The Organic Organization Structure is a form of informal organization structure described by British theorists Tom Burns and Stalker. According to them, the Organic Organization is a type of Organizational Structure that is very flexible and adaptable to occurring changes.
Organic Organizational Structure
An Organic Organization Structure can be described as a flat reporting type of structure under an organization. In this type of organization, the controls flow through every number of employees. Interaction among them is said to be horizontally across the whole organization rather than vertically among different layers of hierarchies and layers of managers and their direct reporting. An organic organizational structure is also known as Open Organisation or Organismic Organisation.
Every organization has levels of hierarchies that have some authority within the workplace. There are different organizational structures with the help of which managers choose one but the success depends upon their type of work or type of business, they do like the size of the company and the preferences of employees.
In this type of Organization Structure, the decision is made on group discussion, rather than an individual decision made by an individual manager or super hierarchy.
A larger amount of information tends to share among the employees despite sharing of information through the upper-level hierarchies within an organization. This type of organizational structure is majorly seen in traditional or small-cap companies.
Characteristics
- Decentralized
- Interdependence of units and employees among each other
- Defined Job individually
- Easy Communication among colleagues
- Employee satisfaction
- Fewer and less defined Rules, Procedures, and regulations
- The employees can participate interactively with their group during the decision-making.
Advantages
There are some Advantages of an Organic Organizational Structure to implement in an organization.
Provides an Opportunity to Enhance creativity
It provides more opportunities for employees to enhance their creativity and can give innovative solutions after the discussion between employees at their workplace.
Open communication among Employees and Hierarchies
With the help of horizontal discussion and communication of an organic organizational structure, The employees regularly have more open communication and decisions among their colleagues and managers.
Responsive & teamwork
Organic Structure is very responsive by nature. The structure focuses on teamwork, and that is why work is divided into different groups based on work nature. A team that has different sets of knowledge and skills can improve work efficiency.
Decrease formal procedures
At the workplace, having less amount of formal procedures is another benefit of organic structure. Lowering formal procedures can allow more flexibility and encourage employees to work with fewer worries about considering formalities like reporting to their managers directly or managing the meetings the same way at any instance of time.
Disadvantages of Organic Organizational Structure
Having many advantages, there are some disadvantages of the Organic Organisational Structure.
Having No Boundaries
The employees and managers define the boundaries of organic organizational structure. The rules and regulations can be changed or manipulated easily by the influence of the team members and they can set their boundaries.
Dependency
One person is dependent on another person for the task, and if they have not completed their task, the another should wait for the upcoming job.
Incomplete Job
Dependency leads to the incompletion of jobs as they are dependent on one another.
Creates Confusion
As employees can do several jobs, they can not specialize in a specific job which leads to confusion as they are multitasking.
Miss Communication
Too much dependency creates communication issues because of too much information and can cause harm to their work efficiency and results.
Administrative Cost is High
In an Organic Organization Structure, most of the employees are specialized in their specific roles and are experts in specific fields. But as a team, you will generally find that only some employees are specialized in their areas. The company should have to manage the expenses of hiring several experts as it cost very high to hire a specialized person.
Ineffective Leadership
The employees are superior in this type of organizational structure which can lead to the effective influence of leadership. In this type of leadership, the employee doesn’t pay attention to their leader as they thought he/she is the leader. They are actively involved in decision-making, So they think they are the decision maker.
Unpredictable
It is very unpredictable to find out how the process of work is going. You can not find predetermined rules for measuring the process of work.
Relationships May Be Affected or Can create conflict
Members of a team are dependent on each other. They have to create an environment or bond to work as a team. In case of some misunderstanding among them, the whole team can be affected and it spoils the relationship.
Conclusion
Every organization requires a structure to run their organization systematically.
The organization works systematically having some structure to be followed by members of the organization. Organic Organizational Structure provides a practically applied method to run the organization.
The organic organizational structure can be implemented by any organization if the method of the structure gets fitted into the nature and maturity of an organization. In most cases, organizations get evolved through predefined structures when the organization progresses through and enhances its procedures and manpower.
Frequently Asked Questionnaires
1. What are the benefits of applying Organic Structure to the organization?
Ans. This type of organizational structure provides an effective
emphasis on problem-solving, adaptability, creativity, and flexibility also. This structure will give more clarity, provides consistency, and enable decision-making in a better manner.
2. What are the different types of organizational structures?
Ans. There are majorly 7 types of Organizational Structure. Network structure, hierarchical structure, matrix structure, team structure, divisional structure, flat organizational structure, and functional structure.
