Key Concepts in the Design of an

Organization
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright
1997-2007. http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/concepts.htm

This article exhibits somewhat of a guidelines for organizational designs. There are key
concepts as to how designs of organizations should take place. The ultimate design of an
organization should be whatever structure best helps the organization to achieve its goals.
The following are the standard concepts in the design of an organization. (1)Span of
control the range of employees who to report to a managerial position. (2) Authority the
formally-granted influence of a position to make decisions, pursue goals and get
resources to pursue the goals; authority in a managerial role may exist only to the extent
that subordinates agree to grant this authority or follow the orders from that position.
(3)Responsibility is the duty to carry out an assignment or conduct a certain activity.
(4)Delegation process of assigning a task to a subordinate along with the commensurate
responsibility and authority to carry out the task. (5) Chain of command the lines of
authority in an organization, who reports to whom. (6) Accountability responsibility for
the outcome of the process. (7) Line authority the type of authority where managers have
formal authority over their subordinates' activities the subordinates are depicted under the
manager on a solid line in the organization chart; departments directly involved in
producing services or products are sometimes called line departments and lastly, Staff
departments is the type of authority where managers influence line managers through
staff's specialized advice; departments that support or advise line departments are called
staff departments and include, e.g., human resources, legal, finance, etc. However, there
are many approaches to guiding change; some planned, structured and explicit, while
others are more organic, unfolding and implicit. Some approaches work from the future
to the present, for example, involving visioning and then action planning about how to
achieve that vision. Other approaches work from the present to the future, for example,
identifying current priorities issues and/or goals and then action planning about to address
those priorities the action research approach is one example. Different people often have
very different and strong opinions about how change should be conducted. Thus, it is
likely that some will disagree with some of the content in this topic. This is what makes
this topic so diverse, robust and vital for us all.