Is There One Best Way to Structure an Organisation

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“Is there one best way to structure an organisation?” Explain and justify your position. There is no one best way to structure an organisation because organisations differ from one another based on its design, thus it is hard to standardise organisational structure. The way an organisation is structured is dependent on its design, which results in organisations to have differing structures too. Organisational structure can be classified as mechanistic or organic organisations. The way a company chooses its structure is dependent on contingency factors that contribute to these design types. Mechanistic organisational designs are strictly controlled and are classified by having high specialisation, low decision making by low-level employees, rigid departmentalisation, downward communication, narrow span of control and high formalisation. On the other hand, organic organisational designs are very flexible, adjustable, have less standardised jobs, regulations and formalisation as well as decentralisation. This makes change efficient when necessary. The contingency factors that shape the design of an organisation include strategy, size, technology and environmental uncertainty. It is often these four factors that will determine whether the organisational structure will be a mechanistic organisation or an organic organisation, through the development of organisational design. An organisation’s strategies differ from other organisations depending on its goals. It is the organisational structure that supports the strategy of the business; hence they are directly related. As strategy is changed, the organisational structure must be adjusted to support it. This is often referred to as the structure-strategy relationship, and it is this relationship that affects the organisation’s performance (Pertusa-Ortega, Molina-Azorin, Claver-Cortes, 2010). This structure-strategy
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