Although technology is relatively simple to copy, organisation is an asset to companies, and a personal, unique form of interaction, both internally and externally. It can not be simple purchased in the market. To survive, modern firms must be well organized, covering all aspects of it.
Organisation could be defined both as structural, processual and boundary-crossing models. As structures, they can be divided as basic structure and procedures.
Basic structures are related to how we will model the company to work. As Child (2008) stated, “its purpose is to contribute to the successful implementation of objectives by allocating people and resources to necessary tasks and designating responsibility and authority for their control and coordination”. When we think about hierarchy, we have to consider both horizontal and vertical aspects. Levels, layers, authority and reporting lines are examples of how to design hierarchies. As procedures, the principal aspects are rules and standards, schedules and Systems.
An good example of importance of hierarchy changing are United Nations. Due its big scope and mission, it was created as a bureaucratic, with strict adherence to rules, higher vertical layers of control, and many horizontal specialization groups and units. United Nation Mission in Timor-Leste, a peacekeeping operation established in 2006 (UN, 2006), has so many subdivisions and hierarchic structure that to approve a travel from a district to another you need five signatures, and it takes at least 3 days.
As process, according Child(2008) the three key points are integration, control and reward. The Debian Project, an not-for-profit organisation that develops a Free Operating System called Debian (2009), is another example. With several specialized groups that are interdependent, to launch a new version is necessary a fully integration of its members. Control is executed by each team coordinator, and the reward comes from public recognition.
But these aspects are not isolated. We can identify both aspects – structural and processual ones – on modern companies. To be competitive, they have to improve all of it, according its own culture and size.
References
Child, John (2008) Organization: contemporary principles and practice. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing
Debian Project (2009) A brief history of Debian [Online]. Available from http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/index.en.html (Accessed: 12 December 2009)
United Nations (2006) Security Council Resolution 1704 [Online]. Available from http://daccess-ods.un.org/access.nsf/Get?OpenAgent&DS=S/RES/1704%20(2006) &Lang=E&Area=UNDOC (Accessed: 12 December 2009)
