Fundamental principles of a sound organization?

Answer 1

PRINCIPLES OF SOUND ORGANISATION

There are some general guiding principles, which help to form a good organization. There principles are.

1. Principle of Organization Objective: It should be same, consistent, defined and clear. It should aim at achieving high production with customer focus, growth and survival. At the core, there should be unity of objective.

2. Principle of Division of Work and Specialization:Every unit or person of an organization is assigned to a specific task and accomplishment. For this, there is a need to focus on specialization and assignment of specific work to individual.

3. Principle of Parity of Responsibility and Authority:Responsibility is the obligation on the path of a person towards the boss for completing the assigned task. It is also called as accountability. A person at a higher position in the organization exercises authority or power over his subordinates for getting the task done. Authority is vested in the superior of the organization so as to extract work from subordinates. Therefore, authority is always associated with responsibility to get things done. There should be a balance between authority and responsibility.

4. Principle of Functional Definition: Each employee must be assigned specific task, role, relationship and job-related activities. What is expected of him, must be defined in the organization.

5. Principle of Scalar Chain: Scalar chain, chain of command or line of authority, means that there should be a continuous line of authority (or scalar chain) from top of the organizational pyramid to the lower levels. The chain provides a superior-subordinate relationship. Levels above in the chain are superiors while lower levels in the scalar chain are subordinates. Scalar chain is useful in the delegation of authority down the chain. It is also useful in maintaining effective communication between different layers of the organization.

6. Principle of Unity of Command: Unity of command means that there should be only one source of authority for each subordinate. This also means: one subordinate-one boss. The principle of unit of command is important for maintaining discipline and for fixing responsibility for the result.

7. Principle of Balance: All the techniques and values of the organizations must be effectively balanced. Many issues have divergent focus in organization. These are: line vs. staff; centralization vs. decentralization, unity of command vs. specialization, vertical hierarchy vs. span of control, etc. Proper balance between these issues must be maintained.

8. Principle of Flexibility: Flexibility means adaptability to change. This is needed due to uncertainty, scope for diversification and growth, new opportunity, and competitive forces in the environment. Organization-design should have some in-built flexibility to withstand the rebaptism, excessive control, complicated procedure, etc.

9. Principle of delegation: Authority needs to be delegated in the organization. Delegation is for empowering the subordinates to achieve results.

10. Principle of Efficiency: Organization structure should be useful in achieving the optimum utilization of resources at least cost and least effort. Considering system view of the organization (which is input-processing-output framework), the maximization of output and minimization of inputs will improve the efficiency.

11. Principle of Continuity: Continuity means survival and existence despite turbulence in market forces. Therefore, the organization must look at long-term goals rather than mere profit-making and short-terms goals.

12. Principle of Cooperation: Cooperation means involvement as a team and solving the functional goal of the organization as one unit. This can be achieved by evolving a proper code of conduct, rule of business, conflict resolution mechanism and cooperation.

13. Principle of Coordination: There are many functions, such as marketing, finance, HRD, etc., in an organization. Different groups have different priorities and local level objectives. Proper coordination is needed to work in one direction and for achieving the overall (global) corporate goals. Proper communication, meetings, news-letters, etc., are helpful to achieve this.

14. Principle of Span of Control: Any superior can handle only limited numbers of subordinates. Narrow span of control is useful for complex jobs while wider span of control is useful for routine type of jobs. By span of control, we mean how many subordinates a manager (or, superior) can handle