HCM 433 MANGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR.pdf

operation. Services using expensive equipment such as mainframe computers may need to be
grouped together in this way for reasons of efficiency and economy.
vii) Staff Employed
The allocation of duties and responsibilities may be according to experience, or where a particular
technical skill or special qualification is required: for example, the division of work between
surgeons, doctors and nurses; or between barristers, solicitors and legal executives. Another good
example is the sharing of routine work processes among members of a supervised group. In
smaller organisations, the allocation of work may be on an ad hoc, personal basis according to the
knowledge and skills contributed by individuals. Work may also be planned deliberately to give a
variety of tasks and responsibilities to provide improved job satisfaction or to assist in the training
of staff.
viii) Customer to be Served
Separate groups may be established to deal with different consumer requirements: for example,
the division between trade or retail customers, or between home or export sales. In hospitals, there
are different groupings dealing with, for example, patients in the gynaecology, paediatric and
children’s wards. In large clothes shops, there may be separate departments for men’s, women’s
and children’s clothing.
Another example is the provision of canteen services which may be grouped by customer demand
according to price; range or standard of meals available, speed of service; or type of customer.
This gives rise to separate facilities; for instance, directors’ dining room, staff dinning room, and
separation of students’ dining room from lecturers’ dining room in educational establishments.
These different ways of dividing work can be combined in various forms most suitable for
organisations in terms of their scope of operations. Some activities might be grouped according to
one method and the other according to operational activities. Decisions on the methods of
grouping will include considerations of:
•the need for coordination;
•the identification of clearly defined divisions of work;
•economy;
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