Research into the usage of organizational structures in the Czech ...

Classification based on association activities 4
The pressure on clustering activities is evident everywhere. This means that a single
entity, unit, etc. will perform multiple functions simultaneously. In terms of this division can
be distinguished: functional and divisional organizational structure.
Functional organizational structure
The functional organizational structure is composed of functional elements and
functional relationships. This means that workers are grouped into departments according to
expertise, experience, qualifications or similarities task. The grouping staff by the similarity
of tasks leads to the fact that e.g. all employees with experience in foreign trade will work on
that business sector, financial analysts in the analytical section, etc. The head of such
department is usually the senior director for this function.
The functional form of an organizational structure is most commonly found in small
and medium-sized companies that are focused on a smaller range of products, which are
usually very specialized. For example, all technical staff is located in the technical section, all
financial experts in the financial section etc. This structure allows the head section to be fully
informed about results of the section.
Divisional organizational structure
The growth of company can be linked with the growing number of products or
services, respectively with the penetration on the new market. In this case, there arise situation
where a centralized way of managing may not be longer left because of increasing demands
for coordination and seeks a way to change the management system. The solution is the
transition to decentralized management system (Stein, 2002) and lower organizational units,
which in terms of extent powers are relatively independent. These units are called divisions.
Most often divisional organizational structures are used in the division of company
into: product or service, customer or group of customers or site exposure (Blažek, 2011).
Flexible organizational structure 5
In the sixties of the twentieth century there was demand for a new way of a company’s
management. The organizational structures that were described in previous chapters did not
meet the new demands for solutions to complex projects. Thus began with forming flexible
organizational structures, which, in case of necessary, may handle big projects.
Matrix organizational structures
The matrix organizational structure arises as a combination of line staff structure and
additional structure. A leader of the complementary organizational structure and selected staff
from the line staff structure will create a team, which then participates in the project. Always
concerns the single, complex projects and the very existence of the organizational form are
dependent on the time of solving the task. After a project the workers return to their original
position within the company.
The advantage for employees who participate in such project is: increasing workers‘
skills, experience from other jobs and easy to get training in the management of such projects.
Among disadvantages of this type of structure belongs fact that there are not clearly defined
powers and responsibilities. That often leads to conflicts and misunderstandings with roles in
the project. One may experience antipathy between the various members, or to fight for
4 According to: (Semorádová, 2009).
5 According to: (Veber a kol., 2009).