Organizing

"Organising is the process of defining and grouping the activities of the enterprise and establishing the authority relationships among them."



1. Identification and Division of work:

The organising function begins with the division of total work into smaller units. Each unit of total work is called a job.

And an individual in the organisation is assigned one job only. The division of work into smaller jobs leads to specialization because jobs are assigned to individuals according to their qualifications and capabilities. The division of work leads to systematic working. For example, in a bank every individual is assigned a job. One cashier accepts cash, one cashier makes payments, one person issues cheque books, one person receives cheques, etc. With division of work into jobs the banks work very smoothly and systematically.

2. Grouping the Jobs and Departmentalisation:

After dividing the work in smaller jobs, related and similar jobs are grouped together and put under one department. The departmentation or grouping of jobs can be done by the organisation in different ways. But the most common two ways are:

(a) Functional departmentation:

Under this method jobs related to common function are grouped under one department. For example, all the jobs related to production are grouped under production department; jobs related to sales are grouped under sales department and so on.

(b) Divisional departmentation:

When an organisation is producing more than one type of products then they prefer divisional departmentation. Under this jobs related to one product are grouped under one department. For example, if an organisation is producing cosmetics, textile and medicines then jobs related to production, sale and marketing of cosmetics are grouped under one department, jobs related to textile under one and so on.

3. Assignment of Duties:

After dividing the organisation into specialised departments each individual working in different departments is assigned a duty matching to his skill and qualifications. The work is assigned according to the ability of individuals. Employees are assigned duties by giving them a document called job description. This document clearly defines the contents and responsibilities related to the job.

4. Establishing Reporting Relationship:

After grouping the activities in different departments the employees have to perform the job and to perform the job every individual needs some authority. So, in the fourth step of organising process all the individuals are assigned some authority matching to the job they have to perform.

The assignment of the authority results in creation of superior-subordinate relationship and the question of who reports to whom is clarified. The individual of higher authority becomes the superior and with less authority becomes the subordinate.

With the establishment of authority, managerial hierarchy gets created (chain of command) and principle of scalar chain follows this hierarchy. The establishment of authority also helps in creation of managerial level.

The managers with maximum authority are considered as top level managers, managers with little less authority become part of middle level management and managers with minimum authority are grouped in lower level management. So with establishment of the authority the individuals can perform their jobs and everyone knows who will report to whom.