HCM 433 MANGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR.pdf

work among members of the organisation, and the coordination of their activities so they are
directed towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organisation. The structure defines tasks
and responsibilities, work roles and relationships and channels of communication.
Structure makes possible the application of the process of management and creates a framework of
order and command through which the activities of the organisation can be planned, organised,
directed and controlled. According to Drucker (1989) the organisation structure should satisfy
three requirements. These requirements are as follows:
1. It must be organised for business performance.
The more direct and simple the structure the more efficient it is because there is less change
needed in the individual activities directed to business performance and results. Structure should
not rest on past achievements but be geared to future demands and growth of the organisation.
2. The structure should contain the least possible number of management levels.
The chain of command should be as short as possible. Every additional level makes for difficulties
in direction and mutual understanding, distorts objectives, sets up additional stresses, creates
inertia and slack, and increases the difficulties of the development of future managers moving up
through the chain. The number of levels will tend to grow by themselves without the application
of proper principles of organisation.
3. Organisation structure must make possible the training and testing of future top
management.
In addition to their training, future managers should be tested before they reach the top. They
should be given autonomy in positions of actual managerial responsibility while still young
enough to benefit from the new experience. They should also have the opportunity of at least
observing the operation of the business as a whole, and not be narrowed by too long an experience
in the position of a functional specialist. Drucker suggests that, in order to satisfy these three
requirements, the organisation structure must be based preferably on the principle of regional
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