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Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: The Organizational Structure of Our Growing Business
This article relates to the organizational structure competency, commonly evaluated in employee satisfaction surveys. It shows how structural concerns can affect the typical employee workday, as well as feelings towards your organization's management hierarchy and reporting structure. A healthy organizational structure is one that arranges the activities of the enterprise in such a way that they contribute to the goals of the organization. Specifically, this competency looks to see if your employees clearly understand who they report to, as well as measure their sense of accountability to the organization. Evaluating this competency can be especially useful if your organization has recently experienced an organizational restructuring or might be considering one in the future. This short story, The Organizational Structure of our Growing Business, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales From the Corporate Frontlines. It illustrates how business growth affects every employee in the organization and lists some signals that a review and revision of organizational structure is necessary. Anonymous Submission My brother and I own and operate a mid sized manufacturing business that was passed down to us by our elderly uncles. Over the years, the business has experienced significant growth. The workforce alone has doubled since we added four new production lines just a few years ago. At that time, we hired a group of consultants to help us analyze and optimize the flow of work through the facility. The new processes and employees were integrated quite easily, and the production areas of the plant ran smoothly. Looking back, we see now that more attention should have been focused on the fulfillment and shipping areas of the business, as well as the HR and office functions. Several signs have appeared over the past year or so to tell us that we need to seriously consider rearranging our organizational structure: * Morale in the above areas has deteriorated measurably. Although productivity in our shop area remains high, it does appear to be limited by the dysfunctions occurring in other integral areas of the business. We decided that now is the time to conduct a thorough evaluation of our organizational structure and develop a plan to adapt and change it to more closely fit the needs of our growing business. If we need outside help, we'll engage it. But the time has definitely come to address the effects of expansion on our entire organization and act accordingly to preserve and grow the business we've inherited. It's more than just a business to us---it's a family tradition. © 2005 AlphaMeasure, Inc. - All Rights Reserved This article may be reprinted, provided it is published in its entirety, includes the author bio information, and all links remain active. Measure. Report. Improve your organization with AlphaMeasure employee satisfaction surveys. Josh Greenberg is President of AlphaMeasure, Inc. AlphaMeasure provides organizations of all sizes a powerful web based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention. Launch your employee satisfaction surveys with AlphaMeasure.
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news UAL shares walloped by new posting of old news (Reuters via Yahoo! News) A nearly 6-year-old news story on the 2002 bankruptcy filing of UAL Corp resurfaced on the Internet on Monday, clobbering the airline's shares as some traders mistook the report as current and plausible news. ABC News hammering out Palin interview plans (Reuters via Yahoo! News) ABC News is spending more time trying to assemble the logistics of its exclusive interview with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin than it did negotiating with the McCain campaign itself. ABC News campaigning in all 50 states (Reuters via Yahoo! News) ABC News will be hitting the road -- and the rails -- for a whirlwind tour of all 50 states before the November election. Game news: 'GTA IV' hits 10 million, EA meets ESPN (AP via Yahoo! News) Real news from the virtual world: Google News snafu leads to airline stock plunge (CNET) After an investor news wire service mistakenly highlights a 6-year-old news story (allegedly sans time stamp) about United Airlines filing for bankruptcy, shares of the carrier tank. Tacoma's News Tribune offers buyouts to 189 staff (AP via Yahoo! Finance) The News Tribune on Monday offered voluntary buyout deals to 189 of its 350 full-time staffers although the publisher said the newspaper doesn't intend to accept anywhere near that number as it works to bring its expenses in line with reduced advertising income. 2002's News, Yesterday's Sell-Off (Washington Post) A six-year-old article mistakenly seen by Bloomberg financial news users yesterday reported the bankruptcy of United Airlines and triggered a massive sell-off that nearly obliterated the company's stock in a matter of minutes. Kenyans React to American Political News (NPR) The United States and much of the world have been transfixed by the current presidential race. Farai Chideya crosses to Barack Obama's father's homeland, Kenya, to get insight into how political news is being received. She's joined by radio reporter Michael Kaloki. United Airlines shares nosedive on old news (BBC News) United Airlines shares nosedive after an old news story about its 2002 bankruptcy battle resurfaces. Column: 'Daily Show' Is One Of Few Fair And Balanced TV News Shows (CBS News) I have this silly little habit of watching the Fox News Channel when I'm bored or in some weird self-loathing state of mind. So for the Republican National Convention, I thought it appropriate to bathe in their conservative credibility instead of the CNN/Barack Obama PDA I witnessed the week before. Site: news - Google News McClatchy News VP Howard Weaver to Retire - MarketWatch
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for management Unisys Wins Email-Management Deal From UK Police Force (Computer Business Online via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News) Unisys' UK subsidiary has been awarded a three-year outsourcing contract from North Wales Police to provide email management services. CA Offers Compliance-Management for Utilities Sector (Computer Business Online via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News) CA has launched a risk and compliance management offering for power and utility providers. Vodafone Restructures and Shuffles Management (Computer Business Online via Yahoo! UK & Ireland News) UK mobile network operator Vodafone has announced a series of changes to its management and organization including the split of its emerging markets business into two divisions. Enterprise Asset Management Market to Grow 6.5% Over Next 5 Years (Industry Week) Sept. 12, 2008 -- The worldwide market for Enterprise Asset Management (EAM/CMMS) is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% over the next five years, according to a new ARC Advisory Group study. Selfridges rolls out complaint management software (Computing.co.uk) Angelica Mari, Computing , Thursday 11 September 2008 at 16:11:00 Feedback system aims to help maintain service levels Retail chain Selfridges is using feedback management software to build customer loyalty and maintain service standards. The company hopes that the new system will help it identify the root cause... Industry releases content-management interop spec (ZDNet Asia) Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, EMC, Alfresco and OpenText have released the first draft of their Content Management Interoperability Services specification. Compare your salary Use the IT salary benchmark wizard and know the average salary differences between different job functions. Join activeTechPros. http://www.activetechpros.com Compli And Environmental And Occupational Risk Management (EORM) Announce Partnership To Provide EH&S Compliance ... (SafetyOnline) As part of Compli's continuing effort to provide compliance protection to auto dealerships, Compli and EORM (Environmental and Occupational Risk Management) of San Jose, California, have formed an alliance to provide top-tier Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) information and content to dealers through Compli's Dealership Compliance Management System (DCMS) POWER: Lighting management IC drives up to eight LEDs in series (Embedded Systems Programming Magazine) Phoenix, Ariz. ? ON Semiconductor has introduced the NCP5890, a lighting management device that integrates LCD backlighting, fun light controls and ambient light sensing in a 3 x 3 x 0.55-mm uQFN-16 package. The NCP5890 targets compact smart phone and portable media player applications. Union Bank - Edelweiss JV for wealth management service (Business Standard India) Union Bank of India (UBI) in tie up with Edelweiss Securities has launched wealth management services ti tits high networth clients in Mumbai. RedPrairie Enhances Internationalized Shipment Capabilities In Transportation Management System (TMS) (Logistics) RedPrairie Corporation, a world leading consumer driven optimization company, announced today a host of new features in its updated transportation management (TMS) release - built especially for international users. Site: management - Google News CORRECTED: Management wins bid for Lehman's Neuberger - Reuters
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