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Hi, Jo here. I’ve got some information for you on organisational structure.

Organisations are a people-designed grouping. They are set up to best suit the people who are operating within it.

You can design the structure in different ways. An organisation can be set up according to the products or services that it provides, or it can be set up on a regional basis. But there are many other ways in which it could come together.

Antz now has quite a lot of different structures. But when the company first began a number of years ago, its structure was quite simple.

Antz was set up by Anthony, who wanted to run a small building company. He had fairly informal relationships with a small group of builders, and basically they were in charge of their own jobs. Soon, however, he found that they were getting too busy and he needed to employ some other people.

At first, Anthony was relaxed about how he employed people. Within a year, he had added two office staff, another two builders, and two apprentices. But disagreements began to occur. If one of the builders wanted something, he would often just do it rather than try to get a ‘yes’ from Anthony.

Eventually, Anthony decided that the organisation needed some form of structure.

After seeking advice, Anthony set up an organisational structure which put Naomi in charge of the office and administration services (Naomi liked this side of the business quite a lot and was actually very good at marketing), and gave Anthony responsibility for construction. Anyone who worked in the office (human resources, marketing, administration, ordering, and so on) reported to Naomi, and those who worked on sites reported to Anthony.

This worked quite well at first. But the company continued to grow, and once again Anthony began to have difficulties. Finally, he decided to go quite formal. He hired a consultant and came up with what he regarded as a strong structure for the organisation.

Keeping consistent with earlier decisions, Anthony organised the divisions by work-type. The administration staff were also divided by work-type, and the construction staff were given a manager. Several new positions were added.

Anthony became Chief Executive in overall charge. Even though he was the owner, he knew that he didn’t have the management skills required for this role, so he got some management training before he took over the role. Anthony was a good builder and his business sense led the company to even greater heights. And everyone was pleased by that.

Later, the responsibilities of Max, the construction manager, were also divided. When the pre-forming plant was established, a manager was needed to deal with those staff members.

As Antz grew, the structure changed to fit what was required, until it became the organisation it is today.

Anthony adopted quite a formal structure for most of the organisation. But it is not always necessary to do this. You can have different types of structure, depending on what best suits a specific situation.

For example, if Max wanted to set up a project team to manage a large construction job, he might appoint some of his staff members and some who normally report to Manny, the supply manager. But for the purposes of this particular project, those staff members might report to different people.

If Antz expanded into other regions, they might need to divide the office management and construction divisions into regions - although the pre-forming plant arrangements would not need to change unless they opened another plant.

Cheers, catch up soon.