Summary Chapter 3: The Structural Frame

1. Summary Chapter 3: The Structural Frame Wendell W. Brown, Sr.

2. What is a Frame? • Coherent set of ideas that enable you to see and understand more clearly what goes on day to day.

3. The Structural Frame • Oldest and most widely used ways of thinking about organizations.

4. Core Premise of the Structural perspective • Clear, well-understood roles and relationships and adequate coordination are key to how well an organization performs.

5. Example • USS Kennedy vs. Rescue efforts at The World Trade Center

6. Organizations exist to achieve established goals and objectives. Organizations increase efficiency and enhances performance through specialization and a clear division of labor. Appropriate forms of coordination and control ensure that diverse efforts of individuals and units mesh. Organizations work better when rationality prevails over personal preferences and extraneous pressures. Structures must be designed to fit an organization’s circumstances (including its goals, technology, workforce, and environment). Problems and performance gaps arise from structural defiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring. Structural Assumptions

7. Origins of The Structural Perspective

8. Intellectual Roots of The Structural View • The work of industrial analysts bent on designing organizations for maximum efficiency.

9. Main Theorist • Frederick W. Taylor (1911) – father of time – and – motion studies; he founded an approach that he labeled “scientific management.” • Henri Fayol ([1919] 1949), Lyndall Urwick (1937), Luther Gulick (Gulick and Urwick, 1937) – principles focused on specialization, span of control, authority, and delegation of responsibility.

10. Monocratic Bureaucracy • Fixed division of labor • Hierarchy of offices • Set of rules governing performance • Separation of personal from official property and rights • Technical qualifications ( not family ties or friendship) for selecting personnel • Employment as a primary occupation and long-term career.

11. Main Theorist • Max Weber (Sociologist who wrote around the beginning of the twentieth century.) • Blau and Scott (1962) • Perrow (1986) • Thompson (1967) • Hall (1963)

12. Structural Forms and Functions • Blueprint for formal expectations and exchanges among internal Players (executives, managers, employees) and external constituencies. • Enhances and constrains what an organization can accomplish.

13. Moeller Study (1968) • Explored the effects of structure on teacher morale in two school systems. • One was structured loosely and encouraged wide participation in decision making • One was tightly controlled, with a centralized hierarchy and a clear chain of command.

14. Results of Moeller’s Study • Moeller found the opposite of what he expected. • Faculty morale was higher in the district with tighter structure.

15. Basic Structural TensionsThe Heart of Organizational Structure • How to allocate work (differentiation). • How to coordinate roles and units once responsibilities have been parceled out (integration).

16. How do you group people into working units, the task integration • Functional Groups based on knowledge or skill • Units created on the basis of time, as by shift (day, swing, or graveyard) • Groups organized by products (detergent versus bar soap) • Groups established around customers or clients (hospitals, computer sales departments, or schools) • Groupings around place or geography • Groupings by process

17. Vertical Coordination • Higher levels coordinate and control the work of subordinates through authority, rules and policies, and planning and control systems.

18. Authority – a “boss” someone with formal authority. • Rules and policies – Standard Operating Procedures • Planning and Control Systems – Performance Control imposes outcome objectives without specifying how the results are to be achieved (increase sales by 10% this year) and Action Planning specifies methods and time frames for decisions and actions (increase this month’s sales by using a company wide sales pitch).

19. Lateral CoordinationLateral Techniques • Formal and Informal Meetings • Task forces • Coordinating roles • Matrix structures • Network organizations

20. McDonald’s and Harvard • Two highly successful organizations • Contrasting structures • Optimal blend of vertical and lateral strategies

21. McDonald’sManagers and employees • Limited discretion about how to do their jobs • Work is controlled by technology • Parent company has powerful systems to ensure that food and service conform to standard specifications • Big Mac taste the same around the world.

22. Harvard UniversityProfessors and Instructors • Small Administrative group at the top • More geographically concentrated • All activities happen within a few miles of Cambridge, Mass. • Employees in one of several schools • Each school has a dean • Each school has its on endowment • Professors have choice of classes they teach • Each school has its own calender

23. Structural ImperativesTable 3.1 Pg 59 • Size and age – Complexity and formalization increase with size and age • Core process – Core processes or technologies must align with structure • Environment – Stable environment rewards simpler structures: uncertain, turbulent environment requires more complex, adaptable structure • Strategy and goals – Variation in clarity and consistency of goals requires appropriate structural adaptations. • Information technology – Information technology permits flatter, more flexible, and more decentralized structure. • Nature of the workforce – Most educated and professional workers need and want greater autonomy and discretion

24. Summary of Chapter 4: Structure and Restructuring Wendell W. Brown, Sr.

25. Structural Dilemmas • Differentiation versus Integration • Gap versus Overlap • Underused versus Overload • Lack of Clarity Versus Lack of Creativity • Excessive Autonomy versus Excessive Interdependence • Too Loose versus Too tight • Goalless versus Goalbound • Irresponsible versus Unresponsive

26. Structural ConfigurationsMintzberg’s Fives • Base – operating core – the core is made up of workers who produce or provide products or services to customers or clients. • Directly above the base -Administrative Component – managers who supervise, control, and provide resources for the operators. • At the top – Senior managers- in the strategic apex focus on the outside environment, determine the mission, and shape the grand design. • Alongside the administrative component – technostructure – houses specialist and analyst who standardized, measure, and inspect outputs and processes. • Alongside the administrative component – Support staff – performs tasks that support or facilitate the work of others

27. Five Structural Configuration • Simple structure – two levels: the strategic apex and an operating level.(Mom and Pop operations) • Machine Bureaucracy – Important decisions are made by the strategic apex; day-to-day operations are handled by managers and standardized procedures. Large support staffs and a sizeable technostructure with many levels between apex and operating levels. • Professional Bureaucracy – operating core is large relative to its other structural parts. Few managerial levels exist between apex and operating level • Divisionalized Form – the bulk of the work is done in quasi-autonomous units • Adhocracy – loose, flexible, self, renewing organic form tied mostly through lateral means.

28. Helgesen’s Web of Inclusion • Architectural form more circular than heirarchical. • The web builds from the center out. • Action in one place ripples across others. • The web’s center and periphery are interconnected

29. Why Restructure? • The environment shifts • Technology changes • Organizations grow • Leadership changes

30. Miller and Friesen (1984)Troubled firms typically fell because • The Impulsive Firm • The Stagnant Bureaucracy • The Headless Giant

31. Examples of How Restructuring works • Citibank’s Back Room • Kodak’s Black and White Division • Beth Israel Hospital

32. Several Basic Principles of Successful Structural Change • The change architects developed a new conception of the organizations goals and strategies. • They carefully studied the existing structure and process so they understood how things worked. Many efforts at structural change fail because they start from an incomplete picture of current processes. • They designed the new structure in light of changes in goals, technology, and environment.

33. Summary Chapter 5: Organizing Groups and Teams Wendell W. Brown, Sr.

34. Structural Configuration for a Five Member Team • One Boss • Dual Authority – creates a new level below the boss two individuals are given authority over specific areas of the groups work. • Simple Hierarchy – Middle manager answers to “the boss” then in turns supervises the workers or employees. • Circle Network – where information flows sequentially from one group member to another. Each can add or modify whatever comes around. • All Channel Network – Creates multiple connections so everyone can talk to one another. Information flows freely.

35. Determinants of Successful Teamwork • What is the nature and degree of task-related interactions among individuals? • What is the geographic distribution of unit members? • Given a group’s objectives and constraints, where does autonomy reside? • How is coordination achieved? • Which word best describes the required structure; conglomerate, mechanistic, or organic? • What sports expression metaphorically captures the task management: filling out the line-up card, preparing the game plan, or influencing the game’s flow?

36. Team Structure and PerformanceKatzenbach and Smith (1993) • Wrote a book called The Wisdom of Teams • Interviewed hundreds of peopl on different teams • They drew a clear distinction between undifferiented “groups” and sharply focused “teams

37. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) Research Highlights • High-performing teams shape purpose in response to a demand or an opportunity placed in their path, usually by higher management. • High-performing teams translate common purpose into specific, measurable performance goals. • High-performing teams are of manageable size • High-performing teams develop the right mix of expertise. • High-performing teams develop a common commitment to working relationships. • Members of high performing teams hold themselves collectively responsible.