What is Organizing?

Organizing is the process of combining together all the organizational resources and establishing productive relations among them to achieve predetermined objectives effectively and efficiently. It organizes 4ms including money, materials, machines, and manpower, and drives them to contribute their collective efforts to the achievement of a single goal.

Organizing is the second most important function of management. It’s the method of assigning activities among individuals and defining their authority and responsibility. It also defines the formal relationships among individuals so on performing the work together or one body for the achievement of common objectives.

The organizing function of management involves a series of activities that a manager has got to do:

Identification of specific activities.
Grouping of activities into jobs.
Assignment of jobs to formal groups.
Establishing a network of authority and responsibility relationships.
Providing a framework for measurement, evaluation, and control.

The scholars have defined organizing as:

According to, Theo Haiman – Organizing is the process of defining and grouping the activities of the enterprise and establishing the authority relationship among them.
Stoner and Freeman – Organizing is the process of arranging and allocating work, authority, and resources among an organization’s members so that they can achieve the organization’s goals.

Therefore, organizing is the process of identifying required activities, grouping them into jobs, assigning jobs to varied position holders, and creating a network of relationships among them so that organizational goals and objectives are achieved.

And, for this, it’s the responsibility of the manager to try to do the simplest.

Characteristics of Organizing

The common nature/features or characteristics of organizing are:

Identification of Activities

Every enterprise establishes the achievement of definite objectives. To realize it, it’s essential to perform many activities. one of the important components of organizing is to spot various sorts of activities got to perform to achieve defined objectives.

When the amount of objectives planned for the enterprise is more, the activities of the enterprise are going to be more. The activities of the enterprise depend on its nature and size.

Related: The 3 Approaches To Organizing

Grouping of Activities

All the identified activities of the organization must be classified on the idea of common nature and will be put into one group or subgroup. This part of organizing involves creating departments and sections for specific works like production, marketing, finance, human resource, etc.

Again, a department could also be subdivided into sections and individual job units by using the concept of division of labor and specialization. This is often helpful in taking care of coordination and exercising control over activities.

Accumulation of Resources

Resources are essential for the graceful functioning of an enterprise. These resources involve manpower, materials, machines, money, and technology. the supply of needed resources facilitates uniform and smooth performance of the enterprise which is supportive of to supply of quality products and supply quality services in time.

Defining Hierarchy of Positions

It involves a proper structure during which the hierarchy of authority of every member is clearly defined. The hierarchy of authority is formally formed on the idea of a degree of responsibility and accountability. It clarifies the role of each individual from top-level to subordinate levels.

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A higher-level job needs more skills, experience, and responsibility. A sequence of commands is implemented to ascertain the progress of the work of respective subordinates.

Assignment of Jobs

The entire works of an enterprise are divided into units on the idea of their common nature. Each work is assigned to different individuals on the idea of their skills, ability, and knowledge.

The assignment of the proper job to the proper persons develops the practice of specialization and efficiency among them. This minimizes wastage of materials, breakdown of machines, and equipment and supervision costs.

Establishing Authority and Responsibility Relationship

For the systematic function of managerial function, it’s essential to determine the authority and responsibility relationship of all the workers from top-level to subordinate levels. Job responsibility should tend to the workers on the idea of their skill and efficiency.

Similarly, on the idea of their level of responsibility proper authority should tend. The parity between authority and responsibility encourages employees to try to do the assigned jobs consistently with their best efficiency.

Performance Evaluation

Organizing also involves the evaluation of actual performance achieved within a stipulated time. After a while of implementation of the plan, it’s essential to gauge the actual work completed.

It facilitates comparing actual work completed with planned estimation and requires corrective measures if actual work completed isn’t in accordance with planned work. It’s helpful to satisfy determined objectives within the defined time.

Principles of Organizing

Organizing has also several principles like management to make it more applicable in all types of workplaces. The principles are:

Unity of Objectives

To this principle, everyone should contribute their effort to the achievement of a single objective. All the components (people, material, groups, department) should be designed in a way so that everyone’s effort is seen in a single goal achievement.

Learn More in Detail: About These 14 Principles of Organizing

Specialization

The principle of specialization means everyone should be given only a specific task to perform and it should be with respect to their knowledge, experience, and ability. It helps them to build efficiency and self-confidence.

Coordination

Coordination is the basis of organizing, it promotes a harmonious working environment in the organization between various departments and employees. The manager should strive for a good relationship between employees and departments.

Authority and Responsibility

Organizing assumes authority and responsibility is the two wheels of a cart. Whenever a responsibility is given there should be enough authority to perform it and vice versa. There must be a balance between them.

Delegation of Authority

Delegation of authority to subordinates is important to continue the organization’s functions when the top manager is on leave or else. Here, the authority is given to the subordinates to perform the manager’s task but for a limited time only.

Unity of Command

Unity of command assumes that an employee can not perform tasks efficiently when he is given many tasks at a time. So it ensures that in an organization there should be one task for one employee at one time.

Scalar Chain

The scalar chain is like a chain that should not be broken. According to this principle, the line of authority should not be broken, it should be straight from top to bottom and bottom to top.

Span of Control

This principle of organizing states that a supervisor should not have many subordinates under his supervision. It makes ineffective control of them, he should have controllable subordinates so that supervision is done effectively, and productivity is achieved.

Exception

This principle states that the top management must concentrate only on exceptional activity i.e. big plans, and policymaking. And, for routine and repetitive activities low-level management should be responsible. It helps to get efficiency in both positions.

Efficiency

Efficiency in an organization means the rate of achieving determined goals. Through organizing every element of the organization is put in the right place which in turn gives optimum organizational structure and achievement of desired goals.

Balance

The principle of balance ensures no one should be stressed over workload. The duties should be given equally to everyone, this means, the work given to the departments or individuals should balance with their ability.

Homogeneity

The homogeneity principle means every department of the organization should be given homogeneous functions i.e. same objectives of tasks should be divided into a group.

Continuity

Since organizing is a continuous process, this principle states that till the company’s existence, it should be viewed and updated.

Simplicity

This principle states that whenever a manager designs an organizational structure, it should be simple and should be understandable to every employee.

Process of Organizing

The organizing process, there include four essential steps. They are;

Division of Work

This is the first step which concentrates on dividing a complex task into its small parts so as to perform every task easily. As no one is able to perform too many tasks at a time physically and mentally even if he is an expert in some field.

Division of work lets chooses employees jobs that best their interest and talent. It makes them simple to work and its best benefit is it helps them to develop specialization and increase productivity.

Grouping of Activities

The second step involves the classification of organizational objectives on the basis of their nature and types. The manager should create different groups, sub-groups, and departments. Every group should have a specific task and also be authorized by some authority to perform it.

This ensures management maintains effective coordination and exercise control over the assigned activities.

Delegation of Authority

Delegation of authority means giving authority to lower subordinates to perform given tasks. Usually, the authority is given for a certain period only.

No one can complete their task if they have only a duty to complete but no authority to make relevant decisions. The manager should give sufficient authority whenever he assigns them duties. It makes subordinates feel confident and they develop a feeling of self-responsibility. However, he must make sure the balance between the authority given to subordinates and how much their responsibilities require.

Coordination of Work

The last step of the organizing process is to make coordination the organization. The manager must make continuous communication with his co-workers and bring smoothness in performance. The manager should enable a mutual understanding between employees and all departments and develop a feeling of group effort and team spirit to meet organizational goals.

Learn More: Organizational Structure: Definition, Types, and Process

What is the Importance of Organizing?

There are many benefits of organizing for an organization. Developing an effective organizational structure is a must to realize proper functioning in the workplace.

The importance of organizing can be pointed out in the following points:

Promotes effective and efficient management.
Encourages specialization.
Reduces duplication.
Perfect balance between authority and responsibility.
Effective utilization of human resources.
Coordination in the organization.
Increases productivity and job satisfaction.
Basis of achieving organizational defined goals and objectives.

Also Read: Challenges in Organizing

In Conclusion…

Hence, the organizing function of management is essential. It is a way of aligning all the organizational resources in sync. Effectiveness in organizing is equal to the effectiveness in the performance of the organization.

What is Organizing? Definition, Features, Principles, Process, and Importance