Introduction

From Planning to Organising

Once plans have been laid down and objectives specified within them, the next step is to organise resources in a way that leads to the accomplishment of those objectives. A critical issue in achieving the goals set out during planning is structuring the work of an organisation so that it can adapt to a dynamic business environment — the activities of an enterprise must be organised in such a manner that plans can be successfully implemented.

For planning to be fruitful, a number of considerations need to be understood and dealt with properly: the resources that will be needed, their optimum utilisation, translating work into attainable tasks, and empowering the workforce to accomplish those tasks.

The opening case of Wipro Technologies — one of India's largest IT solutions providers, restructuring itself to compete with global giants like IBM and Accenture — shows how organising plays a significant role in implementing plans. Wipro organised itself so that customer orientation would dominate over other goals, diversified along product lines by separating into self-sufficient subsidiaries, and shifted from a centralised to a decentralised management system, modifying the relationships within its management hierarchy to suit its goals.

The management function of organising ensures that efforts are directed towards the attainment of the goals laid down during planning, in a way that resources are used optimally and people are able to work collectively and effectively towards a common purpose. It is in this context that the organising function earns its importance in effective management — it is the means for translating plans into action.

The organising function leads to the creation of an organisational structure, which involves designing roles to be filled by suitably skilled people and defining the inter-relationships between those roles so that ambiguity in the performance of duties can be eliminated. This matters not only for productive cooperation between personnel, but also for clarifying the extent of authority, fixing responsibility for results, and logically grouping activities.