CHAPTER 4 ORGANIZING

TECHNICAL ACTIVITIES

INTRODUCTION

The
engineer
manager
needs to acquire various skills
in
management,
including
those for organizing technical
activities.
In
this
highly
competitive environment, the
unskilled manager will not be
able to bring his unit, or his
company, as the case may be,
to success.

INTRODUCTION
The value of a superior organizational
set-up has been proven dramatically
during the Second World War when a
smaller
American
naval
force
confronted the formidable Japanese
navy at Midway. Military historians
indicated that the Americans emerged
victorious because of the superior
organizational skills of their leaders.

INTRODUCTION
Even today, skills in organizing contribute
largely to the accomplishment of the
objectives of many organizations, whether
they are private businesses or otherwise. The
positive effects of business success becomes
more pronounced when they come as a result
of international operations. International
businesses, however, cannot hope to make
huge profits unless they are properly
organized to implement their plans.

INTRODUCTION
The opportunities offered by skillful
organizing are too important for the engineer
manager to ignore. This chapter is intended to
provide him with some background and
insights in organizing.

REASONS FOR
ORGANIZING

Organizing is undertaken to facilitate

the implementation 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 tasks
to particular persons.

REASONS FOR ORGANIZING

In turn, these will help facilitate the
assignment of authority, responsibility and
accountability of 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 and effective 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.

THE PURPOSE OF THE

STRUCTURE
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 and departments into
organization.

The Formal Organization

After a plan is adapted, management
will proceed to form an organization to
carry out the activities indicated in the
plan.
The formal organization is the
structure
that
details
lines
of
responsibilities, authority and position.
What is depicted in the organization
chart is the formal organization.

The Formal Organization

It is the planned structure and
it
represents
the
deliberate
attempt to establish patterned
relationships among components
that will meet the objectives
effectively.

The Formal Organization

The formal structure is described by
management through:
1. organization chart
2. organizational manual and
3. policy manuals.

The Formal Organization

The organization chart is a
diagram of the organizations
official positions and formal lines
of authority.

The Formal Organization

The organizational manual provides
written descriptions 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
Formal
organizations
require
the
formation of formal groups which will be
assigned to perform specific tasks aimed at
achieving organizational objectives. The
formal group is a part of the organization
structure.

Informal Groups
There are instances when members of
an organization spontaneously form a
group with friendship as a principal reason
for belonging. This group is called an
informal group. It is not part of the formal
organization and it does not have a formal
performance purpose.

Informal Groups
Informal
groups
are
oftentimes very useful in the
accomplishment of major tasks,
especially if these tasks conform
with the expectations of the
members of the informal group.

Informal Groups
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 perversions and considerable
harm can be done to the company.

Informal Groups
The engineer manager is ,
therefore, warned that he must be
on the lookout for the possible
difficulties that the informal groups
may do to the organization. It will
be to his best interest if he could
make the informal groups work for
the organization.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURES
There are three types of organizations.
They are the following:
1.

Functional organizationthis is a
form of departmentalization in
which everyone engaged in one
functional activity, such as
engineering or
marketing, is
grouped into one unit.

TYPES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURES
2.
Product or market organization
this refers to the organization of a
company by divisions that brings
together all those involved with a
certain type of product or
costumer.

Types of Organizational
Structures
3.

Matrix organizationan
organizational structure in which
each employee reports to
both a functional or division
manager and to a project or
group manager.

Functional Organization
Functional
organization
structures are very effective in
smaller firms, especially singlebusiness
firms
where
key
activities revolve around welldefined skills and areas of
specialization.

Functional Organization
Functional
organizations
have
certain advantages. They are the
following:
1. The grouping of employees who
perform a common task permit
economies of scale and efficient
resource use.

Functional Organization
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.

Functional Organization
4.

The structure promotes highquality

technical
problemsolving.

5. The organization is provided

with
in
depth
skill
specialization
and
development.

Functional Organization
6.

Employees are provided with career

progress
within
functional
departments.

Functional Organization
The disadvantages of the functional
organizational are the following:
1. Communication and coordination
between the departments are
often poor.
2. Decisions involving more than
one
department pile up at the
top
management level and are
often delayed.

Functional Organization
3. Work specialization and division of
labor, which are stressed in a
functional organization, produce
routine, no motivating employee
tasks.
4. It is difficult to identify which section or
group is responsible for certain
problems.

Functional Organization
5. There is limited view of
organizational
goals
by
employees.
6. There
is
management
employees.

limited
general
training
for

Product or Market
Organization

The
Product
or
market
organization, with its feature of
operation
by
divisions,
is
appropriate
for
a
large
corporation with many product
lines
in
several
related
industries.

Product or Market
Organization

The advantages of a product or market

organization are as follows:
1.
The organization is flexible and
responsive to change.
2.

The organization provides a high

concern for customers needs.

Product or Market
Organization

3.
the organization provides
excellent coordination across
functional departments.
4.

There is easy pinpointing of

responsibility for product
problems.

Product or Market
Organization
5.

There is emphasis on overall

product and division goals.

6.

The opportunity for the

development of general
management skills is provided.

Product or Market
Organization
The disadvantages of the product
market organization are as follows:

or

1.

There is a high possibility of

duplication of resources across
divisions.

2.

There is less technical depth and

specialization in divisions.

Product or Market
Organization
3.

There is poor coordination across

divisions.

4.
There is less top management
control.
5.

There is competition for corporate

resources.

Matrix Organization
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 the matrix structure was designed to
keep employees in a central pool an to
allocate them to various projects in the firm
according to the length of time they were
needed.

Matrix Organization
The matrix organization is afforded with
the following advantages:
1.

There is more efficient use of

resources than the divisional
structure.

2.

There is flexibility and adaptability

to changing environment.

Matrix Organization
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 enlarged tasks for

employees which motivate them
better.

Matrix Organization
The matrix organization has some
disadvantages, however. They are the
following:
1.

There is frustration and confusion

from dual chain of command.

Matrix Organization
2.

There is high conflict between

divisional and functional interests.

3.
There are many meetings and
more discussion than action.

Matrix Organization
4.

There is a need for human

relations training for key
employees and managers.

5.

There is a tendency for power

dominance by one side of the
matrix.

Types of Authority
The delegation of authority is a
requisite for effective organizing. It consists
of three types. They are as follows:
1.

Line authoritya managers right

to tell subordinates what to do
and then see that they do it.

Types of Authority
2.

3.

Staff authoritya staffs

specialists right to give advice to
a superior.

Functional Authoritya
specialists right to oversee lower
level personnel involved in that
specialty, regardless of where the
personnel are in the organization.

Types of Authority
Line departments perform tasks that
reflect the organizations primary goal and
mission. In a construction firm, the
department that negotiates and secures
contracts for the firm is a line department.
The construction division is also a line
function.

Types of Authority
Staff departments include those that
provide specialized skills in support of line
departments.
Examples
of
staff
departments include those which perform
strategic
planning,
labor
relations,
research, accounting and personnel.

Types of Authority
Staff officers may be classified into the
following:
1.
Personal staffthose individuals
assigned to a specific manager to
provide needed staff services.

Types of Authority
2.

Specialized staffthose
individuals providing needed staff
services for the whole
organization.

Types of Authority
Functional authority is one given to a
person or a work group to make decisions
related to their expertise even if these
decisions concern other departments. This
authority is given to most budget officers of
organizations, as well as other officers.

The Purpose of
Committees

When certain formal groups

are deemed inappropriate to
meet expectations, committees
are ofetntimes harnessed to
achieve organizational goals.
Many organizations, large or
small, make use of committees.

The Purpose of Committees

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 executives from marketing, production,
research, engineering and finance, who
work part-time to evaluate and approve
product ideas.

The Purpose of Committees

Committees are very useful most
especially
to
engineering
and
manufacturing firms. When a certain
concern, like product development, is under
consideration, a committee is usually
formed to provide the necessary line-up of
expertise needed to achieve certain
objectives.

The Purpose of Committees

Committees may be classified as follows:
1.
Ad hoc committeeone 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 firm.

The Purpose of Committees

2.

Standing committeeit 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 Purpose of Committees

Committees may not work properly,
however, if they are not correctly managed.
Delaney suggests that it might be useful
to set up some procedures to make the
committee a more effective tool to
accomplish our goals.

Summary
The proper management of engineering
activities, whether at the unit, department
or firm level, requires effective organizing.
The organizing function is undertaken to
facilitate the implementation of plans.

Summary
Organizing refers to the structuring of
resources and activities to accomplish
objectives. The structure serves as a way to
reach the organizations goals.

Summary
The formal organization is the structure
that will carry out the plan. It is described
through the organization chart, the
organization manual and the policy manual.

Summary
Informal group oftentimes find their
way to exist side by side with formal
organizations. These groups may make it
easy or make it hard for the organization to
achieve its objectives.

Summary
Organization may be classified into: (1)
functional, (2) product or market or (3)
matrix.
Authority delegated to the members of
the organization may be classified into: (1)
line authority, (2) staff authority and (3)
functional authority.

Summary
Committees are used as a supplement
to the existing formal organization.
Committees are classified into: (1) ad hoc,
and (2) standing.