Zara Organizational Structure
Zara Organizational Structure
Zara Organizational Structure
Clarification of objectives
A clear definition of objectives is vital to provide a framework for the design of structure
of an organisation. Organisation objectives provide fundamental schemes for division of
labour and creation of group units and sub units. Clearly stated aims and objectives will
assist in decisions on the strategy and structural dimension to employ to achieve
organisational objectives.
Division of work
An organisation needs to accomplish an overall task of allocating many different
activities to groups of people or individuals to achieve its objectives. The division of work
and grouping together of individuals should be organised according to a basic criterion
to establish a coherent link between the activities involved. The division of work and
linkage of activities occur in various ways such as specialisation, use of similar
resources or common expertise of organisation members as the most commonly used
basis for grouping activities. Others include division by product or service, division by
location, division by nature of the work performed, division according to common time
scales such as shift working, division according to staff employed such as allocation of
work based on experience and so on.
Principles of organisation
The ten principles of organisation include principles of the objective, specialisation, co-
ordination, authority, responsibility, definition, correspondence, span of control, balance
and principle of continuity.
Span of control
This refers to number of subordinates who report directly to a particular manager or
supervisor. Span of control is larger at lower levels of the organisation where
responsibility is concerned more with the performance of specific tasks. If span of control
is too wide, supervising too many subordinates effectively becomes difficult and stressful
for managers as well as planning and development, training and control. Narrow span of
control may lead to low morale and initiative of subordinates due to close supervision
level, and also increase administrative costs.
Chain of command
This refers to the number of different levels in the structure of the organisation, the chain
of hierarchical command. Every employee must know there position within the
organisation structure. The combination of chain of command and span of control
determines the overall pyramid shape of the organisation and whether the hierarchical
structure is flat or tall. Flat hierarchical structure depict a broader span of control and few
levels of authority while tall structure depicts narrower spans of control and more levels
of authority. There is no ideal hierarchical structure but it is best to have a balance of
both.
A project team refers to a separate unit set up temporarily for a particular project which
is disbanded when the duration elapses while matrix organisation involves functional
departments specialising in numerous activities.
References
Certo S.C and Certo S.T. (2006) Modern Management. 10th edn. Prentice Hall
Mullins, L.J. (2009) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 8th edn.
Financial Time Press Rollinson, D. (2005) Organisational Behaviour and
Analysis: An Integrated Approach. 3rd edn. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall