Organizations and Structure of Project

• Organization means a set of understandings of

how human and other resources are to be
marshaled (organized) toward the achievement
of an objective.
• The understandings of organization structure
ranging from policies and procedures to
personnel assignments. The acting agency, that is
formed when organization work as a process and
structure which relate the efforts of number of
individuals to perform joint accomplishment.
• the organization structure is formed to transfer
authority, incurred responsibility, assignment of
accountability.
• An organization is created when two or more
people agree to cooperate in seeking a common
goal. An organizational element is carried out
through plans, policies, procedures, and rules,
which formally prescribe how the elements are to
relate. The organizational techniques such as
centralization, decentralization, functional,
departmental, product, and process, geographical
are patterns for structuring the organization.
• Project organization is used to denote an
interdisciplinary and inter organizational team pulled
together for a specific task. Today, organizational
restructuring is a compromise between
• the traditional and the behavioral schools of thought;
management must consider the needs of the
individuals as well as the needs of the company. There
are a wide variety of organizational forms for
restructuring management. The exact method depends
upon the people in the organization, the company’s
product lines, and managements’ philosophy.
• The typically hierarchical arrangement of lines of
authority, communications, rights and duties of
an organization. Organizational structure
determines how the roles, power and
responsibilities are assigned, controlled, and
coordinated, and how information flows between
the different levels of management.
• .
• A structure depends on the organization's
objectives and strategy. In a centralized
structure, the top layer of management has
most of the decision making power and has
tight control over departments and divisions.
In a decentralized structure, the decision
making power is distributed and the
departments and divisions may have different
degrees of independence. A company such as
Proctor & Gamble that sells multiple products
may organize their structure so that groups
are divided according to each product and
depending on geographical area as well
 Organizing and Staffing the Project
Office and Team
Forms of project organization
i) Line - Staff Organization (Kerzner, Harold, 2004, Project
mgt. P.105)
• This is a weak form of organization which may be employed
mostly for small projects as it is certainly not suitable for
large projects. A person appointed as project coordinator
(PO) works in a staff position to facilitate the coordination
of line management in functional departments.
• The PO does not have authority and direct responsibility of
line management but work as focal point for receiving
project-related information and seeks to promote the cause
of the project by rendering advice, sharing information, and
providing assistance. It is conducive to an efficient use of
resources but is not suitable for an effective realization of
project objectives.
• A person is appointed with role and responsibility to
coordinate with the personnel of different department.
s/he works as an advisor without any direct rights and
responsibility to the department. A coordinator is an
informant of project, through which s/he advised for
the success of project.Weak organization structure
coordinator can give coax (soft pressure) to
department chief.
• It is useful for small project.
• Not useful for large project.
• Useful to use resources efficiently.
 ii) Divisional Organization
• Under this form of project organization, a separate division
is set up to implement the project. A full line authorized
project manager (PM) is appointed as the head of this
division with a complement of personnel and total formal
control over the division.
• Such division is a separate goal-oriented department with
its own functional departments. The divisional project
organization facilitates the process of planning and control,
brings about better integration of efforts, and strengthens
the commitment of project-related personnel to the
objectives of the project.
• Due to the duplication, the approach of this organization
may be ineffective use of resources of the firm,
unnecessary duplication of specialists. However, it is
effective realization of project objective but fails for the
efficient utilization of resources.
• A separate department is established in which
department chief have full authority to run
the project.
• Strong organization: Helps to plan project and
control. Achieve goal within stipulated time
and budget. Because may misuse of resources
of project; unnecessary incensement of
specialized person.
 iii) Matrix Organization
• The matrix form of project organization is
developed achieve twin objectives of effective
realization of project objectives and efficient
use of resources at the cost of greater
organizational complexity.
• Personnel working in this form of organization
have dual responsibility to project manager
and the functional manager. The authority and
influence of the project manager cut across
the traditional vertical line of command.
• It is incongruent with the traditional
organizational theory: there is a dual
subordination, responsibility and authority are
not commensurate, and the hierarchical principle
is ignored. It involves greater organizational
complexity and creates an inherently conflictive
situation. Yet it seems to be better vehicle for the
simultaneous pursuit of the twin objectives -
efficient utilization of resources and effective
attainment of project objectives.
• Project management is not a one-person operation; it requires a
group of individuals dedicated to the achievement of a specific goal.
It includes:
•
A project manager
• An assistant project manager
• A project office
• A project team
•
Generally, project office personnel are assigned full time to the
project and work out of the project office, whereas the project
team members work out of the functional units and may spend
only a small percentage of their time on the project.
• Line and staff and divisional organization is useful only to
effective use of resources. It is not useful to achieve
projects objective. But matrix organization is useful to
achieve goal by effective utilization of resources. However,
organizational structure becomes more complex. In this
form of organization project’s personnel is responsible to
project. The authority is divided into program chief and
department chief.
• It is different from other traditional organization theory. In
this system, the project personnel work under the two
different chief but no uniformity of role and responsibility.
No valid of ladder system. This implies that organizational
structure more complex and fear from conflicts.