Symptoms of Inadequate Organizational Structure and Their Effects

Symptoms of Inadequate Organizational Structure and Their Effects

In Hax and Majluf's article (2001) they list eight of the most common symptoms of an inadequate organizational structure. The symptoms of inadequate organizational structure are like the symptoms of a plant doing poorly. If a plant does not have enough water, you may see it wilting. If the plant does not have enough sun, you may see the leaves yellow. Fixing just one or two of the problems will not heal the plant. Focus must be kept on all of the important factors to make the plant grow and thrive. In the same manner, all of the inadequacies in the organizational structure must be tended to for a strong and thriving organization. In this paper, two of those symptoms will be discussed along with the impact that these problems can have on the organization. The symptoms that will be discussed are: "(a) Lack of opportunities for general manager development and (e) Lack of coordination among divisions" (Hax and Majluf, 2001). Both of these symptoms can be fixed once they are noticed, and once the issues are fixed the organization will be improved.

The majority of Ken Blanchard's book "Leading at a Higher Level" (2010) is about learning to be a good manager and a good leader. Situational Leadership II is the model that this book works from to teach managers how to lead. The book also discusses "servant leadership" and its importance in helping people and the organization reach their goals. Unfortunately, many people who are in positions of authority were put there for reasons other than their leadership skills. The person might have been really good at sales, or whatever job they did before becoming a manager, but that does not mean they will be a good leader or manager. People need to be taught to be good managers and leaders. Without good leaders an organization will have a hard time getting their workforce to understand the organization's vision, and an even harder time leading the workforce toward the goals of the organization. Without good leaders, the constantly changing environment that is the norm in organizations these days will cause confusion and disruption. The organization will be weakened. If a company does not develop their people to be good managers and leaders, the entire organization can suffer. Blanchard (2010) states, "If becoming a high performing organization is the destination, leadership is the engine".

According to Blanchard (2010), one of the skills of a self leader is to "collaborate for success". This is very important to an organization as well. Lack of coordination among divisions in an organization can cause a multitude of issues. If your customer facing people cannot coordinate with your marketing group, then the marketing group may end up marketing an aspect of the organization's product or service that is not important to