組織結構論文(英文版)organizational structure essay..doc

IntroductionNow human society has come into the 21 century. Organization and business has changed a lot compared with thirty years ago. As the development of organization structure, organizations have to adjust and change their structure modes in order to suit to new social environment. In traditional management theory, mechanistic structure and organic structure are the two kinds of organizational structure and are widely applied by most of organizations. Whether these two kinds of organizational structures are relevant to 21st century organizations is a very important topic for most organizational management. The aim of this essay is to state organic structure is more relevant to 21st century organizations. For the structure, it will firstly have an introduction and comparison of the features of mechanistic and organic structure. Secondly it will discuss why organic structure is more relevant to 21st century organizations compared with mechanistic structure.DiscussionNow it comes to have an introduction and comparison of features of organic structure and mechanistic structure. First is organic organization. Organic organization is also called as adaptive organization. Organic organization mainly has two features. Organic-type organization is a loose, flexible and highly adaptive form. It doesnt have a standardized work and the rules and regulations, and it can quickly make adjustments as needed. (Litwin, S. 2002) The mainly features are low-standardization and low-centralization. Second is mechanistic structure. Mechanical organization is a stable, rigid structure; its main objective is the pursuit of efficiency and stable operation. It pursues to stabilize the operation efficiency and focus on the tasks and functions of a high degree of division of labor division. Reverse to organic structure, it has high-standardization and high-centralization. It is often adopted by bureaucracy organizations. For comparison of their features, the following diagram shows the differences between organic structure and mechanic structure.Mechanistic structure Organic structureExternal conditionsStableUncertainTask allocationDivided by functions, and the functional units are respond to specific task.Different units use specialized knowledge and experience to deal with common task.Staff responsibilitiesThere are direct supervisors to be responsible for each unit for task.Most of the task is adjusted and arranged by individuals and mutual communication.Scope of WorkFor each functional staff, he has clear right, duty and task.Emphasize on personal responsibility and loyalty for organization.Control authority and communicationHierarchical structure and mechanical communication.Network structure, organization will be regarded as a community of interests.Communication among membersVertical communicationbetween supervisors and staffsHorizontal Communicationamong different staffs and share of opinionsManagement of operation and conductSupervisors make order and instruction.Supervisors supply information and advices.ValueObey organization rules and supervisors.Emphasize on working performance.(Westbrook, J 2004)According to the above comparison of the features between mechanic structures and organic, now it aims to discuss why organic structure is more relevant to 21st organizations. This should base on the features of the 21st organizations developing trend. This mainly includes three aspects.First, the 21st century situation needs organizations to have quick respond. As information technology develops better and better, business and operations become more and more complex, and there are often many uncertainties and emergency events. The IT time needs organizations can make quick respond for changes. For an organic structure organization, it has the features of low-standardization and low-centralization. When facing with emergency or unexpected changes, staffs can have their own decisionmaking right to deal with affairs timely. It is very important to avoid losses and mistakes in task. Also staffs can communicate with others to get the ideas for dealing with affairs. (Anders, C 2008) While for a mechanistic structure organization, when staffs face with changes or emergency, they dont have decision making right. They must report it to their supervisors, and supervisors need to report to senior leaders. After the seniors make decision make give instruction to supervisors, supervisors can give instruction to staffs. The complex process will delay a lot of time and largely affect task efficiency. (Klarbring, A 2009) The organization cannot make quick respond to affairs and will lead to loss and troubles. Second, in 21st century, knowledge sharing and member communication become more and more important. As knowledge and experience improves very fast in 21st century, a single person or several persons cannot have the ability to acquire all necessary knowledge and technology in job process. And technology is the key factor for competitiveness. So the communication and knowledge sharing in organizations play very important roles for 21st century organizations. For an organic organization, staffs can well communicate with others, including supervisors and other staffs to become more familiar with necessary knowledge, which is very helpful for finishing tasks. Also it can improve the professional quality of all staffs. (Harrison, M and Janice, M. 2004) While for a mechanistic structure, the communication mode is vertical, and staffs can only receive orders from their supervisors. However, the supervisors all not allround, if they dont have enough knowledge acquirement, it will lead to troubles in task. Third, for 21st organizations, continuous creativity is the key factor to keep competitiveness. With economic globalization and information technology, user needs increasingly diversified and personalized, product technology content and research costs increased product and life cycles shorten. For this condition, organizations must keep creativity to keep their competitiveness in market economy and knowledge economy time. For an organic structure organization, its value is efficiency and performance. It emphasizes personal contribution and performance, and it encourages communications among all people. This supplies good environment for creativity. Also its low-centralization helps staffs to perform innovation tasks without constraint. (Kenny, G 2006) Staffs can try their best to make develop creativity and make performance. However, for a mechanistic structure organization, the value is to obey rules and supervisors. Staffs dont have the motivation and right to share knowledge and make creativity. Only the senior leaders can make creativity and make decision. This largely hinders creativity in organizations. ConclusionIn conclusion, for 21st organizations, they need to have quick respond, good knowledge sharing and member communication and continuous creativity to keep their competitiveness and according to structure features, organic structure is more relevant to 21st organizations. After the above discussion, it is found that the low-standardization and low-centralization and the value of staffs performance are helpful for an organic organization to make quick respond to emergency, form a good environment for knowledge sharing and communication and encourage creativity, while the high-standardization and high-centralization and the value of obeying rules and supervisors seriously hinder a mechanistic structure organization in the three asp