MHR 505 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Hierarchical Organization, Work Unit, Organizational Learning

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Human Resources
• Course: MHR 505
• Professor: Jonathan Hughes

Document Summary

Organizational structure: the division of labour as well as the patterns of coordination, communication, workflow and formal power that direct organizational activities. It establishes new communication patterns and aligns employee behaviour with the corporate vision. Encompasses job design, information flow, work standards and reporting relationships. Refers to the subdivision of work into separate jobs assigned to different people. Subdivided work leads to job specialization because there is a narrow set of tasks necessary to complete. Companies divide work into several jobs because job specialization increases work efficiency; training costs reduced, work cycles are shorter, less time is wasted from moving job to job. An organization"s ability to divide work among people depends on how well those people can coordinate with each other; otherwise individual work effort is wasted due to misalignment, duplication and mistiming of tasks: coordination through informal communication.