Organizational Structure is a system that defines how specific activities such as task allocation, coordination, and supervision are directed to achieve the aims and success of an organization. It determines how the roles, power, and responsibilities are assigned, controlled and coordinated and how information flows between the different levels of management. It creates a plan for efficient growth in the future.
There are three types of organizational structures. A functional structure that is set up so that each portion of the organization is grouped according to its purpose and can rely on the talent and knowledge of its workers to support itself. For example, the sales, marketing department in a city hotel. Divisional structure is used in organizations that operate in a wide geographical area. And has staffs from many parts of the world. Organizational needs can, therefore, be met rapidly and correctly; but communication is inhibited because employees in different locations are not working together and it is costly because of its size and shape. Lastly, the matrix structure is a hybrid of functional and divisional and is used in large multinational organizations. It allows for the benefits of functional and divisional structures to exist in one organization.
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Elements of organizational structure give organizations’ management the effective and efficient ways to run their business. The right structure is helpful in generating the correct means of managing the employees and ensuring that tasks are completed in time.
One of the outstanding elements of organizational structure is work specialization. This in essence means ensures that each employee has a set of specific duties that they are expected to perform based on their past work experience level, education, and skills ( Shafritz et al ., 2015). This element prevents employees from performing tasks for which they have no training hence increases worker productivity and efficiency. The level of experience is also beneficial in reducing redundancy and operational cost for the organization. However, this method is also known to increase the need for managerial control and coordination. For instance, someone has to make sure that housekeeping staff comes in after painters have repainted a room and the paint is dry not before. It can also result in overspecialization whose signs include workers’ loss of interest, lowered morale, increased error rate and reduction in service and product quality. A solution to this problem is modifying jobs so that teams, directed by a manager or self-managed, can perform them. Instead of a single guest room attendant being assigned a group of rooms, a work team in the housekeeping department might clean all places on a particular floor. Self-managed work teams increase self-reliance as well as develops a talent pool ( Ashkenas et al., 2015) .
Departmentalization breaks down how jobs are grouped to create departments that are based on the types of jobs that employees perform the products or brands that they are assigned to, geographical locations or customer needs. Departmentalization ensures the smooth running of the organizational operations in such a way that it leads to the avoidance of the collision of ideas and operational duties in the organization. The departments can further be broken down into smaller departments called subunits which ensure comprehensive management of the operations of the organization.
The most effective method of organizing a hotel is by separating departments by their specified functions. The various departments can be supervised by the owner for a small business but for more significant companies it is more useful to have a manager for each department. In a lodging business, say bed and breakfast, the departments could include the rooms department that can deal with reservations, guest reception, room assignment, housekeeping of guest rooms and public places such as lobbies. Security department and customer feedback are also effective in improving customer experience. These departments can be broken down to subunits such as the laundry department in charge of the hotel’s linen, employee’s uniforms and guest laundry and engineering that could deal with preventive maintenance, repair, improvement and replacement of furniture and ensuring uninterrupted provision of utilities such as electricity, water, and gas. Other departments can include the accounting department, marketing, and sales department, and human resource department among others, all which works in ensuring improved customer experience for the hotel clients.
Chain of command is the formal channel that defines the lines of authority from the highest position to the lowest in an organization. It suggests that each employee reports to one manager rather than to several heads which could lead to chaos. The manager assigns tasks, informs employees of expectations and deadlines, offers motivation, answers job-related questions from employees and handles conflict within the department while the employees complete duties assigned to them efficiently and in a timely fashion. Authority can be distributed throughout an organization by the delegation process. Authority can also be held in the hands of a few employees making it either centralized or decentralized. Centralization of authority refers to retention of decision-making authority to c-level managers such as the chief executive officer, chief operating officer, and chief marketing officer. The departmental managers, therefore, have either little or no input at all and their decisions have to be counterchecked by the senior-most management.
The centralized system produces uniform decisions which increase the likelihood that customers will have similar experiences in each market but it is less responsive to local market conditions. Departmental managers can more quickly react to changing customer demands for specific products and services and hire and train new employees when they are short staffed. Decentralization refers to the distribution of authority throughout an organization. Departmental managers are encouraged to have decision-making skills which help them advance in their careers, increases job satisfaction and motivation hence the profitability of the organization increases. For example, if a front desk agent determines that a guest's bill is incorrect, he/she can immediately correct instead of looking for his/her manager.
A span of control refers to the number of employees that report to one supervisor. It can be termed as wide when the number of employees that report to one supervisor is large and narrow when the amount is small. A narrow span necessitates the need for more supervisors, to determine the appropriate span, the task similarity, certainty, and integration, training and professionalism, the frequency of interaction and physical dispersion are considered ( O'Neill & Scholl, 2016) . The span of control for a large number of employees performing a similar task can be increased or reduced all the same. For example, the rooms’ department manager can efficiently manage all the front desk agents and housekeepers on top of other responsibilities bestowed on them.
The better trained and more skilled a subordinate is, the less supervision required. With this, a front desk supervisor can supervise more employees as compared to a room service supervisor since a front desk agent has higher training as compared to a room service waiter. Close supervision is required when the tasks are ambiguous, and uncertainty is significant. The front desk manager can, therefore, have a full span of control over the front desk agents since the task of checking guests in and out can be documented and standard procedures created.
Formalization is the element that outlines employee roles within a workplace as defined by the rules and regulations developed by the management. It determines whether employees sign in upon arrival at the office and sign out before exiting the office, frequency, and length of the breaks, dress code, and computer usage. It aims at the highly formal relationship between employees and employers based on their professional relations. It is a bureaucratic process in a way since leaders set clear, concise rules which have to be respected by all employees. This enhances the leadership consistently and prevents wasting time on the establishment of interpersonal relations. However, it widens the gap between employers and employees resulting in very organizational rigid ties which can make employees uncomfortable reducing their performance. It is also tiring for the employer since he/she bears the lion’s share of responsibilities.
Organizational structure is directly related to attainment of the organization’s objectives. The management and the structured are tailored to match with the organization's sole mission and vision for its creation. It allocates authority and responsibility as it helps every member to know his/her role, to which he/she is accountable and how his/her position relates to others. For example, with a sound organizational structure in a hotel, a room service cleaner understands that if he/she does not clean the lobby in good time the guests will find it dirty and they could change their minds about checking into the hotel. It is therefore imperative for any organization and more so the hospitality industry.
Reference
Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T., & Kerr, S. (2015). The boundaryless organization: Breaking the chains of organizational structure . John Wiley & Sons.
O'Neill, J. W., Beauvais, L. L., & Scholl, R. W. (2016). The use of organizational culture and structure to guide strategic behavior: An information processing perspective. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management , 2 (2).
Shafritz, J. M., Ott, J. S., & Jang, Y. S. (2015). Classics of organization theory . Cengage Learning.
