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Organization Management – Meaning, Need

and its Features
An organization is usually made up of different individuals with different beliefs, cultural
background, educational qualification, and experience. But the best part is despite the disparities
in their capabilities; each has to work together to achieve the targeted goal of the organization.

Employees are obliged to work in unity and proper coordination with one another to ensure that
objects at the departmental level, including that of the organization as a whole, are met. And
that’s where effective organization management becomes critical. This post will throw more
light on the meaning, need and features of organization management.

What is the meaning of Organization Management?

Every organization or workplace has principles or rules governing their employees, which the
employees in question need to be aware of and follow strictly. For instance, employees in any
specific department know the right person to channel their complaints.

Organization management consists of everything the managers or superiors do to ensure the

smooth running of the firm, which also entails creating an enabling environment for the
employees to be more efficient in the discharge of their duties. It also involves the proper use of
the available resources through adequate planning and control of the working environment.

The primary focus of any organization is to achieve its objectives. It could be to increase client
base, improve business reputation, or have substantial financial returns. But profit is still the
primary reason organizations are set up. So, when the business is not making enough profit, it
would be difficult to keep the company running.

With adequate organizational management which entails proper planning, organizing, leading
and control of available resources, firms may end up achieving their objectives at the end of the
day. But the executives should have the capabilities to make decisions and resolve issues for it to
be more effective and beneficial.

Need for Organization Management

Organization management is beneficial if properly planned out and executed. And firms might
benefit from a proper structure or management plan in several ways. Here is why organizational
management is so relevant for the survival of any establishment.

1. Helps to Create a Clearer Picture of the Goals within Each Department.

Organization management helps managers to split roles within each department. And in doing
so, each department will have a better understanding of their function and resources needed.
Pictures of the size of the targeted goal for each department will also be more apparent.

2. Effective Implementation of Business Plan to Achieve Targeted Goals

Organization management doesn’t stop at creating a roadmap regarding the goals of each
department. It also helps managers to determine what should be done to achieve the targeted
goals of each department and the company as a whole. Managers will also have the capacity to
swiftly respond to issues that may undermine the external and internal expectations of the
establishment.

3. Better Coordination in the Various Departments

A proper organization structure allows the managers or executives to manage the affairs of each
department within the company. Employees would have a better understanding of their duties
and responsibilities. They will also carry them out without waiting for the manager’s instructions
in most cases.

Effective management makes information sharing and communication easier. And there will also
be no need for conflict within each department and the organization at large.

4. Enables Employees to Deliver Assigned Projects Within Deadline

Effective organization management creates the right environment for employees to accomplish
assigned tasks within the agreed time-frame. They will have access to the right materials or
resources to work with or know who to approach to acquire them. Employees will also have no
other choice but to follow due process in the discharge of their duties.

5. Creates a Positive and Peaceful Work Environment

No employee can thrive in a workplace where there is always conflict. Business may also
experience negative growth in such circumstances. Effective organization management would
help to set the guidelines and define the mutual relationship that binds individual elements within
the organization which includes people, technology, processes and strategy to create an enabling
environment for every department to work together to accomplish the targeted goal.

Features of Organization Management

1. Planning

Create a working plan to avoid confusion in the future. As the business continues to grow, you
can add to your plan, instead of removing from it. You need to create a business plan that will
help to give direction to your business. How things will be done should also come up in your
business plan.
 2. Organizing

Organizing is also critical in organizational management and success of any business. It entails
how you intend to utilize the available resources to help employees to achieve the best results.
Organizing allows firms to make good use of their finances. But to ensure smooth cash flow, the
management of the company needs to create monthly budget.

3. Staffing

Fitting employees in the right position will not only cause them to deliver excellent performance.
It will also affect the organization positively. On the other hand, hiring or assigning tasks to
employees that lacks the qualification and capacity might create problems for the organization.
So, management should always recruit staffs based on their competence.

4. Control

For management to have an impact and achieve the goals of the organization, hierarchies should
be clearly defined. In other words, employees should know their place and who they are
supposed to report to when the need arises. And those they report to should have the capacity to
carry out a proper review of their performances and make significant contributions that would
guide the subordinates to deliver the best result.

5. Motivation

An effective organizational management plan takes into consideration factors that motivate
employees to perform optimally. It’s not enough to create an enabling environment; lucrative
packages should also be made available. It will help employees to stay motivated and consider
working for the company for an extended period.

Conclusion

Every organization has goals. But then, these goals cannot be achieved without proper
management and execution of the business plan. Effective organization management is critical in
any business settings. It would help to give the superiors and employees a clear direction
involving how to run the business and get everyone to deliver their best.
https://www.performancemagazine.org/five-levels-of-organizational-maturity-performance-
management-perspective/

The concept of organizational maturity generally refers to the evolutionary process of an

organization building its people, processes and technology readiness and capability through the
adoption of quality practices.

With regard to performance management practices in the organization, maturity relates to the
adoption level of dedicated performance management tools, the shaping of internal performance
management processes, the mechanisms, processes and relations through which performance
management systems are run and administered, the build of the performance management
architecture itself and the degree of performance management system integration.

Organizational maturity frameworks provide a transitional set of common characteristics against

which maturity can be assessed. The performance management perspective on organizational
maturity provides us with five levels of evolutionary growth.

Each level is characterized by a common approach towards the organization’s main operational
levers: Tools, Processes, Governance, Architecture, Integration.
1st Level of Maturity: INITIAL

The “Initial” or “Inceptive” organization, although curious about performance management

practices, is not generally familiarized or is completely unaware of performance management
tools that can support the implementation of the performance management system in the
organization.
While the organization is vividly trying to lay the foundations of the performance management
system itself, its processes are too inconsistent. Despite the disconnect in internal processes and
activities overlap the organization is overly focused on immediate outcomes.

The performance architecture is itself incipient with strategic planning practices that are
mostly informal and mainly rely on top management experience. Performance measurement is
not a common practice in the organization. It is either nonexistent or very limited. KPIs are
vaguely defined for the organization with no formal consensus regarding the KPI calculation
methodology, nor any centralized evidence of the KPIs monitored.

There is a poor organizational identity and unclear direction, which translates into limited
awareness of employees in regard to what matters for the organization and limited transparency
in actions and performance levels. The outputs of organizational initiatives are unidentifiable as
accountability is unclear and there is limited visibility into the manner projects are linked to
organizational objectives.

At this maturity level, a lack of active involvement from senior management to support the
Performance Management Architecture is commonly encountered. Internal communication
systems are not yet well structured and there is a poor overall knowledge level with regards to
what performance measurement and management systems generally imply.

Usually, this generates a weak acknowledgment towards the importance of using Key
Performance Indicators (KPIs). There are no initiatives used to motivate or increase engagement
levels among employees. Innovation is not facilitated in any way and individual performance is
not measured or rewarded.

2nd Level of Maturity: EMERGENT

The “Emergent” organization will have begun to discover and experiment with performance
management tools. While internal processes are uncoordinated and performance management
tools still unstandardized, the need for improvement is strongly enunciated.

Activities for consolidating performance management practices in the organization are planned
and expectations defined. In the case of emergent organizations, the performance management
architecture can be perceived as transitional. The strategy at this maturity level is a formal
documentation that does not provide the added value expected.

There is poor formulation of organizational objectives and mis-alignment between different

levels of the organization, mainly due to ineffective communication. Some of the basic
performance measurement practices such as KPI selection and KPI documentation are slowly
employed by the organization.

The KPI selection process is exercised without minding designated criteria, methodology or
techniques. Some of the KPIs selected are also documented, although there is no standardized
approach towards the use of KPI Documentation Forms/Templates. Data collection is becoming
more structured, and in some areas of activity visual representation tools are used to track the
progress of KPIs.

Although there is a formal process of reviewing and reporting on performance, performance

review meetings do not deliver the much-needed insight into decision-making the organization
might require. A performance-oriented culture exists but is not supported by consistent
communication initiatives from leadership.

Senior management is aware of the importance of measuring performance and has a basic
knowledge in this area, but there is a certain formality with the efforts submitted in this direction.
Managerial positions are accountable in terms of performance results, but measuring individual
performance is not a widely used practice in the organization.

3rd Level of Maturity: STRUCTURED

The “Structured” organization will have already selected and defined the most suited
performance management tools for the organization. Such an organization will have already
gained control of the its main performance management processes. There is a well-coordinated
effort in standardizing performance management practices across the organization, there are
defined process flows and upgraded process activities.

The approach towards adopting the performance management architecture is however still
inconsistent. Strategy monitoring tools, such as scorecards, dashboards and portfolio of
initiatives are used, however they are not cascaded at the lower levels of the organization.

A more structured approach towards selecting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is observed.
KPI selection criteria is clearly defined and commonly agreed by internal stakeholders. KPI
selection tools and techniques are gradually enhancing the KPI Selection process.

A streamlined KPI documentation process is employed based on a standardized KPI

documentation form. The process of setting targets for KPIs is becoming increasingly
comprehensive, by means of data sourcing, market data comparison and benchmarking. The
reporting process relies on standardized templates and guidance to create the final report.
Performance review meetings take place at the end of each performance management cycle and
are well-organized.

As learning and improvement is not yet formalized in maturity level 3 organizations, progress
seems to happen rather naturally. The performance culture is supported by a strong business
case for measuring performance across the organization which is communicated across the
organization.

Awareness level among employees is moderate to high in relation to organizational main

objectives and performance levels. Templates and procedures are developed to support the
performance management cycle. The governance of the system is well defined. In most cases,
employee performance is tracked, and it involves assessment of individual objectives and KPIs.
Rewards are offered to employees as well as training opportunities to ensure performance
improvement.

4th Level of Maturity: INTEGRATED

The “Integrated” organization carries out a dynamic process of continuous change. There is an
overall effort of increasing efficiency through waste reduction, while performance management
processes are becoming cross-functional and streamlined. The main focus of the organization
revolves around cascading and alignment. There is a general acknowledgement of the benefits
that such tools bring to the organization.

The cascading of the performance management system is closely monitored. The wider purpose
is achieving homogeneity. Performance measurement is a process that adds value to the
organization, through the effective use of performance management tools and adequate system
governance.

An integrated selection process for Key Performance Indicator (KPIs) is observed and a
streamlined KPI documentation process is already employed. The KPI target setting process is
increasingly complex. Data gathering is supported by a standard software solution and most of
the KPIs are monitored in scorecards and dashboards. Business Intelligence tools are also
commonly used for reporting, which makes the process relatively fast and accurate.

The performance culture relies on effective communication that reaches all internal and
external stakeholders. Performance Managements is structured as an organizational capability.
Performance measurement is integrated in all activities at all organizational levels and enables a
certain level of autonomy in the working environment.

There is a strong culture of learning and improvement, which captures innovative ideas.
Employee performance evaluations are aligned to the entity’s strategy and performance is
stimulated through a combination of financial and non-financial rewards. Investments are made
to constantly improve the quality of the working environment and the employee engagement.

5th Level of Maturity: OPTIMIZED

The “Optimized” organization will have used standard performance management templates and
perfected and/or automated them. Performance management processes have been tested and
trialed. There is a whole process of re-engineering and re-positioning them for the better benefit
of the organization. The system is transparent, SMART initiatives enable continuous
performance improvement.

Strategic planning is an important organizational process which is well integrated with other key
processes. The strategy itself relies on simple and clear tools. Awareness on what the
organization desires to achieve is high even among front-line employees. Performance
measurement is an important organizational process which is well integrated with other key
processes.

KPIs rely on simple and clear tools to collect data. At this maturity level, in most cases, there is a
state-of-the-art selection process for Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). All monitored KPIs –
operational or individual – are aligned to the corporate strategic objectives. A centralized KPI
library consolidates the internal know-how on how KPIs are calculated and reported in the
organization.

Usually, the target setting process sets meaningful performance levels, which trigger positive
behaviors from employees. The process is completely automated, systems are integrated and rely
on the latest technology in terms of Business Intelligence. All KPI results are displayed in
dashboards and scorecards compliant with data visualization best practices.

Modelling and other advanced data analysis techniques are commonly used by organizations
with optimized performance management systems. These organizations usually rely of Business
Intelligence tools to report on performance and track progress of organizational initiatives. It is
characteristic of organizations at this level to have a flexible performance management system
able to easily adapt to changes.

The performance management system is widely used within the organization and the
stakeholders are actively engaged to improve the current processes. There is a strong learning
and improvement culture. The organization has managed to translate performance management
into everyone’s job. The role of each employee is clear. This enables staff members to make
consistent decisions aligned with what the organization aims to achieve.

At this stage, organizations invest in technology and in the well-being of their employees. The
working environment is stimulating and manages to leverage on individual talent. Highly
motivated employees benefit from considerable autonomy, which nurtures innovation within the
entity.

Gamification is a common practice within the entity to engage and develop employees’ skills.
The bonus system is comprehensively rewarding based on multiple performance components
(individual, team, organizational).

Final thoughts

This model of maturity highlights the main stages an organization is traversing when trying to
successfully put into effect its strategy and performance management system. Many
organizations tend to overlook the complexity of implementing a performance management
system as well as the tie-ins it has with already established organizational processes.

By absorbing in other systems and processes in the organization, the performance management
system also implicitly performs a health check on operations.
The five stages of performance management system maturity hereby outlined provide a valuable
view on the phases of a performance management system implementation project, but also
unique insight into the other organizational processes it impacts in its trajectory.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/organizational-maturity-why-its-important-derek-miers/

We’ve analysed some 670 change programs over the last 4 years, with detailed responses from
150 organisations in 2015. In partnership with the Process Excellence Network (PEX), we
conducted two surveys in 2011 and 2013 to understand organisational maturity. We set out to
understand the benefits of increased maturity and how firms have improved their maturity. In
mid-2015, we conducted a third round of research to find out what it takes to achieve successful
change programs within an organisation. In all of these surveys, we used a modified five-layer
maturity scale roughly based on the Business Process Maturity Model (BPMM) standardized by
the Object Management Group (see Figure).

Our hypothesis going into 2015 was that Business Architecture and Customer Experience (CX)
oriented techniques help drive and improve organisational maturity. Secondly, we wanted to
discover whether those approaches contributed to the ability to manage change successfully. The
key headline from the full report (available with registration) was that change programs in high
maturity organizations almost always succeed.

The story goes like this – most organisations grow up with a strong functional orientation. The
managers of those organisations exercise their power to control their own fiefdoms. The scope
and focus of processes evolve as you move up the levels – from the individual to business
unit/functional levels to the enterprise. But as shown in the figure, at level 4 the emphasis moves
back down a notch; now you are “specializing” those standard offerings for different segments of
customers. Teams reinvest their learnings back in the standard ways of doing things. At the
highest level of maturity, the individuals in the organisation not only understand the implications
of this sort of specialization, they are empowered to respond to the needs of individual
customers; potentially customizing the offerings of the firm for each unique customer.
Individuals are adept at capturing key learnings, and they constantly feed them back into
enterprise standards. But in the end, customers just love it (they become your sales people).

The challenges posed in reaching the highest maturity levels are immense. It’s a very challenging
journey for most organizations, and the individuals within them; each transition sees an
organizational transformation and a change in the power structures and governance. In the higher
maturity levels, rather than just managing processes, the organisation is using “processes to
manage” and deliver “compelling service propositions.”

Most organizations are on the initial transitions between Level 1 and Level 3; the most
challenging of these transitions is enterprise level standardization. Associated with each maturity
level is a whole set of subtly different management practices and behaviors. Each maturity level
represents a sort of threshold; at these points organizational strategies and tactics evolve, as do
the methods and techniques needed to support them.

 At Level 1, often called “Initial/Chaos” everyone has a subtly different way of doing
things. Things are pretty chaotic until you get basic management controls. Organizations
at this level tend to be run top-down with a command and control mentality. They focus
on cost reduction and see problems in terms of technology and application deployment
such as CRM, ERP, BI, and BPM Suites as the way of driving their change. It’s not that
these technologies are irrelevant, it’s just that there is so much more to the story – putting
“go faster stripes” on broken processes tend to get you in a bigger mess, faster. If a
consulting company had every consultant on their team using different methods and
techniques, then the customers will inevitably receive highly variable outcomes. In
management speak – things are a mess. Quite rightly, getting to the next level is normally
about reducing cost and creating better predictability. The transition to the next level is
mostly about exerting stronger management control within the existing functional
structure.

 At level 2, the organisation has standardized at the level of the function or

geography. It’s OK to have one way of doing things in London, another in New York
and a third in Tokyo. But that still holds you back. If you are a global freight business,
having separate finance functions with different operating practices in each country is just
adding costs and complexity you can do without. Transitioning to the next level is all
about finding what’s common and core to your operations and creating consistent
customer experiences. Achieving those goals means engaging employees across functions
to collaborate more, which is challenging considering the fact that most middle managers
still think that their job is to get better at command and control. Typically, metrics are
still aligned to the functional silos, so process improvement only works to the extent that
it makes those silos look good. In effect middle managers are the problem here.
Subconsciously, they work to protect their status and validity of their function. They will
 nod in the right places, but most will still exhibit a set of passive aggressive behaviors
that slow down the pace of change.
 Achieving Level 3 is all about standardizing your processes at the enterprise level.
People tend to resist this as it requires functions and business unit managers to effectively
relinquish complete control over their resources. Along with those trying to improve
things, they often misunderstand the goal. It’s usually seen as having a single way of
doing things, which is often interpreted as sterilizing/sanitizing business offerings. They
see this as cost reduction exercise. The real trick in getting to the next level is to
understand the opportunities for value innovation and focusing on improving the
outcomes delivered to customers; segment-by-segment. This is really where Business
Architecture can help you give shape and substance to the change initiative; using it to
outline the path ahead and create alignment. It’s also where you will use more and more
CX improvement techniques, working outside-in to engage colleagues into the change
program, but more importantly, to differentiate your business offerings to customers,
delivering compelling experiences.
 At Level 4 process outcomes are far more predictable. You are now running the
organization by the numbers with refined metrics that help you discover where you need
to improve and adapt. However, it’s critical to understand that this is not about taking
standardization to “another level”; it’s about “specializing” the standard processes for
different segments of customer, in the full knowledge that you are breaking that
standardization. The metrics focus is going to help you identify the types of cases and
customer segments that require special attention. Specialization for different customer
segments – effectively, adapting your processes to the customer needs – feels right and
safe because you know that the supporting capabilities and processes are “industrialized”
to handle the work. Where relevant, you need to reinvest those changes back in the
common enterprise-level approach, improving it for all.
 Level 5 organisations are very rare. Indeed, we can only think of two that we have
studied – one a cleaning company in Brazil that saw its role as reducing the needs of its
customers for its services; the other a software development business. With richly
segmented customer segments, your employees are becoming more important in further
specializing your offerings for individual customers. They are so well educated that they
know the implications of creating customer-specific variations. For example, they could
accurately price the implications of variation A in comparison with variation B for a
specific customer, taking into account the impact on all the supporting components. Your
customers love it because they are getting custom offerings based on a deep
understanding of their needs.

Each one of these transitions sees a transfer of power. Those who currently wield power –
especially those in mid-management positions – will feel increasingly uncomfortable moving up
toward Level 3. Below level 3, processes are there to make the functions look good, above that,
the functions are there to make the outcomes look good. And although they may not even
consciously realize it, it is this loss of power which drives their resistance. They may engage in
all sorts of behaviors to undermine the initiative, since in the end it will see them lose their
position of dominance and control they have built up.

Consulting Firm Maturity Journey

Here we walk through the maturity levels shown in Figure 1 using a not completely fictitious
consulting organization as a background example:

 Level 1 – Individual consultants have their own offerings that are neither
standardized nor consistent across the organization. Individuals hoard their
knowledge and jealously guard their specialist areas. As a result, customers receive
highly variable results and often, conflicting advice. Moreover, the overall business just
cannot scale. Sales are difficult to make and the only repeat business comes from the odd
superstar consultant.
 Level 2 – Practice Leaders create a catalog of existing offerings and establish basic
management controls. Each practice area has a different way of doing say, an
assessment. Indeed, they may have several different types of assessments. While the
outcomes have now become a little more predictable, the overall experience of the
customer is still highly variable across consulting disciplines. Processes are seen very
much inside-out, and long-term viability of the organisation is still sub-optimal.
 Level 3 – The organization struggles to create standardized service offerings across
the practice areas. After a lot of soul searching, the different practice areas start to zero
in on common ways of carrying out their work. The customer facing service offerings are
beginning to leverage common and predictable components. Once achieved, it becomes
infinitely easier to communicate the value of the organization; its sales start to increase in
a more predictable fashion. However, there is a still a tension as individual practices
want/need to customize the standard approach for their own areas. They want to, and
need to, reflect the needs of their particular customer segments.
 Level 4 – Having established standardized offerings in Level 3, we now look to
customize them for different areas and domains. We do this in the full knowledge of
the variations we are making (from the somewhat standard, common approach). Where
possible, the standard approach is adapted to support and enable those specializations.
The emphasis is back on meeting the needs of the practice areas, but now these service
propositions leverage robust, scalable and efficient components. Selective centralization
of common services occurs to help drive efficiency. For example, funding a centralized
“Research Service” such that individual client projects have a shared resource that
ensures they have access to the most up to date and relevant research for their needs.
Rather than doing that on each project, the Research Service maintains a staff to make
high priced consultants more efficient (and therefore more profitable). Every customer
engagement is scrutinized for areas of weakness; best practices are constantly identified.
 Level 5 – Highly educated and empowered consultants construct seemingly bespoke
offerings for customers. Yet in reality, they are based on robust and scalable
components. Cultural norms are strong enough such that all variations are captured and
shared, with peers adopting novel and useful variations. When initiating projects, teams
work hard to reuse existing approaches. Management practices encourage constant
innovation.

Most consulting firms and technology vendors can easily see where they are up to. But no matter
what industry, the challenges of the transformational journey remain remarkably similar.