Organisational Structures

   This week we were talking about organizational structure, which is a important element within an organisation. Every organisation will arrange their own structure to achieve objectives. There are a lot of basic structures like tall, flat and matrix structures. Different structures have their own advantages and cons. In order to introduce a suitable structure to your own company, the owner need to decide it carefully.

   Even though i don't know much about organisational structure, i believe that a good structure can effectively response to the change of external environment. Because company's decisions are mainly affected by the input. Therefore, a good structure of a company can maintain the stability and coordination. I comment that quick response on local market with effective decisions making can make organization better adapt the new environment. If the power of the organization has been centralized by the headquarter, the decision made to handle the problem will be ineffective or outdated. Penetrating market sense allow organization to get the first-handed advantage.

  However, there are a lot of limitations in the organization structures. If different departments are responsible for respective task, there will be not communication between them. The silo culture will badly affect the innovation and creative of organisations. In order to improve the development of organization, association and coordination with different departments should be involved.

  I have been thinking about a company called 3M which is one of the top 500 companies in the world. I really love the policy of this company, which allow staff to have 15% of their working time for own innovation. Staffs from different departments are willing to share their opinions and idea to each others. The policy of innovation is not only beneficial to staffs but also company. Staffs have a high working incentives and close relationship with others. If some project need to be associated between departments, they can achieve a high cooperative work done by all members of a team.

Here is a link talking about why 3M is so unique comparing with other companies: http://theenergycollective.com/marcgunther/44153/why-3m-unique

  Therefore, I think that a good organisational structure cannot without communication and good power distributions.