Organisational Structure

This module is about Information Systems within organisations. In order to understand the relationship between organisations and its Information System, you need to know what an organisation is and what sort of structure it might have.

An organisation can be looked at in several ways. We can think of it as a system that takes capital and labour as input and outputs services or products. Another way of looking at an organisation is to see it as a social structure in which rules and procedures govern the way that the people working in the organisation interact.

Any organisation must have some structure and in general this will be hierarchical. The work force will be arranged so that a particular employee has a manager. The manager will in turn be responsible to a higher level manager. At the top of the hierarchy is the owner, board of directors, parent company or whoever has ultimate responsibility for the organisation.

At each level of the organisation, employees will have different responsibilities and roles. At the bottom is the operational staff who are responsible for producing the goods or delivering the services. There will some degree of management at this level such as foreman or team leader. The next level will consist of middle managers who are responsible for ensuring that the operational tasks are carried out. Above the middle managers will be the senior managers who will be responsible for planning and decision making. At the very top of the hierarchy is the executive management which will be responsible for long term planning and setting the overall goals for the organisation.

The hierarchy may be organised according to function - e.g. Personnel, Finance, and Marketing or, in a large organisation, it may be based on divisions where each division replicates the hierarchical structure of other divisions. The larger an organisation the more structured it is likely to be and the more clearly defined will be the roles of individuals within the structure.

A small business may be less structured and formalised and the roles of several people may overlap. Even here there is likely to be a developing division of labour and some hierarchical structure when it comes to making important decisions.

In, these operating procedures are likely to have evolved over a long period of time and introducing change may have a dramatic effect on the organisation.

The existing organisational structure will both affect and be affected by the introduction or upgrading of Information Systems.

© LEV