organised techniques for facilitating the smooth transition of organisational goals. Adopting an effective method of organising improves the performance of the organisation and paves the way for a smooth transition and growth of the organisation. The importance of the organising function helps in the survival, growth and development of the organisation that enables it to meet the various challenges.

Organising is a tool used for coordinating and controlling the functions of an enterprise. It provides a framework for directing the efforts of the people productively and effectively for ensuring fruitful outcomes. The importance of organising is that it helps in solving the problems of the enterprise by effectively contributing to the success of the organisation.

The importance and significance of organising become clearer from the words of Andrew Carnegie, Take away our factories, take away our trade, our avenues of transportation, our money, leave us nothing but our organisation, and in four years we shall have established ourselves. Hence, any form of business requires productive and constructive methods of organising in a systematic and coordinated manner for improving their performance and achieving their goals.

The importance of organising are as follows:

• Promotes effective delegation and management
• Provides efficient administration
• Optimum use of human resources
• Growth and expansion
• Ensures flexibility and adapting to changes
• Ensures coordination and communication
• Ensures job satisfaction

Promotes effective delegation and management

The method of organising is an effective tool used for delegating and managing the tasks for achieving the goals set by the management in an organisation. A successful organisation works efficiently by proper planning for increasing managerial efficiency and avoiding delays and duplication of work. They motivate the employees to work effectively by reducing the response time.

Provides efficient administration

Organising is an important tool that is used by enterprises for achieving their goals. An effective method of organising helps the management in defining the different activities and the authority established in the relationship of the organisational structure and hierarchy of the organisation.

Organising function is important in eliminating confusion and obstruction in various activities of the organisation that occur due to work duplication and delays. It is an effective tool used by the management for controlling, directing and coordinating the various activities within the enterprise.

Optimum use of human resources

An efficient method of organising ensures the accurate matching of roles and responsibilities for the people in the organisation as per their knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA). The process of matching jobs leads to better performance and better use of human skills.

An efficient organisation employs and engages people with different interests, skills, and knowledge of various types of work. The process helps with the economy of operation and leads to a reduction in costs.

Growth and expansion

Efficiency in organising contributes to the growth of the enterprise which leads to further expansion of the enterprise. Expansion of the enterprise increases the strength of the management which may further enhance its overall organisational activities.

Ensures flexibility and adapting to changes

An effective organising function enables an organisation to respond quickly to changes that may take place frequently in the business environment. This is because by organising its processes from time to time an organisation can review and refine its policies and get a fair idea of what needs to be done and when it is to be done.

For example, an organisation may adopt new technology by being more creative and encouraging innovative ideas.

Ensures coordination and communication

Organising is an important means of integrating and coordinating the activities and work in different departments. It ensures and specifies effective channels of communication flowing between the different departments of the enterprise. The various roles and responsibilities are embedded together by the structural relationship that helps in coordinating the various activities of the employees in the organisational structure.

Ensures job satisfaction

The process of organising is based on the principle of participative management where employees are involved in the process of planning in a democratic environment. It makes the employees feel important and part of the organisation which increases their level of productivity and job satisfaction.

According to Louis Allen, Organising is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships to enable people to work most effectively together in accomplishing objectives.

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Components of Organising

Organising involves various methods of coordinating activities, designing work roles, linking jobs, delegating work and keeping up with changes in the environment. Organising ensures the effective utilisation of resources that results in the efficient growth of the organisation.

The various constituents of organising are described as follows:

• Designing jobs
• Grouping jobs or departmentalisation
• Establishing a reporting relationship
• Distributing authority
• Coordinating activities
• Differentiating among positions

Designing jobs

Job design defines the roles and responsibilities of an individual in the structure of the enterprise. It helps in determining the responsibility of persons, their expected goals, and their involvement in the process of decision making.

The various factors involved with designing jobs are as follows:

• Job specialisation
• Job characteristics model
• Work teams
• Job rotation
• Job enlargement
• Job enrichment

Grouping jobs or departmentalisation

Grouping of jobs comes after the roles and responsibilities are assigned in job designing. The jobs are then grouped in various departments based on their functions, products, customers and locations.

The process of departmentalisation follows a formal structure of the organisation. Job grouping is done according to different departments and their working relationships with one another. The relationships in the organisational structure are formed with the chain of command.

The various elements of departmentalisation are as follows:

• Departmentalisation of functions
• Customer departmentalisation
• Product departmentalisation
• Process departmentalisation
• Departmentalisation by the task force
• Departmentalisation by location
• Matrix departmentalisation

Establishing a reporting relationship

Establishing reporting relationships determines the chain of command that clearly defines the line of authority among the structural system of the enterprise. The process of organising establishes the span of management that determines the number of people who report to the supervisor or the reporting authority in the chain of command. It establishes the reporting relationship between the different jobs within the hierarchical structure of the organisation.

Distributing authority

Distributing authority is used for determining the authority of the manager within the enterprise. It authorises certain powers to the manager according to the right given to him through the process of organising jobs.

Managers use the authority to delegate jobs and tasks to their subordinates in a structured manner. The manager in his position has the authority to delegate tasks to the employees and take decisions. This authority is given as a part of job responsibility within the enterprise.

The distribution authority follows the following principles:

• Establish the positions and authority in the enterprise
• Ensure power to the authority for making decisions
• Exercise the authority of delegation in the decentralised structure of the organisation

Coordinating activities

Coordination of activities is necessary for linking jobs and activities of different departments. Effective coordination of activities leads to the smooth functioning of the departments and their work that leads to an increase in productivity and achieving the group targets.

Differentiating among positions

The process of organising requires differentiating among various positions for the effective working of an enterprise. The line position determines the direct chain of command that is needed for achieving the objectives of the enterprise. The staff position in the enterprise defines the line of specialisation, support, expertise and advice.

Managers use the following positions in the staff line for achieving their targets:

• Line position: It refers to the direct chain of command required for achieving the objectives of the enterprise.
  
  
• Staff position: It refers to the line of specialisation, expertise, advice and support provided by the staff line.

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Process of Organising

Organisations grow with time and require effective organising capabilities to meet their ever-changing needs. Organising processes involve defining the tasks to be carried out by the workforce. The people carrying out the tasks need to be included in the framework for decision making within the organisational structure for accomplishing the goals of the enterprise.

Effective implementation of the organising process creates an environment, where people are aware of their duties and responsibilities and the work, gets carried out amicably. The various steps involved in an organising process are shown in Figure:

The various steps involved in the organising process are explained as follows:

• Defining the objectives
• Division of activities
• Grouping of activities
• Defining authority and hierarchy
• Coordination of activities
• Reviewing and reorganising

Defining the objectives

Every organisation works on certain activities that are based on the objectives and vision of the company. The first step in the process of organising is determining the scope of the workload of the enterprise.

Thereafter, plans are made for achieving objectives. Hence, it is the objective and the mission of the enterprise that defines the different activities that need to be carried out following the structure of the organisation. Keeping these principles in mind, Alfred Chandler said, Structure follows strategy.

Division of activities

It is not easy for a person to manage all the work hence the tasks are divided into various departments and units for accomplishing the plans and objectives of the enterprise. The division of work leads to better productivity and has the following benefits:

• Increase in output
• Better efficiency
• Facilitation for training

The activities are divided according to the work specialisation, qualification, ability and skills of the people. The tasks are divided in terms of:

• On-going tasks (regular activities of the organisation)
• Specific ‘once for all’ tasks (rarely occurring events like setting up a new branch)

Grouping of activities

The process of organising initiates the smooth flow of work and smooth functioning of the enterprise hence the departments are made and the divisions are done within the department by grouping of activities.

The process ensures a systematic manner of functioning through the grouping of activities referred to as departmentalisation. The number of departments and divisions in an enterprise is dependent upon the size of the organisation. Each department is supervised by its departmental head or manager who is responsible for the following functions:

• Assess every identified task for understanding its character
• Classify the tasks according to their functional areas
• Determine the departmental design for the organisational structure

Defining authority and hierarchy

Authority helps managers or departmental heads to effectively carry out their individual responsibilities by getting tasks completed efficiently and on time. The authority provided to managers or departmental heads should match their existing competence. The departmental head has the responsibility of delegating tasks to the people of his department.

Authority delegation has a direct relationship with the hierarchy of the organisation. Authority flows from top to bottom of the organisation while responsibility flows from bottom to the top. Authority establishes the reporting relationships between the manager and the employees of the company, based on the authority and responsibility assigned to them.

Coordination of activities

It is the responsibility of the departmental head or the manager to ensure that the activities carried out by the department and groups are well coordinated. While performing the activities, conflicts may arise between departments and groups. There may be duplication of work leading to wastage of time and hampering the working of the system.

The managers should be well experienced in handling these conflicts through effective coordination so that there is harmony in the flow of activities for achieving the goals of the organisation. The process of coordination helps in the optimum use of the resources and brings down the working costs. Coordination between various departments helps in establishing effective communication and relationships between the people working in different departments.

Reviewing and reorganising

The working of any system requires constant monitoring and reviewing of the various processes and functions. Due to the changes in the internal and external environmental factors, the working of the system may require certain modifications.

The process of reviewing helps in evolving the organisational structure, as and when required. Reviewing is an important aspect of the organising process and it helps in implementing the changes to meet the requirements of the organisation.

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