Organizational Design

Organizational Structures - What are they?

When I am asked about organizational structures it is often in the context of "the type of business" the organization is involved in.

For example I was recently asked "what type of organizational structure does Google use?"

Unfortunately the question immediately points out a misunderstanding of the difference between an organization and a business; a misunderstanding that tends to cloud the intent of what is being asked and the resulting response being sought.

You see, it is my experience that the use of "organizational structure" is really a proxy for "business model" and given that there are always more than a single "structure" in an organization, the question becomes a bit confusing.

So...when I discuss organizations with people and ask what do they really mean most will suggest that an organization (to them) is " a body of people brought together for a particular purpose." As such, it quickly becomes clear that they are not seeking an understanding of the "structures" but want to known about the business's approach to doing what it tells the market it is designed to do.

While their answer is a good start, its a bit "cheeky" to associate organizational behaviour with just a body of people.

Organizations are not specific to "we of the human kind". Scientists have observed organizing behaviour in most species on earth...but I digress.

I tend to tell my clients that an organization is a set of noticeable (and therefore definable) patterns of interaction between individual participants within some type of group that forms to enable actions for some particular purpose.

Now that's a bit of a "mouthful", so let me provide a bit more clarity.

Inasmuch as my work is associated with the humankind, "participant" and"group" generally refer to people - people of all walks of life, with different skills, needs and desires.

Enabled actions and purpose are associated with the business and are the aspects that tend to define the "lenses" through which most view an organization.

It is here that confusion often surfaces.

Enabled actions are the "things" that get done; actions are not organizational structures.

We can see them, or at least observe the actions of people interacting with other people, answering telephone calls, composing emails or talking to colleagues. We may not actually know if what they are doing is what is asked of them or whether the actions are efficient or meaningful or even aligned to what the business's purpose is. Nevertheless, we can see actions that are enabled.

But how are they enabled?

Generally, actions are enabled through the utilization of an organization's assets (e.g. physical office space, retail space, purchased products, tools, instruments, etc..) and the application of appropriate processes.

Processes are the "tricky magic" of any organization.

Processes, as defined sets of reasonably understood activities (and discrete tasks) act as the "invisible hands that guide people to do actions in a particular way (pattern)".

The processes often incorporate industry norms, subtle business rules, hard-line regulations, cultural norms, access mechanisms to digital based systems and personality traits of those that interact with the patterns of action - in other words, processes are pretty darn complex.

It is probably why most tend to avoid deep-dives into these things. It is also within this area of "organizational design" that I tend to engender the "you are just an academic" comment.

Nevertheless processes are primary organizational structures. In fact all organizations of all sizes have three primary process categories - governance processes, core business processes and support processes.

Processes represent the integrated structural framework that enables the business.

All processes are made of sub-processes. Examples of graphical based process maps can be viewed at (http://dfpopowich.wixsite.com/dfpopowich/business-proceses).

The sub-processes are associated with a group of workflows. Examples of graphical based workflow models can be viewed at (http://dfpopowich.wixsite.com/dfpopowich/workflow-model).