ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY IN UGANDA

COURSE: BACHELOR OF PROCUREMENT AND LOGISTICS MANAGEMENT

COURSE UNIT: MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
YEAR: TWO
SEMESTER: ONE
LECTUERER: MR KALINAKI KASSIM
NO NAME REGESTRATION
NUMBER
1 MUJAHID BILLY 119-033141-20382

TASK
Write short notes about traditional, project team and virtual organizational structures.
Traditional organizational structure is a strategy for organizing a business or other entity in what
is known as a hierarchy or a top-down structure. With this approach, the processes of task
allocation and management focus on a vertical structure that strictly defines a chain of command.
A bureaucracy of this type allows relatively little open communication between different levels
of employees, with those who are assigned to work within departments normally being assigned
jobs and told what to do, without much of an ability to have input into policies and procedures.
Hierarchical structures of this type have been common in a number of different organizations,
ranging from companies and non-profit organizations to religious organizations. While a
traditional organizational structure can often be effective when highly competent individuals are
placed in positions of authority, there are also potential pitfalls with this model that include a
lack of checks and balances. The creativity of the organization may also be somewhat limited in
this type of business structure, since the ideas all come from a relatively small number of
individuals who are actually involved in the overall operation.

Characteristics of traditional organization structure

Stability: People believe that traditional organizations are stable in their activities and progress.
Flexibility: Traditional Organizations are fixed, inflexible and planned.
Hierarchy:  Traditional flow “Tall Hierarchy”
Teamwork:  traditional one follows a chain of command where every employee should be
obeyed to his superior.
Employee Morale: Traditional is a job-oriented organization so you are not sure about the
matter of employee morale.
Risk Management: Traditional organization maintain a specific policy to protect any kind of
risk that would be hampered for the organization or its employees. So, employees are more
educated about the matter thus can take any step.
Diversification: Traditional organizations are slightly conservative and they try to follow
traditional rules and regulation. They always flow a static business strategy and make a
workflow model maintaining a traditional marketing policy and employee management system.
A modern organization is doing modification, rescheduling, flexible entity management and
dynamic business strategy.
Technology:  traditional organizations are centralized and backward to accept advanced
technology.
Importance of traditional organization structure
Communication: The functional organizational structure creates an environment for
communication. Because employees are related in terms of function, job context is understood
within departments, providing a basis for understanding.
THE PROJECT ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
A project organization is a structure that facilitates the coordination and implementation of project
activities. Its main reason is to create an environment that fosters interactions among the team members
with a minimum amount of disruptions, overlaps and conflict. One of the important decisions of project
management is the form of organizational structure that will be used for the project.

Factors in designing the project organization structure

There are two design factors that significantly influence the process of developing a project management
structure. These are the level of specialization, and the need for coordination.
Specialization affects the project structure by the degree of specialty in technical areas or development
focus; projects can be highly specialized and focus on a specific area of development, or have different
broad specializations in many areas of development. For large projects that have multiple specializations
or technical areas, each area may have a different need; from differences in goals, approaches and
methodologies, all of which influence the way the project will implement its activities. A project that has
two components, a reconstruction and education, will need to manage different approaches based on the
specialization of each one.
Coordination is required to bring unity to the various elements that make up a project. The project work
is organized around a work breakdown structure (WBS) that divides the overall project goals into specific
activities or tasks for each project area or component; the project manager must design an organizational
structure that ensure that the various components are integrated so that their efforts contribute to the
overall project goal.

TYPES OF PROJECT ORGANIZATIONS STRUCTURES

There are several factors to consider when deciding on the design of project organizational
structures, especially within an existing organization, the factor that has a significant is the extent
of authority and responsibility top management is prepared to delegate to the project manager.
An important function of the organizations’ top management is to design an organization that
fully supports project management. This is done by redesigning the organization to emphasize
the nature of the projects and adapting how roles and responsibilities are assigned. The
organization needs to define the project manager’s job, degree of authority and autonomy, and
relationship to both the organization, other projects and to other units in the organization. Upper
management also should specify communication channels, methods of conflict resolution
between the project and the rest of the organization. Development organizations are usually
organized around programmatic focus areas such as health or education. These areas are usually
called program units and are centered on a specific development field. In this environment a
project has three organization structures available for design and all are defined by the level of
organizational authority given to the project manager: The Project Management Structures 
Programmatic based, in which project managers have authority only within the program focus or
area  Matrix based,, in which the project manager shares responsibility with other program unit
managers  Project based, in which project managers have total authority.
Types of Teamwork
Organizations are typically comprised of a variety of teams that help accomplish company goals
and meet projections. While individuals cycle through times of higher and lower productivity,
teams hold the potential of offering a more steady level of achievement within the organization
as a whole. Depending on company structure, there could be permanent teams, temporary teams,
committees, workforce teams, cross-functional teams, self-managed teams, task forces and/or
virtual teams. Each type of team has a different team structure and function designed to achieve a
certain end.
Complexities of Team Structure
While teams are popular within the business world, not all teams are structured in the same way
and some teams qualify for more than one label. For instance, a virtual team might meet through
Zoom once a week for the purpose of creating a solution to new product packaging. Because
they'll no longer meet once that goal is accomplished, they also qualify as a temporary team.
Similarly, a permanent team might include people from a variety of departments or disciplines
and therefore also qualify as a cross-functional team.
Like families, each team structure has its own particular mix of dynamics and goals. Recognizing
the different types of teams and how they work can assist you in creating teams that best serve
the needs of your organization. While you could choose to stick to teams that only fall into one
category or another, you can just as easily form teams that are comprised of a mixture of two or
more categories that best meet your company's needs.
What Permanent Teams Do
Permanent teams form around a central subject or goal and remain in place from one project to
another. If the company structure includes a robust human resources department, there's likely a
human resources team that helps determine the department's strategies and protocols. The
product division is likely to include a product development team that remains in place from one
product to the next.
Just because a team is permanent doesn't mean that team members aren't ever replaced.
How Temporary Teams Function
Temporary teams form to accomplish an important goal and then dissolve once that goal is met.
For instance, when a company structure is too costly, upper management might organize a
restructuring team to evaluate ways to cut costs and increase efficiency. Once the new company
structure is implemented, the restructuring team no longer exists.
Temporary teams enable companies to redirect employee time and energy to a new task for a
short period of time without making it a permanent part of their job description. It also creates
the opportunity to bring in temporary employees or consultants in order to meet a goal without
having to create a permanent position to sustain their employment for the long haul.
The Purpose of Committees
Committees are a type of team where people who share similar interests or values come together
to achieve a goal. These teams could be permanent, in the case of government committees on
human trafficking or international aid. Or, they can be temporary teams, like when church
members unite to put on a one-time 5k walk and vigil to address homelessness in their
community.
Typically, committees include a leader who helps to facilitate meetings and members who get to
vote or have a say in how the team accomplishes its goals. Committee members might be
appointed according to their interests, as is often the case in senate committees, or they could be
self-appointed volunteers, as in the case of organizing a small community event.
Workforce Teams
Workforce teams are popular in corporate America where employees often work in certain
departments under the leadership of one manager who has the goal of helping them give and
become their best on the job. For instance, the product division of a utility company likely has a
team of engineers that work under an engineering manager. Or, sales representatives work
together to meet team quota goals under the leadership of a sales manager.
Workforce teams operate using a lateral management model where each team member may not
hold equal power. The manager has more power than each individual employee under them and
has the ultimate say in the direction and daily activities of the team.
How Cross-Functional Teams Operate
Cross-functional teams are comprised of people from different departments and with different
areas of expertise. For instance, a disaster relief team could include a physician, nurse, chaplain,
food service personnel, housing specialist, mental health professional, reunification specialist
and a caseworker. These professionals move into areas and work together in order to organize
comprehensive care to help victims get back on their feet.
Within a corporate environment, a cross-functional team could include an administrative
employee, communications expert, human resources manager and an engineer from the product
division. Their chief aim is to bring each of their areas of expertise together in order to
strategically plan the best way to introduce a new product to the marketplace and communicate
with vendors. This team could meet for one project as a temporary team or meet over the course
of multiple projects as a permanent team.
Self-Managed Teams in the Workplace
Self-managed teams are teams that are comprised of equals working together to achieve a
common goal. There's no manager or person of authority within the team. Instead, the team
functions in an egalitarian way where each member has an equal voice and an equal vote about
the direction of the team and the assignment of tasks.
Self-managed teams operate well when they are based on compromise, respect and clear
communication. Each team member must be willing to take responsibility for themselves, their
own work and be flexible in response to the needs of others on the team. In the psychological
services industry, a self-managed team could be responsible for providing mental health care to
their client population. While the team as a whole report to a managing director, all of the mental
health professionals on the team are equals.
The Structure of Task Forces
Task forces are formed in order to address a specific problem or concern within a set amount of
time. For instance, the North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) formed a task force
around the perinatal system of care in response to a high infant death rate in the state. The task
force is charged with investigating the problem, coming up with solutions and implementing a
regional perinatal system by 2020.
In order for task forces to be successful, they need to be comprised of the right people and
assigned a clear task and a stated deadline. Some task forces are put into place in order to
research inconsistencies within an organization or to address ethical concerns. This could be the
case when a CEO or president is accused of money mismanagement or improper relationships
with their subordinates.

Virtual Teams in Action

Almost any team can operate in person or on a virtual basis. Gone are the days when a worker
had to find a job in an office in order to make a living. These days, many companies offer
telecommuting positions and these workers operate as a team, just like teams in an office would.
Instead of meeting in a conference room, they meet via conferencing software. Instead of
walking to a coworker's office to ask a question, they simply send an instant message.
Virtual teams can be temporary, in the case of a team that meets to update blog posts and articles
for a website. They can also be permanent, in the case of call center representatives who meet
team quotas from home. Virtual teams enable individuals who live all over the country or the
world to work together as if they were sharing a physical office space.
Advantages of Teams
There's a famous saying, "If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
When companies are trying to go the distance in achieving their big goals and vision, it's often
easier to do that with a solid team than by relying on one or two individuals or solitary workers.
Teams boast several advantages:
Employees work to their strengths: Not everyone is a born public speaker, writer or
mathematician. Teams allow each member to focus on what they're most gifted in.
Community: Instead of working in isolation, team members have a sense of community and
shared purpose around achieving a shared goal. They get to know one another and form
relationships that can increase job satisfaction.
Innovation: Two heads are better than one. While an individual could have two or three ideas
about how to solve a problem, a team might have 15 or 20. It's easier to come up with fresh
solutions when everyone works together.
Efficiency: When a team is run well, each member gets to focus on what's most essential for
their role in the team while tuning out everything else that's white noise. This means that
efficiency can increase while costs decrease.
Accountability: Personal and professional growth are more possible in a supportive team
environment with others who are working on the same things. Employees who tend to be less
productive when working in isolation are more likely to fulfill job responsibilities when they
know their team members are counting on them.
Disadvantages of Teams
There's no such thing as a perfect team. While it's true that teamwork often carries people farther
than individual work, it's equally true that sometimes an individual just needs to work quickly on
a solitary task like checking email or returning phone calls. These tasks aren't well suited to
teamwork.
In addition, sometimes the workload is uneven and one or two team members end up picking up
a disproportionate amount of work. Personalities can clash and lack of clarity about individual
tasks, team structure and purpose can bog things down. Clear team structure, carefully chosen
team members and a purpose that resonates helps ensure that the team has more advantages than
disadvantages and contributes to the overall growth of your organization
Disadvantages and Limitation of Team Organization Structure
Source of conflict
On the basis of nature, works are divided among teams. There may be the possibility of conflict
among team members as the responsibilities are inter dependent to each other. It may create
obstruction in smooth functioning of the organization. Corporate executive needs to invest more
time and effort to resolve conflict.
Difficult to coordinate
Works are divided into different teams on the basis of nature and size of business. Each work is
assigned to the teams by considering their efficiency. Team members are independent and self-
responsible for doing assigned job. If there is lack of mutual relation among the team members
then executive needs to devote more time to maintain coordination over their performance.
Lack of effective control
Various teams are formed on the basis of nature job. The team members are independent and
responsible for all the assigned activities. It creates the problem of effective control over
functions of teams. Top management needs to maintain close supervision over the performance
of teams.
More inter dependency
There is inter relation and inter dependency over the performance of all the teams. The lack of
effective performance in one team creates problems in the performance of all the teams of the
organization. For smooth functioning of the organization corporate head office needs to play
major role.
Complex in decision
Team organization emphasizes on participative decision-making process. Manager invites
subordinates to provide their views, ideas, experience and knowledge for solving problems.
Involvement of more persons in decision making process makes it complex. If any
misunderstanding and conflict raised among team members it may create problems in timely
decision.
Spoil human relation
Team members perform given job in dependently through mutual support. Team performance is
the main motive of team organization. However, if any misunderstanding arises among team
members or among teams, it spoils human relation. In some situation, it becomes more difficult
to develop good working environment in organizational performance.
Problem of overspecialization
In some situation, team organization creates a problem of over specialization. Members of team
are expert in specific area of knowledge. As many experts gather to solve problems, in some
cases, they may waste valuable time in discussing unrelated subject matters. Thus, there is a
possibility of delay in decision making.
Definition:
This new form of organization, i.e., ‘virtual organization’ emerged in 1990 and is also known as
digital organization, network organization or modular organization. Simply speaking, a virtual
organization is a network of cooperation made possible by, what is called ICT, i.e. Information
and Communication Technology, which is flexible and comes to meet the dynamics of the
market.
Characteristics:
A virtual organization has the following characteristics:
1. Flat organization
2. Dynamic
3. Informal communication
4. Power flexibility
5. Multi-disciplinary (virtual) teams
Types of virtual organizations:
Depending on the degree or spectrum of virtuality, virtual organizations can be classified into
three broad types as follows:
1. Telecommuters
2. Outsourcing employees/competencies
3. Completely virtual
A brief description of these follows in turn.
Telecommuters:
These companies have employees who work from their homes. They interact with the workplace
via personal computers connected with a modem to the phone lines. Examples of companies
using some form of telecommuting are Dow Chemicals, Xerox, Coherent Technologies Inc., etc.
Outsourcing Employees/Competencies:
These companies are characterized by the outsourcing of all/most core competencies. Areas for
outsourcing include marketing and sales, human resources, finance, research and development,
engineering, manufacturing, information system, etc. In such case, virtual organization does its
own on one or two core areas of competence but with excellence. For example, Nike performs in
product design and marketing very well and relies on outsources for information technology as a
means for maintaining inter-organizational coordination.
Completely Virtual:
These companies metaphorically described as companies without walls that are tightly linked to
a large network of suppliers, distributors, retailers and customers as well as to strategic and joint
venture partners

Advantage:
Virtual organizations offer the following advantages:
1. It saves time, travel expenses and eliminates lack of access to experts.
2. Virtual teams can be organized whether or not members are in reasonable proximity to each
other.
3. Use of outside experts without incurring expenses for travel, logging and downtime.
4. Dynamic team membership allows people to move from one project to another.
5. Employee can be assigned to multiple, concurrent teams.
Disadvantages:
In spite of these advantages, virtual organizations suffer from the following disadvantages also:
1. The lack of physical interactions with its associated verbal and non-verbal cues and also the
synergies that often accompany face-to-face interaction
2. Non-availability of preverbal and non-verbal cues such as voice, eye movement, facial
expression, and body language which help in better communication.
3. Ability to work even if the virtual teams are miles apart and the members have never or rarely
met each other face-to-face.
Features of virtual organization:
Information is power. The absence of information and knowledge renders virtual teams to emas-
culate and ineffective. Information technology, i.e., seamless web electronic communication
media does not allow happening this and keeps the organization going. According to Pattanayak,
following are the salient features of virtual organizations:
Technology:
New technology has transformed the traditional ways of working. In particular, the worlds of
computing and telephony are coming together to open up a whole new range of responsibilities.
Computer Telephony Integrations (CTI) will usher in a new revolution to the desktop. The CTI
has traditionally been used in all call center applications.
E-mail Integration:
Integrating Short Message Service (SMS) into the existing e-mail infrastructure allows the whole
organization to take advantages of SMS products such as ‘Express Way’.
Office System Integration:
SMS technology can greatly enhance the existing or new office systems, e. g., phone messages
can be sent via SMS rather than returning it in a message book.
Voice Mail Alert:
SMS technology added to the existing voice mail system builds an effective method of receiving
voice mail alerts.
Mobile Data:
This enables a laptop to retrieve information anywhere through the mobile phone network.
Mobile data communications revolutionize where and how work is done. In the past, corporate
information has been inaccessible from many places where it is needed. One’s ability to link
laptop to mobile phone keeps one connected to his/her virtual organization from anywhere.
REFERENCES: www.yourarticlelibrary.com
www.bizflunt.com
www.pm4dev.com
smallbusiness.chron.com