The only things that evolve by themselves in an organization are disorder, friction, malperformance.
The pioneers of management a century ago were right: organizational structure is needed. The modern enterprise needs organization. But the pioneers were wrong in their assumption that there is—or should be—one right organization. Instead of searching for the right organization, management needs to learn to look for, to develop, to test, the organization that fits the task.
There are some “principles” of organization. One is that organization has to be transparent. People have to know and have to understand the organization structure they are supposed to work in. Someone in the organization must have the authority to make the final decision in a given area. It also is a sound principle that authority be commensurate with responsibility. It is a sound principle that any one person in an organization should have only one “master.” These principles are not too different from the ones that inform an architect’s work. They do not tell him what kind of building to build. They tell him what the restraints are. And this is pretty much what the various principles of organization structure do.
ACTION POINT: Reflect on whether your organization is transparent, if decision-making authority is clear, whether authority is commensurate with responsibility, and whether each person has only one master.
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* Source: The Daily Drucker by Peter F. Drucker