Organizational structure can be underlying cause of workplace issues
By Joan Lloyd
Organizational structure, much like a human skeletal structure, determines what shape an organization will take. We don't spend much time thinking about our skeletal structure until something breaks, and so it goes with organizations.
How an organization is structured basically means how the reporting relationships and work teams are organized. It reveals a great deal about the culture, function and leadership of a company. When I work with an organization, structure is one of the components I examine, since it can be an underlying cause of problems. Perhaps it is a cause of problems where you work. Here are a few examples I've come across:
Too many levels of hierarchy slow decision-making and are a barrier to empowerment.
One of the best examples of the impact structure has on operations is the transformation that began in the 1970's and is still going on today: flattening. In the early part of this century, companies had many levels between the worker in the shop or office and the President. Decisions had to pass through many levels of approval before anything got done.
Organizations grew larger and the bureaucracies ballooned until some of them were crushed under their own weight. Roughly fifteen years ago, Fortune Magazine ran a cover story about the huge reorganization efforts in GM and IBM, in which one executive was quoted as saying, "Trying to get a decision made was like swimming through peanut butter."
Multiple bosses can be confusing.
Sometimes it makes sense to have several people share the leadership position. For instance, when the two founders retired from their highly collaborative architectural firm, three people assumed the CEO job. They call themselves the 3EO's. In their culture, it works. In most others, it doesn't.
For example, one of my clients stepped