Tool Box: Designing or Evaluating an Organizational Structure

The management system and the client system are the

line systems of an organization. The administrative system and the

finance system are support systems of the line systems.

Structure is a fundamental and sometimes intangible notion covering the recognition, observation, nature, and stability of patterns and relationships of entities (Wikipedia). In the realm of business or social organizations, the structure of an organization is derived from the established relationships of 4 key systems in an organization, namely, management, client, finance and administrative.

The structure of an organization is not a static pattern; It is always open to change, actually.

Whatever the kind of relationships exist between the systems, the structure follows. When the relationships of the systems in an organization change, the structure of the organization changes accordingly. It is therefore important to design, or evaluate, the structure of an organization based on the status of the relationships of the systems in the organization. An illustration detailing the supposed structure of an organization may not necessarily represent the true structure of the organization. It is not always the case that the supposedly superior position in an organization is actually the position in authority over the supposedly lower ranked position/s; it could be otherwise.

More than just detailing the hierarchy or the rank of positions in an organization, the structure of an organization should be the true representation also of the actual accountability and power-relationships of the different entities or positions in the organization.

Link Up: Basic Concepts of Organization and Organization Development

In the last couple of months, we have been focusing on the formation and strengthening of People's Organizations (PO) in the 15 communities of the project. Along the way (and we expect more in the future actually), our knowledge on theories and concepts about the nature of organizations have been put to good use. Not banking solely on our stock knowledge, many of us did some research as well as sought advice from our pointpersons and project specialists on topics we were not quite confident to handle.

To broaden our knowledge base about the nature of organizations, we kindly invite all Community Organizers to visit the websites listed below. These websites provide theories and concepts about organizations that will inform our PO development work. Please visit:

• http://www.managementhelp.org/org_thry/org_defn.htm This will give you information about some basic concepts of organization.
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_development This will enhance your understanding and framework about Organization development.
• http://www.brandonu.ca/artsadm/orglife/ppframe.htm This will give you an idea about the comparisons made by some experts between the life cycle of an organization and that of human beings. (While you are in this webpage, double click the Right button -labeled Expand - located in the mid-top section. The page will then give you bulletized explanations pertaining to the subject matters listed on the left side of the webpage).

The articles in the webpages above would require perspective when read in order for these to be better understood and appreciated. In our case the perspective should be the People's Organizations we are working with. We will you strengthen this perspective by way of a discussion session to be conducted shortly after the seminar on cooperativism on November 9, Friday.

Happy Reading! Everyone.