What Is a Functional Organizational Structure?
A functional organizational structure is a structure used to manage workers. We grouped them established on their particular skills and knowledge.
It straight up structures each branch with roles from the chief to finance and sales departments to customer service, to employees appointed to one product or service.
Functional organizations include expert units that report to a particular authority generally called the leading executive.
Every operational unit manages one aspect of the product or service supplied which as following:
- Information Technology
- Marketing
- Development
- Research, etc.
It stated them to as “silos” because they operate independently and have their particular straight down management structure.
Employees within each functional unit communicate with each other entirely, and then unit heads communicate with each other.
This structure performs well in a balanced environment that has constant operations. The purpose of a functional structure is to put together every informational and human resource required for one activity in a single place.
The functional organizational structure supports organizations operate their business and get a profit.
Advantages of a Functional Structure
- When employees who have related skills and capabilities are grouped together, it becomes production more cost-effective and of better quality.
- Responsibilities do not change very much, so there is little time spent understanding, and accountability is clear.
- While the hierarchy is simple, employees understand the one manager they are to answer to, instead of several persons.
- This streamlines communication and decreases misunderstanding among employees. Employees can feel self-confident about what they are doing because it is standardized.
- They are more likely to feel trustworthiness to their department and the organization.
- This raises self-esteem and work ethic, as there is more job security. There is a clear pathway of development for employees which provides inspiration, and they are added likely to be corporate with people in their department.
- A functional organizational structure provides an ideal environment for learning for new employees (particularly recent university graduates) to be educated on the real-world application of theoretic knowledge.
Disadvantages of the Functional Organizational Structure
- Employees might get it uninteresting to repeat the same task over and over, and turn out to be less passionate.
- If promotions are not processed well, an employee may be disappointed if a lower-performing colleague is promoted above them.
- Challenges may happen among management if department heads are only concentrated on their department and do not communicate efficiently with other departments. This can bring about weak communication and “silos” that are too separate from one another.
- If employees and management are only trustworthy to their teams, there will be a lack of teamwork and coordination.
- It is an inflexible structure where changes, innovations, and flexibility can challenge to implement. An employee in any department may not have knowledge of information about all other departments.
- Managers have a tendency to make up decisions without discussing the department first, which can take the lead to problems.
- A department can become too dictatorial and put its goals above those of the organization as a whole. With so many professionals involved in a procedure, it is difficult to pin the hold responsible for a specific product or service failure on any individual.
Please go through What are the Factors Determining Span of Management?