Organizing

Once a plan has been decided, the next question is: who will carry it out, and with what resources? This is the domain of Organizing — the management function that creates the structure and framework within which people work together to achieve the plan.

Meaning

Organizing is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively together in accomplishing the organisation's objectives. It essentially converts a plan into a working structure of jobs, departments and reporting relationships.

Features of Organizing

• Organizing is a process of defining and grouping activities. Related tasks are identified and clubbed together into manageable jobs and departments.
• It establishes authority-responsibility relationships. Every person in the structure knows what they are responsible for and what authority they have to carry it out.
• It is a means to achieve predetermined objectives. Organizing has no purpose of its own — it exists only to serve the goals set during planning.
• It creates a structure of relationships. A hierarchy of superior-subordinate relationships is formed, showing who reports to whom.
• Organizing is a continuous process. As the organisation grows, adds new products, or changes strategy, its structure has to be revised.
• It coordinates human and material resources. Organizing brings together people, machines, materials and money into a workable combination.

Importance of Organizing

Organizing benefits an enterprise in several ways. It ensures the optimum use of resources, because a sound structure prevents duplication of effort and wastage by clearly allocating work. It facilitates growth and diversification, since a well-designed structure can absorb new products, markets or departments without confusion. Organizing encourages the use of new technology and methods, because clear roles make it easier to introduce change in one department without disturbing others. It leads to a specification of who is responsible for what, which improves efficiency and makes performance easier to evaluate. It also generates a sense of security among employees, as clear job roles and reporting lines reduce ambiguity and conflict. Finally, sound organizing facilitates coordination by clearly laying out the relationships between individuals and departments, which is essential for a large enterprise with many people working on interdependent tasks.

The Process (Steps) of Organizing