Principles of Organizing
Organizing Principles
Organizing can be effective only if managers follow some guiding principles in order to make important decisions and act upon them. To organize efficiently, a manager can utilize the following principles:
Principle of Specialization: According to the principle, the entire work of an enterprise must be shared among the subordinates based on their qualifications, abilities and skills. Hence, effective organization can be achieved through specialization of sharing or dividing work.
Principle of Functional Definition: The principle states that all the work in an enterprise must be fully and clearly described to the managers and subordinates. For instance, the initial work of production, marketing and finance, the authority of managers and the responsibilities of the workers and their relationships towards each other must be clearly described to all the people working in a department. Hence, clarification in the authority and responsibility helps in the growth of an organization.
Principles of Supervision or Span of Control: The principle states that the span of control shows the number of employees that a single manager can handle and control efficiently. Hence, a manager must be able to decide the number of employees that he can handle and this decision can be chosen from either a wide or narrow span of employees. There are two types of span of control and they are as follows:
- Wide span of control: According to this principle, a manager can easily supervise and effectively handle a big group of subordinates independently.
- Narrow span of control: According to this principle, a manager does not have to supervise and control a large group of people as the work and authority is shared among many subordinates. Hence, he needs to supervise only a selected number of employees at one time.
Principle of Scalar Chain: It is that chain of command or authorization in which there is minimum wastage of resources, communication is unaffected, overlapping of work is prevented, and also facilitates effective organization. The flow of authorization from the top level to the bottom level enables the managers to understand their positions of authority and this helps in an effective organization.
Principle of Unity of Command: According to this principle, one subordinate is accountable to only one superior at one time. This helps in preventing lack of communication and feedback and also brings about quick response. Hence, the principle of unity of command leads to effectively combine both physical and financial resources which in turn aids in effective coordination and organization.
