Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure determines many functions of an organization. Structure dictates direction, decision making authority, distribution of funds, and policies to support company strategies. There are different structure concepts that can enhance specific functions in any organization.

As an illustration, the Puyallup Police Department has a functional organization structure (City of Puyallup, 2011). The head position in this organization is the Chief of Police. The lower position to the chief is the Deputy Chief. Below the deputy chief are three divisions; Criminal Investigations Division, Operations Division, and a Professional Services Division (City of Puyallup, 2011). Each of these divisions has special units with their own supervisor positions. The Puyallup Police Department operates a full service department that includes a jail, crime prevention, criminal investigations department as well as a traffic patrol department (City of Puyallup, 2011).

Accordingly, the functional structure dictates the distribution of authority (Bateman & Snell, 2011). The police department is a good example of formal position authority. The chief of police has the authority to give orders and direction to the lower-level employees. This type of authority in position is not always the case. Some positions are positions of expertise or experience as in the divisional or by definition as the matrix structures. This type of authority may be informal authority and can affect not only lower-level positions but also the higher level positions in those types of structures (Bateman, 2011).

Furthermore, comparison of the functional structure in authority to the matrix structure proves the matrix structure is more complex (Galbraith, 2010). The matrix structure of authority is lower-level employees subordinate to two people in higher positions (Bateman, 2011). Decision-making authority in a functional structure, as in the Puyallup Police Department, stays with those in a higher position. This is centralization of authority over the entire organizations. Divisional and matrix structures can benefit from decentralized authority departmentalizing the decision making process. The functional structure of a police department has a clear line of command; the upper-level positions have complete control over lower-level functions and supervision of lower-level employees. The divisional structure uses authority and control by department or division (Bateman, 2011). The matrix structure using dual positions can cause confusion in this line of command (Galbraith, 2010).

Moreover, the functional structure of the Puyallup police department enables the whole department to use the funding for the entire organization. Conversely from businesses that make revenue the police department has an allocation of funding from the county. This funding has to operate the entire organization. The funding for a police department requires a different approach to finances and budgeting than do other revenue generating businesses. Divisional and matrix structure in a revenue generating business works differently. The divisional structures budgets to creating, monitoring, and distribution of revenue by departments or divisions. The divisional structure has independent financial positions or departments within each division. This provides a precise relationship between expense and profit in each division. The matrix structure uses a team concept of the functions structure (Galbraith, 2010). The disadvantage of the matrix in comparison to functional is that two people in a specific department have to agree on funding use between the specific function and dimensions of a service or project. This type of structure can have power struggles concerning dimension and cost (Galbraith, 2010).

Chiefly, functions of an organization are business operations. The type of functions a business practices defines the structure of the business. The structure dictates how communication occurs between departments and identifies the chain of command through each level in the structure (Bateman, 2011). The Principles of the organization and the planning of the way a company will operate, define the structure. The Puyallup Police Department's structure defines where the decision making and authority resides and allows communication to flow from top to bottom.

As a rule, the services and products a business provides also define the structure. Differentiation defines the task of companies (Bateman, 2011). Visualization