Organizational design and structure

The Definition of Structure

It would seem that structure is like a skeleton or a backbone of human being, so it plays an irreplaceable  role in things especially in business. Organizational structural chart is a soul of a company, which shows the main departments and senior positions clearly. Thus, both employees and employers can know their own tasks well and also realize who is responsible for them or who should they report to.

Complex Conceptions

I have to say that organizational structure is complex, because it contains a lot of conceptions: formal/informal structure, vertical/horizontal specialization, chain of command, span of control, centralization&decentralization, tall/flat structure and five kinds of structures. From my perspective, most of firms are formal because they are consists of guidelines, documents and their own managing procedures. Besides, if the company has a flat structure, it means there are less levels, the hierarchy is not strict and obvious and has a large span of control. Employees have freedom to decide what methods they gonna use and make their own decisions. From a wider way, it is decentralization. Vise versa. In addition, if the company is a giant international firm with businesses all over the world, the structure is more likely to be matrix structure, because staff always have both functional and divisional responsibilities.

EG: Oticon

Oticon is a really famous and successful company which produces hearing-aids. Just like what text says, it encountered a big competitive challenge in 1980s and then the chairman Kolind made a series of changes. One of them was that he innovated a new organizational structure called spaghetti organization which is a kind of dynamic structure without any traditional old fashion or hierarchy and every individual has own tasks and projects.  This creative masterpiece made Oticon alive. Obviously, it is a flat structure and the merit are making a better decision and leading a better levels of customers' service. However, I think the spaghetti structure still has many disadvantages. The worst one is there is no department in the company so it will cause chaos and inefficient. To some extent, I suppose it is a fatal disadvantage. I think a company should not has too many rules and hierarchy awarenesses, after all it isn't an army, but still has a complete structure. In another words, the firm should balance the dilemma  between individuals' freedom and teams'/departments' cooperation.