MAN-373: MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATIONS

Appendix: Selected Organizational Structures
Organizational structures are frameworks, and, like the frame of a house, they provide either effective or ineffective support. Structures are important because they drive the three key processes of any enterprise: authority/decision making, division of labor, and communication. For example, a vertical framework (or hierarchy) typically means top-down communication with limited feedback and upward flow of ideas. By contrast, a horizontal framework encourages more interdepartmental, peer-based communication. Does this matter in real life? It certainly does! If a given business can only succeed by being first-tomarket, but its decision making goes through too many layers and is too slow, the chances of being first-to-market are slim. Structural analysis and assessment are central to understanding why and how organizations function the way they do.

Figure 1: Management Pyramid

From Management: Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations with CD-ROM & InfoTrac Meeting and Exceeding Customer
Expectations with Student CD-ROM and InfoTrac College Edition, 7th edition, by W. R. Plunkett and R. F. Attner. © 2002. Reprinted with permission of South-Western College Publishing, a division of Thomson Learning. Fax 800 730-2215.

Figure 2: Vertical and Horizontal Structures

From
Management: Meeting and Exceeding Customer Expectations with CD-ROM & InfoTrac Meeting and Exceeding Customer
Expectations with Student CD-ROM and InfoTrac College Edition, 7th edition, by W. R. Plunkett and R. F. Attner. © 2002. Reprinted with permission of South-Western College Publishing, a division of Thomson Learning. Fax 800 730-2215.

Figure 3: Matrix (Relational) Structure

From Management: Meeting and Exceeding