Glossary

Definition of Organization

An organization is a group of people who work together in order to achieve common organizational goals. In an organization, there is a hierarchy of human relationships. The purpose of this hierarchy is to achieve organizational goals by dividing work among the employees of the organization.

The following are a few definitions of “Organization” provided by different writers.

According to Louis Allen, an organization is a type of process in which work is identified, defined and grouped together in order to delegate authority and responsibility to designated people. This is done so that people part of an organization work more effectively in order to achieve the common organizational objectives. In an organization, the work is clearly defined for each, and every person part of the organization and each person has fixed authority and responsibility.

Oliver Sheldon defines an organization as a process of combining work performed by each individual and group of people by making the use of necessary facilities required for its execution and designated duties are performed by making the use of systematic, efficient, coordinated, and efficient efforts of each individual part of the organization.  An organization makes sure that resources available in the organization are utilized efficiently, and work is performed within the defined time duration by each individual who is assigned the work.

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Definition

The line organization can be defined as an organizational structure where authority flows in a direct line in the organization, i.e. from top to bottom, whereas responsibility follows in the opposite direction. That means, each boss is responsible for his immediate subordinates and he is accountable to his superiors.

Meaning of Line Organization

Line organization is the simplest and oldest organizational structure. In the line organization, the authority within the organization flows in vertical form, i.e. from topmost executive to the lowest worker working in the organization.

In the line organization structure, the managers control their direct subordinates through the chain of command. Therefore, it is also known as a chain of command or scalar principle. In the line organization, the authority flows from top to the bottom of the organization through various managerial positions.

In organizations that follow line structure, only line authority exists in such organizations. That means each manager is responsible for his direct subordinates, and he himself is accountable to his superiors.

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Line and staff organization is a modified line organizational structure. In this organizational structure, the designation of different jobs is decided, and the relationship among them is clearly mentioned. Various methods can be used to structure jobs within an organization, but line organization and line and staff organization are the two most basic and simplest ways for creating job structure in an organization.

In a line organization, the top management has complete control and authority flows from top-level to bottom-level of the organization. Whereas, line and staff organization is modified line organization structure. In the line and staff organization, along with line organization staff departments are created—the role of staff departments to provide advice and support to the line managers.

Many organizations of different sizes, such as medium and large-scaled organization use line and organization structure because of its simple and efficient method to implement. In line and staff organizations, there are multiple layers of management in the organization.

In line and staff organization, the special staff is appointed and is attached to the line managers in order to provide them assistance in specialized activities. However, the power and control remain with the line executives. For example, when a managing director hires a secretary. The secretary might provide help in different work but will be considered a staff official and control remains with the managing director.

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Benchmarking is the method to measure a company’s performance based on services, products, and processes against the companies that are best in the industry. It provides valuable understandings that would help a company to understand where they stand with similar organizations. It also helps a company to identify systems, sales, or processes for enhancing. It could be either incremental or dramatic improvements.

When a study is performed against companies who perform better, breaking down the parameters that had caused them to be popular and then comparing those to your business would help you to improve your processes. For example, it could be to update a product’s features by comparing it with competitors, updating services that you provide, etc.

Improvements can take place in the following two ways:

• Continuous
• Dramatic

Continuous improvement takes place in an increment fashion. It involves only some small updates to fit into the requirement.

Dramatic improvement takes place by reengineering the entire work process internally.

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Brainstorming is a technique to generate new ideas for problem-solving. It typically comprises a group directed by a facilitator. Brainstorming’s strength relates to potential participants who can think freely and provide wider solutions for any issues. Brainstorming involves a stress-free and easy tactic for problem-solving with the help of lateral thinking.

It provides a chance and encourages people to derive new opinions and ideas, sometimes may feel silly at the initial stage. These ideas could be fashioned into innovative and unique solutions to a specific problem and at the same time can provide a way to trigger more new ideas. This also gives people to think out of the box. Hence, it is always taken care of that during any brainstorming session, criticism or appreciation in any form of new ideas is not seen.

You just try to expose people to various possibilities of solutions and to interrupt any norms around the problems. Involving any decision and investigate at this stage would limit creativity and idea generation. Evaluation of ideas should take place at the session end. Then, explore various solutions with predictable approaches.

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