Departmentalization

In a business you must have some sort of structural organization in order to operate. Business structures are to be thought of as a triangle; the tip being top management, corporate CEOs, Presidents, Vice presidents etc and the bottom being more lower level functions such as a sales person, accountant, production worker etc. In a business the departmentalization methods can vary.

 In a functional structure, you group jobs together base on their performance of like activities. For example, you still have your top management near the tip of the triangle but there is a cut off line near the top where functional jobs break out where you'll find marketing, production and staff functions. Functional structure creates an efficient use of resources such as in the jobs and it eliminate redundancies. Specialization is also a benefit because the jobs are grouped together based on their performance of like activities therefore each department is specialized. 

In a divisional structure, you group jobs together on the basis of product, geography, and customers.We still see top management at the tip of the triangle and a divisional breakout near the top. Below the divisional break out we see the categories of product, geography and consumer instead of staff functions. As we move down the triangle we see another break out, this time it is a functional breakout. So this is where we see the functional jobs such as production, marketing, and staff lines. A divisional structure is very responsive and flexible due to its multiple levels of jobs and functions. We also see better functional coordination due to the breakdown of jobs. When we look at the entire triangle we see a lot of division of jobs and functions which helps each department to develop goals. As we move up the triangle we see general managers develop much before they would had they been in a functional structure.

There is no one right way of structuring a business. Certain structures work better for certain companies depending on size, type of business, and foundations of the business. Each structure has it's pros and cons but qualities of each type can make a business of similar nature run completely different if  one is divisional and one is functional.

Works Cited:

Brown, Paul. "Organizing." Management 320. Barry Hall, Fargo. 28 Oct. 2015. Lecture.