What is organising? What is the process of organising?

ORGANISING

As an important function of management, organizing is defined as the dividing and subdividing up of duties and responsibilities which are necessary to any purpose and arranging them in groups which are assigned to individual. In the words of Koontz and O'Donnell "organizing involves the establishment of an internal structure of roles through determination and enumeration of activities required to achieve the goals of an enterprise and each part of it; the grouping of these activities, the assignment of such groups of activities to manager, the delegation of authority to carry them out, and provision for coordination of authority and informational relationships horizontally and vertically, in the organization structure".

George Terry defines organizing as "establishing the effective authority relationships among selected works, persons, and workplaces in order for the group to work together effectively".

Thus, organizing function consists of dividing work among groups and individuals (division of labour) and providing for the required coordination between individual and group activities. In the words of Louis Allen, "organizing 'is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose of enabling the people to work most effectively together in accomplishing the objectives". In essence, organizing is the managerial function that deals with the allotment of duties, co-ordination of tasks, delegation of authority, sharing of responsibility etc.

Orientation involves the introduction of new employees to the enterprise, its functional tasks and people. Large firms usually conduct a formal orientation programmed which are conducted usually by the HR Department Orientation acts as a function of organizational socialization serving three main purposes -

(i) Acquisition of work skills and abilities

(ii) doption of appropriate role behavior

(iii) Adjustment to the norms and values of the work group.

Placement, on the other hand may be defined as 'determination of the job to which an accepted candidate is to be assigned, and his assignment to that job'. A proper placement is instrumental in reducing employee turnover, absenteeism and boosts employee morale.

PROCESS OF ORAGANISING

As a function of management, i.e. as a process, organizing includes the following steps:

➡️Identifying the work

➡️Grouping the work

➡️Establishing formal reporting relationships

➡️Providing for measurement evaluation, and control

➡️Delegation of authority and responsibility

➡️Coordination,

(i) Identifying the work - The first step in the organizing process is to identify the work to be performed in the organisational unit i.e. enterprise. Every organisation is created deliberately to achieve some predetermined objectives. It is absolutely essential to identify the work to be performed to achieve the goals. Work must be divided and distributed because no one individual can perform the total work in an organisation single handed. Identification and classification of work enables managers to concentrate on important activities, avoiding the unnecessary duplications, overlapping and wastage of effort.

(ii) Grouping the work - Dividing work is the essence of organizing function. After making the vision, similar activities shall be grouped together in order to provide for a smooth flow of work. Departments and divisions are created in an organisation based on the principle of similarity and relatedness of the activities performed. These departments or divisions are then managed under the direction of an individual called manager of the particular department. Depending on the size of the organisation, there could be several departments for every separate function. In smal organisation, various departments may be grouped together and headed by only one or a few individuals.

(iii) Establishing formal reporting relationships - One of the steps in organizing function is to establish formal reporting relationships among individual members in the enterprise. After establishing these formal relationships it would be possible to know the details relating to the work. Establishment of formal reporting system should pave way for assigning the duties and responsibilities to individual in an unambiguous fashion.

(iv) Providing for measurement, evaluation and control - Organising function involves providing the basis for measurement, evaluation and control of the activities. It should establish signposts and control points in the organisation so that the performance of individuals (and groups) can be measured evaluated, and controlled at periodical intervals. The purpose of such evaluation is to take necessary rectification measures if there are serious deviations in the actual performance.

(v) Delegating authority - Authority is the right to act, and extract obedience from others. A manager may not be able to perform tasks without granting authority to him by the organisation. While assigning duties the manager should clearly specify authority and responsibility limits.

(vi) Coordination - Individuals and groups in an organisation carry out their specialized functions and this necessitates coordination. While performing the organizing function, the manager should see that all the activities are properly coordinated and there exists 'no conflicts. Both individuals and groups may come in conflict while performing their respective duties or functions in the organisation. While organizing the functions, the manager should see that no conflicts exist among various departments and that all the departments' function as a coordinated, unified whole.