8. Mintzberg's structures in 5 (plus2)

According to Henry Mintberg there are 7 basic organisational structures and all organsiations are configured from the same basic parts. This is an extension of the ideas in his book Structures in Five (1983).

Mintberg and Quinn (2006) categorised organisations according to 6 attributes:

1. Direct Supervision
2. Standardisation of Work
3. Standardisation of Skill
4. Standardisation of Output
5. Mutual Adjustment
6. Standardisation of Norms

Additionally they have 5 components they are built from;

1. Strategic apex - people that control the organisation and are accountable for its performance
2. Operating core - those who deliver the basic mission or task of the organisation
3. Middle line - managers and supervisors in direct line authority from the strategic apex to the Operating Core
4. Technostructure - staff analysts that assist co-ordination through standardising processes etc.
5. Support Staff - activities supporting the main work of the organisation
6. The Ideology - the culture that distinguishes it from other organisations

These attributes & components determine which structure an organisation is (or is most suited to). The models they offer are;

1. The Entreprenuerial organisation
2. The Machine Structure organisation
3. The Professional organisation
4. The Diversified organisation
5. The Innovative organisation
6. The Missionary organisation
7. The Political organisation

There is a lot to this concept and I need to come back to it.

9: Organisational lifecycles

Just like products, organsiations have lifecycles. At different stages of the lifecycle organsiations will face different challenges. For example the challenges a brand new organisation faces are different from those of a large corporattion. One is facing the challenge of growing awareness of its existance and finding good staff. The other is wrestling with issues of internal complexity, communication, control and flexibility.

Eventually, an organisation will decline and die unless it is re-invigorated.

Greiner (1972) came up with a model which highlights the different challenges an organsiation faces at different times in it's lifecycle. The Griener model is presented here:

Apparently these crisis events are common to most organsiations as they pass from one phase of growth to the next. If you know about these challenges awareness of having just passed through a certain phase of growth will be a trigger to focus on the next growth challenge. That way you are focusing your attention on the right issues to overcome the natural barriers and can reduce the risk of being blindsided.

ref: http://epress.anu.edu.au/info_systems/mobile_devices/ch11s04.html

10 Cameron and Quinn; Competing Values Framework

By assessing organisations on a two imensional matrix Cameron and Quinn (1998) proposed organisational culture can be effectively assessed for the purpose of assessing it's suitability to its environment and the transformation it need to go through to be properly aligned.

The axes of the matrix are the internal versus external focus and the degree of control or flexibility an organisation allowed it's members. Essentialy these are the competing values. By understanding the organisation's values and culture and the vlaues of it's employess you can also identify misalignment that causes inneficiency and poor execution of strategy.

Cameron Kim S and Quinn Robert E, "Diagnosing and changing organisational culture; based on the Competing Values Framework" Addison Welsey Publishing Company Inc, 1998.