Organizational Structure

Organizational structure refers to hierarchy in which decisions and command follows in the organization. To ensure smooth flows of decisions and command in the organization, there should be well defined organization structure that defines the roles each person persons plays. In case the role and responsibilities are not well defined, there would end up in conflict of interest in the organization thus poor performance in the organization. Human resource management is the emerging trend in strategic management and involves managing of the organization most valuable resource that is human capital. Human capital refers to any human effort be it physical or mental that is applied in the organization so as to achieve the organizations’ goals and objectives.

The organizational structure ranges from the traditional one to more complex one due to the complexity of business processes in modern times. In the organization, decisions and commands follow a certain predetermined channel and at the same time reporting of the assignment also follow a predetermined channel. In the organization decisions flow from top managers to the operational staffs who deals with the day to day operation in the organization. In the organizational structure, the roles and the responsibilities are shared between the top management, middle level managers and the operational staff.  Top level managers are also referred to as top managers holds the title such as chief executive officers, managing directors or the presidents in the organization. The top level managers are responsible for making issuing commands and decisions that affect all levels of the organization and ensure that the organization attains it goals and objectives. Top level manager deals with making long term decisions that do not relate to day to day operations in the organizations such as opening of the new branches and other expansion strategies that are meant to create shareholders’ wealth and the same to create value to the customers and the suppliers. Top level managers are mostly people with wide experience in that field since there role is visible since they carry both the success and the failure of the organization they lead.

Middle level managers on the hand are the employees of the organization that are below the senior level managers and hold such titles such as regional managers, plant manager and general managers. The middle level managers are responsible for offering valuable information to top level managers since they are involved in day to day operations in the organization. Middle level managers have supervisory responsibility over employees and depending with the size of the organization, they may supervise small group of employees to the large group of employees in a large region.

The third level in the organizations is made up of operational staffs who deal with the day to day operations in the organizations. The operations employees are responsible for implementing policies that have been made from other levels within the organization. The operation staffs possess the technical skills that are important to accomplish their assignments and include the accountants, financial analyst and Economists. In the organization, there are also support staffs that do not require or possess any technical skills and they include drivers, cleaners, and security guards.

Business executives therefore are not necessarily leaders when they are appointed to their respective posit ions but need develop leadership skills in order to be able to run operations smoothly. Indeed, managers with little leadership skills can be found in lower levels of organizational hierarchy and climb that ladder as they improve their leadership skills. In this regard, senior managers are tasked with the responsibility of helping new managers develop the necessary leadership skills. This could be done  though close workings between the senior managers and the senior ones; the latter therefore end up learning from senior colleagues.

Additionally, leadership among managers should aggressively be taught in Business Schools so students enter the job market with the necessary understanding of this important management skill. Individual corporations should further employ the services of well-exposed consulting companies that could end up sharpening leadership skills, not only in the management level but also among other members of the labor force. This undertaking will aid in ensuring that individual members of staff develop the necessary leadership skills that would enable them to work independently with minimal supervision and effectively when working in a team setting. The end result would therefore lead to leadership becoming a necessary organizational culture galvanizing organizational and individual goals Porter (2002).