Organizational Design,Teamwork, and Organizational Change

When managers perceive resistance to change as a threat or when the change effort is in serious trouble; they may become competitive, defensive and uncommunicative. Instead, managers should see the resistance as a form of feedback because employees know about day-to-day operations first hand. Managers can use resistance to effect change more productively, for example by providing employees participation and engagement.

The managers can make use of the following ways to positively influence organizational change:
• Education and communication
• Participation and involvement
• Facilitation and support
• Negotiation and agreement
• Manipulation and cooptation
• Explicit and implicit coercion

Employees should be educated and communicated about any changes beforehand through discussions (one-on-one), presentations (groups) or with memos and reports. They need adequate and accurate information and analysis to understand change.

Managers can use employees’ advice about some aspects of change that may lead to potential problems. Participation often leads to commitment and increasing the chance of successful change.

Managers should provide support through employees training of new skills and emotional support in order to deal with personal fear and anxiety that cause the resistance in the first place.

Managers can offer incentives such as higher wages or better benefits for employees. Negotiation is needed to win acceptance and approval, especially when someone may lose out as a result of change.

Managers can try to influence others by the selective use of information or the structuring of events. Cooptation involves giving an individual or a group desirable roles in the change process.

Managers can force people to accept a change or lose something (such as rewards, promotions or loss of jobs). This can be used when the firm is in a crisis situation or when there are no other options.

Organizational development is a field of research, theory, and practice techniques to expand the knowledge and effectiveness of people to accomplish successful organizational change and performance.

Some of the popular techniques are the following:
• Team building
• Survey feedback
• Sensitivity training
• Large groups intervention approach

Team building activities are designed to improve the capacity of the members to work together in a harmonious environment and to function as a team. Interpersonal interactions and communications play a significant part of team building to increase the sensitivity of the members’ behaviors and to promote a healthy and functional team.

Data is collected via a questionnaire on topics such as the quality of work, working conditions, employees’ attitude, cohesion, etc. The data is processed and analyzed to identify problems with the employees’ engagement in problem solving.

Technique where employees interact, get better acquainted and form relationships in order to understand each other better. Members can express themselves in a safe and controlled environment to increase trust and comfort with each other.

A planned meeting of organization members and outside stakeholders to address organizational problems and opportunities. Large group interventions can vary in size, purpose, composition, structures and numbers. Although they tend to focus on the future, broad participation, intense prior planning and information sharing. Large group interventions are often used for large scale changes, therefore, the importance of dealing with the whole system (i.e. the entire organization) is significant.

The purpose of organizing can be summarized as: dividing work into specific jobs; assigning tasks and responsibilities for each job; coordinating those tasks, grouping jobs into units and departments; establishing relationships and formal authority among individuals; and allocating resources.

The organizing function is a mechanism that managers use in order to activate plans. The importance of organizing can be readily seen when managers allocate organizational resources efficiently and effectively by specifying when, where, and how resources are to be used.

Organizational structure is a system that consists of rules and policies to outline work roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships, and how they fit within the overall system.

Division of labor or work specialization is the degree to which work activities are divided into separate jobs. It has specialization by functions such as sales and production. Production tasks are separated into purchasing, quality control and manufacturing. This way, individual employees perform only the tasks they are specialized in rather than the entire activity.

Authority refers to the right of a person to give instructions, make decisions and allocate resources. In an organization, a manager has the formal authority from his or her position that is accepted by subordinates. 

Legitimate Power – based on a person’s right in the formal hierarchy to make demands.

Reward Power – based on a person’s ability to compensate another for compliance.

Expert Power – based on a person’s skill and knowledge.

Referent Power – based on a person’s perceived attractiveness, worthiness and a right to others’ respect.

Coercive Power – based on the belief that a person can punish others for noncompliance.

Informational Power – based on a person’s ability to control the information that others need to accomplish something.

The most basic method to divide job activities for managers is to follow the sequence of activities:

➢ Examine objectives,

➢ Design job activities to reach those objectives,

➢ Group similar activities to specific jobs, and

➢ Assign individuals to those jobs.

Delegation occurs when a manager divides work among subordinates and gives them the responsibility and authority to accomplish tasks. A manager is responsible for all work in an area and can only complete the work by delegating part of the work to subordinates. This process continues down the chain of command. 

The span of control refers to the number of employees directly supervised by a manager.

When the decision authority is pushed down to lower levels of the hierarchy, this means decentralization.

In a functional structure, activities are grouped according to their similar or related skills, expertise and use of the same resources. It is often used by SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) around basic business functions such as production, marketing and sales, and finance and accounting. We can readily see the benefits of grouping by specialization: it encourages in-depth skills development and core competence, high standards and efficient use of resources. Centralized operations within each function enhance the coordination of work activities.

A divisional structure is made up of separate divisions according to similarities or demands of product, customers, or geography. Each division has some autonomy; with a divisional manager who is responsible for its performance. In some companies, the divisions may be given a high level of autonomy and are often called business units. Some of the business units in very large firms may be totally independent businesses altogether.

A matrix structure combines advantages of both functional and divisional structures simultaneously in order to be highly responsive to changing external business environments. In other words, a matrix structure groups people and resources by function and by product or project.

A hybrid structure has several business units or divisions and makes use of different forms of structures in order to tailor to an organization’s specific needs.

Environmental uncertainty is a situation where the management of a firm has little information about its external environment.

Technical complexity is categorized according to the level of mechanization of the manufacturing process. Low technical complexity means that workers perform much of the work in the production process. 

Katzenbach and Smith assert that a team should have a small size and must contain four elements:

• Common commitment and purpose – team members do not perform as individuals but as a powerful unit of collective performance with a purpose they can believe in.

• Performance goals – a common purpose is translated into specific and measurable performance goals which help define work products, facilitates clear communications and maintains focus.

• Complementary skills – a team should develop the right mix of skills or the complementary skills necessary to do the team’s job.

• Mutual accountability – a team must hold itself accountable as a team.

A problem-solving team is a team that is involved in efforts to improve work activities (such as quality and efficiency) or to solve specific problems. Members share ideas or offer suggestions on how a work process or a work method can be improved. 

Organizational change is the process by which organizations adopt new ideas or behaviors to increase organizational effectiveness.

Resistance to change is expected from within the organization because people often try to maintain the status quo. However, resistance to change lowers a firm’s effectiveness therefore, managers need to understand this issue in order to implement change more effectively.

When managers perceive resistance to change as a threat or when the change effort is in serious trouble; they may become competitive, defensive and uncommunicative. Instead, managers should see the resistance as a form of feedback because employees know about day-to-day operations first hand. Managers can use resistance to effect change more productively, for example by providing employees participation and engagement.