Prepare a presentation on organizational structure.

Discuss/ present in class with

emphasis on different offices and their functions and line of coordination both upwards
and downwards, vertical and horizontal coordination. Emphasize on how management
in your school is being handled. Look for leadership theory that will support your
presentation.

Every organization comprises of people who run it. These people share common goals
and objectives. In order to achieve them, these people also share roles and
responsibilities with each other.

An organizational structure is simply the pattern or network of division of these roles and
responsibilities. Thus, which person has to perform which task is what the organizational
structure explains. Such a structure also depicts the hierarchy in which members of an
organization rank themselves.

An organizational structure is not an end but rather the means to an end. Members of an
organization create it just to achieve their common aims. When people divide
responsibilities and coordinate with each other, it becomes easy to function. This is
basically the entire purpose of an organization structure.

Purpose of Organizing

As we saw above, an organizational structure is not an end but a means to an end. Every
organization strives to achieve its targets and its structure only facilitates this.

The main purpose of such a structure is to help the organization work towards its goals. It
brings members of the organization together and demarcates functions between them.
Secondly, the structure also helps in ensuring smooth and efficient functioning. In other
words, it reduces time, money and efforts. This happens only because every person
knows what her responsibilities are. Work happens with precise coordination with
minimum wastage of resources.

The main purpose of such a structure is to help the organization work towards its
goals. It brings members of the organization together and demarcates functions
between them. Secondly, the structure also helps in ensuring smooth and efficient
functioning. In other words, it reduces time, money and efforts.

employees and positions are represented by boxes or other shapes, sometimes

including photos, contact information, email and page links, icons and illustrations.
Straight or elbowed lines link the levels together.

he main roles of coordination and facilitation bodies is to put the variety of concerned
actors around the same table and orient them towards a collective goal and
vison. CFBs can also become key instruments for participatory processes and for
conflict prevention

Co-ordination is the unification, integration, synchronization of the efforts of group

members so as to provide unity of action in the pursuit of common goals. It is a
hidden force which binds all the other functions of management.

Vertical organizational structures often have more structure than horizontal

organizational structures. Vertical structures have clearly defined roles with specific
responsibilities for each person, reducing the level of employee autonomy. Horizontal
structures have less structure, often providing employees with equal opportunities.
However, this may result in a lack of guidance or lead to internal conflict.

Horizontal – Employees are backed to make suggestions to improve work processes

with authority to implement changes. · Vertical - If a CEO sent orders, it could take
weeks before the employees can execute, report or communicate these orders up to
and down, due to lack of authority in the chain

Org chart can be classified into two types: vertical and horizontal, based on the style of
the layout.  A vertical org chart looks like a pyramid. At the top is the CEO or company
president. A single segment consists of a series of middle management and the
manager who is responsible for their department. In contrast, a horizontal org
chart has no middle management, hence normally all employees need to report to only
one manager. Such type is also called the flat org chat. This article is going to explain
the most significant differences between vertical org chart and horizontal org chart in
terms of decision-making, collaboration, and communication

Decision-Making
In a vertical org chart, a decision is made by the top management and descended down
to employees through the hierarchy. Employees are required to follow orders and
guidance from their upper level in order to complete the tasks. However, in a horizontal
org chart, employees can make a decision by themselves for daily operation and only
have to ask for instructions when it comes to very important issues. In most cases,
staffers are not driven by their manager’s command, but instead the company’s goal.
Collaboration
In vertical org charts, since the decision is made by the upper level and flows down to
employees, collaboration can only occur on some formal occasions like a meeting. In
horizontal org charts, employees have rights to make a decision during the daily
operation, therefore, collaboration tends to happen more organically. Employees are
more accessible to an acquaintance in order to produce collaborative and teamwork
solutions.
Communication
Communication in the vertical org chart mainly occurred within departments or between
sub-divisions members and managers. It can be slowed down by the rigid structure. On
the other hand, communication in a horizontal org chart can be easier to flow down from
one department to another.
One of the first things you'll see when you're onboarding at a new employer, or perhaps
even at the interview stage, is an organizational chart. Those charts serve a number of
purposes, and one of them is to show who you'll report to and what the relationships are
between individuals, teams and managers. The lines on the chart explain how those
relationships are prioritize

ORG CHARTS EXPLAIN STRUCTURE AND RELATIONSHIPS

Fundamentally, organizational charts are just a way to explain a company's structure

and internal relationships through a graphic image. It's what computer programmers
would call a "data visualization tool."
The actual appearance of the chart will vary, depending on whether it describes a
traditional top-down bureaucracy, a more complicated matrix of interrelated teams or a
relatively flat organizational structure. In each case, though, the chart identifies the
important relationships that make up the company.
The chart tells you at a glance which employees belong to the same teams, and which
managers they report to. Those teams make up larger departments, which report to
higher-ranking managers, and so on. A CEO or potential investor might study an org
chart to identify inefficiencies, for example, and refine the company's structure. If you're
an employee, the immediate benefit of a good chart is that it tells you who you report
to.
LINES OF AUTHORITY

The boxes on an organizational chart might represent individual employees, ad-hoc

working groups or formal teams or departments, but the lines always represent the
reporting path for anyone in a given box. In a simple hierarchy, the lines run vertically
from employees to managers and ultimately the CEO or proprietor. In a flat or a matrix
structure, you're likely to see a mix of horizontal and vertical lines because managing
authority – and therefore, your reporting – are more distributed.
No matter how your company and its org chart are structured, a solid line indicates
who you report to directly. That's usually a single manager, though in some cases
you may report to more than one. You may also see a dotted line on the org chart, and
that's where things get interesting.
DOTTED LINE REPORTING DEFINITION

The broken line's meaning in an organizational chart is a less formal reporting

relationship. The person at the end of that line isn't your immediate and permanent
manager, but someone else. For example, your department or you personally might be
assigned to do some work for a team or a manager in some other part of the company.
You'll still have a solid line connecting you to your full-time manager, but now you'll also
have a dotted or broken line connecting you to whoever's in charge of the other project.
This particular relationship is often referred to as "dotted line reporting." In theory, it
means that these reporting relationships are secondary, but in practice, that's not
always the case. It depends on the relative importance and urgency of your projects,
and in some cases, to the strength of a given manager's position in the company's
internal politics.
REPORTING AND PRIORITIES CAN GET COMPLICATED

Juggling the requirements of multiple projects and the demands of multiple managers
can potentially be a maddening scenario. In an ideal world, each manager would know
exactly how much of your time is available, and how each of your separate projects
ranks in importance. In practice that's rarely the case, and more commonly managers
are focused on their own needs and priorities – that's what they're evaluated on – and
won't understand how yours are divided. In a worst-case scenario, you might find
yourself reporting to managers with conflicting priorities, or perhaps who even actively
seek to undermine each other.
This doesn't have to be a nightmare situation, because managing your managers –
proactively explaining the demands on your time and negotiating those conflicting
priorities – can ease a lot of the tension. Your managers will have clarity about what
they can and can't ask of you, and you'll have a better understanding of how to allocate
your time and resources.
The multiple-boss scenario can even work to your direct advantage, if you
approach it intelligently. You can't negotiate priorities with your bosses until you
understand how their projects fit into the bigger picture of the company's operations,
and you can't do it without building some kind of relationship with the managers
themselves. Having a better grasp of the company's workings and effective working
relationships with a number of your superiors can give you an edge when advancement
opportunities arise.
The Advantages & Disadvantages of a Matrix Organization
In a hierarchical organization, the lines of power and authority are clear. Each employee
reports to a supervisor, who reports to the manager above him, and so on up the chain
of command. Decisions come down from upper management through the same
pipeline. In a matrix organizational chart, employees routinely report to two managers
and sometimes more. This can be confusing, but it offers benefits as well.

Part 1: Solid and Dotted Line Reporting Relationship

Lines in an organization chart can be in the form of solid lines or dotted lines. A dotted
line is also called a broken line or a dashed line. They represent different types of
reporting relationships. The line's weight is meant to represent the level of power and
influence of the different managers.

1. The solid line reporting relationship is similar to a traditional line management

role. The solid line manager tends to look after the goal setting and performance
evaluation processes. In the event of a dispute, individuals will tend to defer to
this manager. The solid line role is often given to either the functional manager or
a manager who is geographically close to the individual, which is to make
supervision easier.
2. The dotted line relationship is weaker than solid line relationship. The dotted line
manager still has rights to certain parts of the individual's time and attention and
usually set some goals.

For example, the special assistant to the CEO also reports to the board of directors. The
assistant's direct supervisor is CEO. The reporting relationship between the assistant
and board of directors is represented by the dotted line in the organizational chart.

Another example is the reporting relationship between the HR director and managers
from other departments.
Every school has a defined structure meant to regulate the operations and functions of
its departments. Members of the school are expected to adhere to the dictates of the
structure in pursuit of the stated goals and objectives of the organisation. The school
structure determines how resources are shared among members in different
departments and the structure defines the leader of each department. Nelson and
Quick, (2011) posit that departments in a school motivation of employees to work to
their expectations in an organizational structure that allows them to best execute their
duties to produce the desired work. Therefore, the formation of an organisational
structure typically refers to the hierarchical arrangement of lines of authority,
communications, rights and duties of an organization. The structure tipically determines
how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled, and coordinated, and
how information flows between the different levels of management. A structure depends
on the organization's objectives and strategy. In a centralized structure, the top layer of
management has most of the decision making power and has tight control over
departments and divisions. In a decentralized structure, the decision making power is
distributed and the departments and divisions may have different degrees of
independence.

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