Organization Structure Limits or Liberates High Performance
Original Post by Jim Clemmer
Some good points to consider about the influences of organization structure.
Excerpt: Both of these examples illustrate the behavior-shaping role of structure and systems. It's like the strange pumpkin I once saw at a county fair. It had been grown in a four-cornered Mason jar. The jar had since been broken and removed. The remaining pumpkin was shaped exactly like a small Mason jar. Beside it was a pumpkin from the same batch of seeds that was allowed to grow without constraints. It was about five times bigger. Organization structures and systems have the same affect on the people in them. They either limit or liberate their performance potential.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Erin Duggins on -
I believe that organization structure and systems have an affect on people, but that people (and the organization's culture) can have an impact on structure as well. When structures are put in place, they are a reflection of the foundational values and beliefs related to the control and supervision necessary to accomplish the organization's goals. For example, if the foundational values and beliefs reflected a need for frequent collaboration and coordination, then the organization's structure would have been organized accordingly. If the foundational values and beliefs reflected a need for quick decision making and flexibility in order to respond to a dynamic environment, then the organization would be structured accordingly.
However, when our government institutions were started, the prevailing thoughts of that day were that an effective organization should espouse centralization, division of work, clear lines of authority, etc. And research around effective organizations, especially how structure influences effectiveness, has long since changed, and the government has not kept up. We are now under the false impression that the complexity and scale of government agencies' missions require a behemoth bureaucracy, when instead, agencies should probably be more flat and agile. In all actuality, we're at the point where the structure of yesterday has influenced government agencies' cultures to the point where changing them would be a huge cultural transformation.
All that being said, I'm glad that we're at least having the conversation about how structures, especially in the Federal government, could be a factor in their performance. Look forward to more dialog. -
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Permalink Reply by Sam Allgood on -
Good thought, Erin ... thanks for sharing them.
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