University of Technology, Jamaica

College of Business and Management AY:

School of Business Administration Date:
Organizational Behaviour (MAN2005) Group –
Lecture 12– STRUCTURE Lecturer: Prince Oswy Gayle
NB. Please note that this hand-out provides only a general understanding of the material. Please read your text and other
supporting materials for an in-depth understanding.

1. Introduction
If you look in organizations, you will see where businesses are changing tremendously in terms of the
nature of work, the structure of work, how organizations now structure its people and resources, and
how it tries to achieve the organizational variables we have been talking about over the past 10 weeks.
With such changes happening in the environment, management, leaders and employees must then
understand how to structure their companies to respond to the environment.

From week 1 we have been looking at the complexities that are in and surround organizations. We’ll
first talk about organizational design and structures and then look at how structures impact behaviour.
To truly understand, you would have had to be at the previous lectures.

2. Contextualization of the Topic of Structure (Let’s look at structures in different contexts)

2.1. Remember we say one’s behaviour is the combination of how one thinks, feels, acts and reacts…..
2.2. There are many types of structures… social, spiritual, religious, political, psychological and organizational
2.3. The way your family is structured………..… impacts your life to some degree.….good or bad…….
2.4. The only way to grow the economy in a way that benefits the bottom 90 percent is to change the structure of the
economy. At the least, this requires stronger unions and a higher minimum wage. Robert Reich
2.5. The crime rate in Jamaica is the way it is because of the social structure of the country that facilitates how
people behave. If you know you will not be caught, then, you are more likely to commit the act. Other
aspects of the JA ties into this structure issue….too many single mothers…gal in a bungle culture is
celebrated, violence is celebrate, freedom is discourages….
2.6. Canada is the way it is because of the way it is because of how it structured. Education
2.7. Given that organizations are complex, and people are also complex; complex X complex = …………
2.8. The organization is therefore is a functions of its complexities as well as a product of it
2.9. Take Google for example, it is structured for innovation; Apple of structured for innovation
2.10. Take Prince Oswy Gayle’s classes for example, students behave for the most part based on how he structures
the class. In his class you must do the work. Other classes you try to avoid it and may even get away with it.
What do we mean that the structure impact behaviour. When the structure impacts the students thinking,
feeling, action and reaction, you know the structure tells you how to behave.
3. Organizational design and structures
 Organization is a collection of two or more people working towards a common goal.
 Organizing is the deployment of resources to achieve strategic goals.

What is Organizational Structure?

1) How job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated.
2) The arrangement of people and task to accomplish organizational goals.
3) The framework in which the organization defines how tasks are divided, resources are deployed, and
departments are coordinated
 It is reflected in - Division of labor into specific departments & jobs; Formal lines of authority;
Mechanisms for coordinating diverse organizational tasks
Organizational design - is the process of creating a structure that best fits a purpose, strategy, or
environment
 Therefore, how you structure your company has a lot to do with the extent to which such a
company can be effective and efficient as well as to achieve its goals and mission and by
extension, the behaviors that will be created after that structure is created.

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4. Organizational structure and behaviour - For example;
 a loose organization structure that uses teams to accomplish its goals requires employees to work on their
own without much supervision – thus, people behaviour is influenced by such structure of the organization
 Some employees require close supervision, thus, the organization must structure itself to accommodate
such employees.
 In general employees are shaped by their position – thus, the HR Manager making 100 positions redundant
is not an act of the HR Manager in and of him/her self, but the position they hold dictates such behaviour.
5. Organizational Design – is the broad umbrella term that describes how an organization is constructed or
structured in terms of its use of all its resources to achieve its stated goals to include all the rules, roles
internally and externally. To this end, it is about the external structure that is built to support the
organization’s load (Oswy Gayle, 2013).
5.1 Traditional
5.1.1 Simply structure – low degree of departmentalization; authority and decision-making is
centralized in a single person; little formalization (mostly practiced in small
businesses). It is fast, flexible and accountability is clear.

5.1.2 The bureaucracy – a structure with highly routine operating tasks achieved through
specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional
departments with decision-making concentrated at the top of the organization. A strength of
this structure is that it does perform activities that require standardized activities in a highly
efficient manner. A weakness is that the length of time it takes to deal with issues amongst
others.
5.1.3 The Matrix Structure - a structure that creates dual lines of authority and combines
functional and product departmentalization. A major strength is that it has the ability to
facilitate coordination when the organization has a multiplicity of activities. A weakness is that
power struggles sometimes develop.
5.1.4 Mechanistic vs Organic
5.2 New Design Options
5.2.1 The virtual organization - a small, core organization that outsources major functions
4.2.2 Boundryless organization – an organization that seeks to eliminate the chain of command,
have limitless spans of control and replace the departments with empowered teams
6. The Key Questions (Organizational Structure The Answer Is Provided By
1. To what degree are activities subdivided into separate jobs?........... Work specialization
2. On what basis will jobs be grouped together? ............. ……………. Departmentalization
3. To whom do individuals and groups report? ............. …. Chain of command
4. How many individuals can a manager efficiently and effectively direct? Span of control
5. Where does decision-making authority lie? ............. …. Centralization and decentralization
6. To what degree will there be rules ............. …………………… Formalization
and regulations to direct employees and managers?
7. Why do structures differ? 1. Strategy 2. Size of company 3. Technology 4. Environment
8. Research Findings/Impact of Structure on Organizational behavior
8.1.Work specialization contributes to higher employee productivity, but it reduces job satisfaction.
8.2.The benefits of specialization have decreased rapidly as employees seek more intrinsically
rewarding jobs.
8.3.The effect of span of control on employee performance is contingent upon individual differences and
abilities, task structures, and other organizational factors.
8.4.Participative decision making in decentralized organizations is positively related to job
satisfaction.
8.5. Other points - Job Satisfaction)- Employees are most satisfied when they are allowed to produce and
feel a part of a system; (Job Satisfaction) and Citizenship Behaviour increases when the structure
of the company is supportive of your personal goals, then, you tend to want to contribute positively and
stay longer with the company. If the environment is not structured for higher achievers, they will leave (Turnover).
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