ORGANIZING

TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES
CHAPTER 4

PREPAIRED BY

MICHAEL ANGELO DE LEON

CHAPTER CONTENT
REASONS FOR ORGANIZING
ORGANIZING DEFINED
THE PURPOSE OF STRUTURE
THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION
INFORMAL GROUP
TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
TYPES OF AUTHORITY
THE PURPOSE OF COMMITTEES
 INTRODUCTION
The engineer manager needs to acquire various
skills in management, including those for
organizing technical activities. In this highly
competitive environment, unskilled manager will
not be able to bring his unit, or his company, as the
case maybe, to success.
The opportunities offered by skillful
organizing are to important for an engineer
manager to ignore. This chapter is intended
to provide him with some background and
insight in organizing.
REASONS FOR ORGANIZING
Organizing is undertaken to facilitate the
implementations of plans. In effective
organizing, steps are undertaken to
breakdown the total job into more
manageable man-size jobs. Doing these will
make it possible to assign particular task to
particular persons. In turn this will help
facilitate the assignment of authority,
responsibility, and accountability for certain
functions and tasks.
ORGANIZING DEFINED
Organizing is a management function
which refers to “the structuring of resources
and activities to accomplish objectives in an
efficient manner.”
The arrangement or relationship of
positions within an organization is called
the structure. The result of the organizing
process is the structure.
THE PURPOSE OF THE STRUCTURE

The structure serves some very

useful purposes. They are the
following:
1. It defines the relationships between tasks
and authority for individuals and
departments.
2. It defines formal reporting relationships.,
the number of levels in the hierarchy of
the organization, and the span of control.
3. It defines the groupings of individuals into
departments into organizations.
4. It defines the system to effect coordination
of effort in both vertical (authority) and
horizontal (tasks) directions.
When structuring an
organization, the engineer
manager must be concerned
with the following:
1. Division of labor- determining the scope
of work and how it is combined in a job.
2. Delegation of authority- the process of
assigning various degrees of decision-
making authority to subordinates.
3. Departmentation- the grouping of related
jobs, activities, or processes into major
organizational subunits.
4. Span of control- the number of people
who report directly to a given manager.
5. Coordination- The linking of activities in
the organization that serves to achieve a
common goal or objectives.
THE FORMAL ORGANIZATION
The formal organization is “the structure that
details lines of responsibilities, authority,
and position.” What is depicted in the
organization chart is formal organization. It
is “the planned structure” and it “represent
the deliberate attempt to establish patterned
relationships among components that will
meet the objectives effectively.”
The formal structure is described
by management through:
1. ORGANIZATIONAL CHART

2. ORGANIZATIOINAL MANUAL AND

3. POLICY MANUAL
The organization chart is a diagram of the
organization’s official positions and formal
lines of authority.
The organizational manual provides
written description of authority
relationships, details the functions of major
organizational units and describes job
procedures.
The policy manual describes personnel
activities and company policies.
INFORMAL GROUPS
There some instances when members of an
organization spontaneously form a group with
friendship as a principal reasons for belonging.
This group is called an informal group. It is not a
part of formal organization and it does not have a
formal performance purpose.
The informal organization, useful as it is, is
“vulnerable to expediency, manipulation, and
opportunism,” according to Valentine. Its low
visibility, Valentine added, makes it “difficult for
management to detect these previsions, and
considerable harm can be done to the company.”
TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURES

Before the commencement of activities, the

decision makers in an organization will have
to decide on what structure to adapt.
Depending on the size and type of
operations, a certain structural type may
best fit the requirements.
Organizations may be classified
into three types. They are the
following:
1. Functional organization- his is a form of
departmentalization in which everyone engaged one
functional activity, such as engineering or marketing, is
grouped into a unit.
2. Product or market organization- this refers to the
organization of the company by divisions that brings
together all those involved with a certain type of product
or consumer.

3. Matrix organization- an organizational structure in

which each employee reports to both a functional or
division manager and to a project or group manager.
 Reason or Factors for Joining or Forming a Group
FRIENDSHIP

COMMON INTEREST
Like: concern for
environment or love for
classical music
PROXIMITY
Which gives people the
chance to share ideas, WHICH PROPEL
opinions, and feelings
PEOPLE
NEED SATISFACTION TO
Which are are derived
from unions, cultural
societies, fraternities,
FORM AN
etc. INFORMAL
COLLECTIVE POWER OR GROUP

Which is derived from JOIN

unions, fraternities,
etc.
GROUP GOALS
Which attract individuals
like: consumer society,
sports club, etc.
FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION

Functional organization structures are very

effective in smaller firms, especially “single-
business firms where key activities revolve
around well-defined skills and area of
specialization”.
Functional organizations have certain
advantages. They are the following:
1. The grouping employees who perform a common task permit
economies of scale and efficient resource use.
2. Since the chain of command converges at the top of the
organization, decision-making is centralized, providing a
unified direction from the top.
3. Communication and coordination among employees within
each department are excellent.
4. The structure promotes high-quality technical problem-solving.
5. The organization is provided with in dept skill specialization
and development.
6. Employees are provided with career progress within functional
department.
 A Typical Functional Organization Chart of a
Construction Company

PRESIDENT

Vice President Vice President Vice President Vice President

Marketing Construction Finance Human Resources
The disadvantages of functional organization
are the following:
1. Communication and coordination between the department
are often poor.
2. Decisions involving more than one department pile up the top
management level and are often delayed.
3. Work specialization and division of labor and division of
labor, which are stressed in functional organization, produce
routine, non motivating employee task.
4. It is difficult to identify which section or group is responsible
for certain problems.
5. There is limited view of organizational goals by employees.
6. There is limited general management training for employees.
PRODUCT OR MARKET ORGANIZATION
The product or market organization, with
its feature of operating by divisions, is
“appropriate for a large corporation with
many product lines in several related
industries.”
A Typical Product/Market Organization Chart of a Construction Company

PRESIDENT

Vice President Vice President Vice President

Government Industrial Residential
Accounts Accounts Accounts

Marketing Marketing Marketing

Construction Construction Construction

Finance Finance Finance

Human Human Human

Resources Resources Resources
The advantages of a product or
market organization are as
follows:
1. The organizations are flexible and responsive to change.
2. The organization provides a high concern for
customer's needs.
3. The organizations provides excellent coordination
across functional departments.
4. There is easy pinpointing of responsibility for product
problem.
5. There is emphasis on overall product and division goals.
6. The opportunity for the development of general
management skills is provided.
The disadvantages of the product
or market organization are as
follows:

1. There is a high possibility of duplication of resources

across divisions.
2. There is less technical depth and specializations in
divisions.
3. There is poor coordination across divisions.
4. There is less top management control.
5. There is competition for corporate resources.
MATRIX ORGANIZATION
A matrix organization, according to
Thompson and Strickland, “is a structure
with two(or more) channels of command,
two lines of budget authority, and two
sources of performance and reward.”
Higgins declared that matrix structure was
designed to keep employees in a central pool
and to allocate them to various projects in
the firm according to the length of time they
were needed .”
 A Typical Matrix Organization Chart of a Construction Firm

PRESIDENT

Vice President Vice President Vice President

For For For Human
Finance Constuction Resource

Contract
Project Constructio Purchasing
Administratio
Manager n Manager Manager n Manager

Project X Purchasing Contract

Engineer
Manager Specialist Negotiator

Project Y Purchasing Contract

Engineer Negotiator
Manager Specialist

Project Z Purchasing Contract

Engineer
Manager Specialist Negotiator
The matrix organization is afforded
with following advantages:
1. There is more efficient use of resources than the
divisional structure.
2. There is flexibility and adaptability to changing
environment.
3. The development of both general and functional
management skills are present.
4. There is interdisciplinary cooperation and any
expertise is available to all divisions.
5. There are enlarge tasks for employees which
motivate them better.
The matrix organization has some
disadvantages, however. There are the
following:
1. There is frustration and confusion from dual chain of
command.
2. There is a high conflict between divisional and
functional interests.
3. There are many meetings and more discussion than
action.
4. There is a need for human relations training for key
employees and manager.
5. There is a tendency for power dominance by one side
of the matrix.
TYPES OF AUTHORITY

1. Line authority- a manager’s right to tell

subordinates what to do and then see that
they do it.
2. Staff authority- a staff specialist’s right to
give advice to a superior.
3. Functional authority- a specialist’s right to
oversee lower level personnel involved in
that specialty, regardless of where the
personnel in the organization.
Line departments perform tasks that
reflect the organization primary goal
and mission. In a construction firm,
the department that negotiates and
secures contracts for the firm is a line
department. The constructions division
is also line function.
• Staff departments include all those that
provide specialized skills in support of line
department. Examples of staff departments
include those which perform strategic
planning, labor relations, research,
accounting, and personnel.
 A Line and Staff Organization

PRESIDENT

Corporate Legal
Planning Counsel

Director of Director Director Director Director

Research and Of Of Of Of
Development Marketing Manufacturin Finance Personal
g

Industrial Factory Quality

Engineering Manager Control
Manager Manager

First Second Third

Ship Ship Ship
Supervisor Supervisor Superviso
r
STAFF OFFICER MAY BE CLASSIFIED
INTO THE FOLLOWING:
1. Personal staff- those individuals assigned
to a specific manager to provide needed
staff services.

2. Specialized staff- those individuals

providing needed staff services for the
whole organization.
Functional authority is one given to a
person or a work group to make decisions
related their expertise even if this decisions
concern other departments. This authority
is given to most budget officers of
organizations, as well as other officers.
THE PURPOSE OF COMMITEES
A committee is a formal group of persons
formed for a specific purpose. For instance,
the product planning committee, as
described by Millevo, is “often staffed by top
executive from marketing, production,
research engineering, and finance, who
work part-time to evaluate and approve
product ideas.”
COMMITTEES MAY BE CLASSIFIED AS
FOLLOWS:
1. Ad hoc committee- one created for a short-term
purpose and have a limited life. An example is
the committee created to manage the anniversary
festivities of a certain firms.
2. Standing committee- it is a relatively permanent
committee that deals with issues on an ongoing
basis. An example is the grievance committee set
up to handle initially complaints from employees
of the organization.
The end