ORGANIZING TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES

I. REASONS FOR ORGANIZING

 Organizing is undertaken to facilitate the implementation of plans.
 In effective organizing, steps are undertaken to breakdown the total job
into more manageable man-size jobs. Doing these will make it possible to
assign particular tasks to particular persons. In turn, these will help
facilitate the assignment of authority, responsibility, and accountability for
certain functions and tasks.

II. ORGANIZING DEFINED

 Organizing is a management function which refers to “the structuring of
resources and activities to accomplish objectives in an efficient and
effective manner.”
 The arrangement or relationship of positions within an organization is
called the “structure.” The result of the organizing process is structure.

III. THE PURPOSE OF THE STRUCTURE

1. It defines the relationships between tasks and authority for individuals and
departments.
2. It defines formal reporting relationships, the number of levels in the
hierarchy of the organization, and the span of control.
3. It defines the groupings of individuals into departments and departments
into organization.
4. It defines the system to effect coordination of effort in both vertical
(authority) and horizontal (tasks) directions.d
When structuring an organization, the engineer manager must be concerned with the
following: PRINCIPLES IN ORGANIZING

1. Division of labor – determining the scope of work and how it is combined in a

job.
2. Delegation of authority – the process of assigning various degrees of decision-
making authority to subordinates.
3. Departmentation – the groupings of related jobs, activities, or processes into
major organizational subunits.
4. Span of control – the number of people who report directly to a given manager.
5. Coordination – the linking of activities in the organization that serves to achieve
a common goal or objective.

IV. THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION

 It is the structure that details line of responsibilities, authority, and position.
 What is depicted in the organization chart is the formal organization.
 It is the “planned structure” and it “represents the deliberate attempt to
establish patterned relationships among components that will meet the
objectives effectively.”
 The formal structure is described by management through:
1. Organization chart – a diagram of the organization’s official
positions and formal lines of authority.
2. Organizational manual – provides written descriptions of authority
relationships, details the functions of major organizational units,
and describes job procedures.
3. Policy manuals – describes personnel activities and company
policies.
V. INFORMAL GROUPS
 Members of an organization spontaneously form a group with friendship
as a principal reason for belonging.
 It is not a part of the formal organization and it does not have a formal
performance purpose.
 According to Valentine, it is vulnerable to expediency, manipulation, and
opportunism. Its low visibility makes it difficult for management to detect
these perversions, and considerable harm can be done to the company.”

VI. TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

1. Functional Organization – this is a form of departmentalization in which
everyone engaged in one functional activity, such as engineering or
marketing, is grouped into one unit.
2. Product or market organization – this refers to the organization of a
company by divisions that brings together all those involved with a certain
type of product or customer.
3. Matrix Organization – an organizational structure in which each
employee reports to both a functional or division manager and do a project
or group manager.
A. FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION
 Very effective in smaller firms, especially “single-business firms where key
activities revolve around well-defined skills and areas of specialization.”
 ADVANTAGES OF FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION:
a. The groupings of employees who perform a common task permit
economies of scale and efficient resource use.
b. Since the chain of command converges at the top of the
organization, decision-making is centralized, providing a unified
direction from the top.
c. Communication and coordination among employees within each
department are excellent.
 d. The structure promotes high-quality technical problem-solving
skills.
e. The organization is provided with in depth skill specialization and
development.
f. Employees are provided with career progress within functional
departments

 DISADVANTAGES OF FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION:

a. Communication and coordination between the departments are
often poor.
b. Decisions involving more than one department pile up at the top
management level and are often delayed.
c. Work specialization and division of labor, which are stressed in a
functional organization, produce routine, nonmotivating employee
tasks.
d. It is difficult to identify which section or group is responsible for
certain problems.
e. There is limited view of organizational goals by employees.
f. There is limited general management training for employees.

B. PRODUCT OR MARKET ORGANIZATION

 Appropriate for a large corporation with many product lines in several
related industries.
 ADVANTAGES:
a. The organization is flexible and responsive to change.
b. The organization provides a high concern for customer’s needs.
c. The organization provides excellent coordination across functional
departments.
d. There is easy pinpointing of responsibility for product problems.
e. There is emphasis on overall product and division goals.
 f. The opportunity for the development of general management skills
is provided.

 DISADVANTAGES:
a. There is a high possibility of duplication of resources across
divisions.
b. There is less technical depth and specialization in divisions.
c. There is poor coordination across divisions.
d. There is less top management control.
e. There is competition for corporate resources.

C. MATRIX ORGANIZATION
 It is a structure with two or more channels of command, two lines of
budget authority, and two sources of performance and reward, according
to Thompson and Strickland.
 Higgins declared that “the matrix structure was designed to keep
employees in a central pool and to allocate them to various projects in the
firm according to the length of time they were needed.
 ADVANTAGES:
a. There is more efficient use of resources than the divisional
structure.
b. There is flexibility and adaptability to changing environment.
c. The development of both general and functional management skills
is present.
d. There is interdisciplinary cooperation and any expertise is available
to all divisions.
e. There are enlarged tasks for employees which motivate them
better.
 DISADVANTAGES:
a. There is frustration and confusion from dual chain of command.
 b. There is high conflict between divisional and functional interests.
c. There are many meetings and more discussion than action.
d. There is a need for human relations training for key employees and
managers.
e. There is a tendency for power dominance by one side of the matrix.

VII. TYPES OF AUTHORITY

 The delegation of authority is a requisite for effective organizing.
 3 TYPES OF AUTHORITY:
a. Line authority – a manager’s right to tell subordinates what to do
and then see that they do it.
b. Staff authority – a staff specialist’s right to give advice to a
superior.
c. Functional authority – a specialist’s right to oversee lower-level
personnel involved in that specialty, regardless of where the
personnel are in the organization.
 Line departments perform tasks that reflect the organization’s primary goal
and mission. In a construction firm, the department that negotiates and
secures contracts for the firm is a line department. The construction
division is also a line function.
 Staff departments include all those that provide specialized skills in
support of line departments. Examples of staff departments include those
which perform strategic planning, labor relations, research, accounting,
and personnel.
 Staff officers may be classified into the following:
a. Personal staff – those individuals assigned to a specific manager to
provide needed staff services.
b. Specialized staff – those individuals providing needed staff services
for the whole organization.
  Functional authority is one given to a person or a work group to make
decisions related to their expertise even if these decisions concern other
departments. This authority is given to most budget officers of
organizations, as well as other officers.

VIII. THE PURPOSE OF COMMITTEES

 A committee is a formal group of persons formed for a specific purpose.
For instance, the product planning committee, as described by Millevo, is
“often staffed by top executives from marketing, production, research,
engineering, and finance, who work part-time to evaluate and approve
product ideas.
 Committees are very useful most especially to engineering and
manufacturing firms. When a certain concern, like product development, is
under consideration, a committee is usually formed to provide necessary
line-up of expertise needed to achieve certain objectives.
 Committees may be classified as follows:
a. Ad hoc committee – one created for a short-term purpose and have
a limited life. An example is the committee created to manage the
anniversary festivities of a certain firm.
b. Standing committee – it is a relatively permanent committee that
deals with issues on an ongoing basis. An example is the grievance
committee set up to handle initially complaints from employees of
the organization.
 Delaney suggests that “it might be useful to set up some procedures to
make the committee a more effective tool to accomplish our goals.”