Large firms typically use a variety of structures to manage their Essay

Large firms typically use a variety of structures to manage their organisation. Summarise and evaluate the advantages and disadv - Essay Example Good decision making in an organization is because of good communication between members of the organization a virtue that is determined by the organization’s structure. This essay tries to analyze the different types of organizational structures and gives the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. It also evaluates the different structures to come up with the most preferable structure in terms of ensuring a business’ success. The first type of organization’s structure is a vertical structure. It is a structure whereby the business leaders or managers feature at the top while the bottom features the other employers. This structure can be either centralized or decentralized. For a centralized system, the organization’s members at the center of the structure make most of the decisions while, for a decentralized structure, most of the decisions are made by the members at the ends of the chain of the organization (Mills, 2007: p 54). The main advantage of this structure is its easiness in designating duties to the lower level employees. It forms a chain structure that can be followed without difficulty. The other advantage is that it promotes efficiency in the organization. Equally important is that, it encourages the development of skills and expertise as employees find it easy to go for further learning activities. The disadvantage of this stated structure is that it requires extensive power and effort to maintain order, balance, and power. It also narrows a department’s aims and objectives not to reflect the overall company’s goals (Mills, 2007: p 58). The next type of organizational structure is horizontal structure. This one differs from the vertical structure such that there are few power levels. A single department can oversee a number of activities in the same level without necessarily going to the next level. It has the advantage of giving employers greater freedom hence good turnaround and employee satisfac tion. It can help create competition in the different organizations hence innovation and creativity. There is also easy communication and cooperation between the departments. The disadvantage of this structure is its creation of loose management; the managers have little say over their employers due to tight schedules of meeting targets and finishing work. In addition, this is attributed to managers and workers maintaining a peer-to-peer relationship at the place of work hence no respect for leaders (Mills, 2007: p 89). Following on is the functional structure. In this type of structure, employees and departments are put into groups according to the function they play. The advantage of functional structure entails the help it has in growing specialists; people of the same skills are grouped in the same department. It also helps improve skills of employees, as the poor ones will learn from the better ones since they are grouped in the same department. Grouping skills of the same natu re at one place also helps improve performance. This is mainly through combined efforts of doing a task by many employees. It also boosts employee’s morale, as an employee has to do his best since it is his area of specialization according to the grouping. The main disadvantage of functional structure involves its complicated decision-making and communication processes. Communication between the different departments to enable the completion of a task is difficult since