Organizational Design

According to Nwachukwu (1988), Organizational Design is a formal process of integrating

people, information and technology within an organization. The design of any organization is
used to match the form/structure of the organization with the purpose/goals which the
organization intends to achieve. In addition, this will include plan/processes in making changes
in other to achieve organization objectives. From the explanation the emphasis is on the
management side of the organization. Organizational design has the goal(s) of the organization
as its basis, while the process creates room for achieving the goals. Therefore, organizational
design is a conscious plan or blue print designed for managing the structure of the organization.
This takes the demand created by the size, complexity, objectives and the goals of the
organization. For an instance, complexity and the size of an organization determine the chain the
size of an organization determine the chain of command and order, which provides a frame work
for the flow of authority and communication.

STEPS TO BE TAKEN WHEN DESIGNING OR CONSTRUCTING AN ORGANIZATION

(1). Goals and Objectives: Establish and define the goals, objectives, plans and policies of the
organization.
(2). Identify/Understand the Organizations’ Operations: this has to do with the identification of
various activities and key processes to fulfill the goals and objectives of the organization.
(3). Defining/Classification of activities: this is the identification and classification of key
activities necessary for the actualization of goals.
(4). Identify/define rules: Here rules, regulations, responsibilities, skills, knowledge, experience,
behavior, attitude etc are identified/defined for each role in the organization.
(5). Structure and Authority: the desired structure of the organization is determined and
direction/flow of authority needed for the execution/implementation of plans and policies. Again,
structure and authority are well spelt out for each individual and group.
(6) Define Organizations’ Characteristics: As much as possible, all the known characteristics of
the organization must be defined. This will include strengths, threats, opportunities, and
weaknesses/deficiencies.
(7). Job Analysis: there have to be detailed job description, specification and analysis for
members.
(8). Evaluation: Evaluate and verify that the organizational structure will achieve its
preconceived goals and objectives. This evaluation will include an analysis of identified
loopholes and necessary plug-ins to forestall failures.
Leadership in Organization
Once the organizational goals, plans, and strategies are in place, managers must develop a
structure that will best facilitate the attainment of these goals. Recall that organizing is the
function of management that creates the organization’s structure. When managers develop or
change the organization’s structure, they are engaging in organizational design, which process
involves making decisions about how specialized jobs should be, the rules to guide employee’s
behaviours, and at what level decisions are to be made. Elements of organizational design are
specialization, departmentalization, authority and responsibility, span of control, centralization
and decentralization, and formalization. One of the ways to achieve all these depend largely on
the leader.
THE CONCEPT OF LEADERSHIP
Many theorists have recognized the central role of a leader in organizational development.
Hersey and Blanchard (1996) have observed that “the successful organization has one major
attribute that sets it apart from the unsuccessful organization: dynamic and effective leadership
Leadership has been defined in various ways. The central concept of leadership is power to
influence others and get them to do the things they otherwise would not do. Leadership can be
defined as “the activity of influencing people to strive willingly for a group objective” (Terry,
1960). On the other hand, Tennebaum et al (1959) defined it as “interpersonal influence
exercised in a situation and directed through the communication process, towards the attainment
of a specialized goal or goals.” Other definitions of leadership include the following:
 Leadership is an attempt to use influence to motivate individual to accomplish some goals
Leadership is a social influence process that involves determining a group’s objectives,
motivating behaviour in aid of these objectives, and influencing group maintenance and culture.
Leadership is complex and involves accomplishing goals with and through people. A leader, in
his attempt to achieve success must, therefore, be people and task focused. The hallmark of an
effective leader lies in the delicate balancing of task and human relations practice.
In summary, we may define leadership as the ability to influence followers to achieve an
organizational goal in as painless a manner as possible through eliciting in the followership, a
high sense of commitment, integrity, honesty, accountability, and freedom of dissent.
The concept of power is central to the exercise of leadership. Sources of a leader’s power can be
highlighted as follows:
 Authority – formally warranted power or legitimate power
 Control over resources
 Reward power
 Coercive power
  Charisma
 Expressiveness – this considers the ability of the individual to engage in specifically political
acts activities that are meant to expand the influence of individual
There are different theories of leadership. However, there have been three rather dominant
theories, and we wish to highlight them:

 Trait theory of leadership: The trait theory of leadership suggests that certain inborn or innate
qualities and characteristics make someone a leader. These qualities might be personality factors,
physical factors, intelligence factors, and so on. In essence, trait theory proposes that the leader
and leaders’ traits are central to an organisation’s success. The assumption here is that finding
people with the right traits will increase organisational performance. Trait theory focuses
exclusively on the leader and neglects the follower. Some traits that are associated with
leadership include:

 Physical vitality and stamina

 Intelligence and action-oriented judgment
 Eagerness to accept responsibility
 Task competence
 Understanding of followers and their needs
 Skill in dealing with people
 Need for achievement
 Capacity to motivate people
 Courage and resolution
 Trustworthiness

 Attitudinal theory of leadership; The attitude-behavior (AB) model of leadership is a theory

that a leader's attitude controls their behavior, which in turn affects their decision-making. A
leader's attitude is their mental state, which reflects their emotions and controls their immediate
behavior. An effective leader has a positive outlook on life and work, and can see the best in
people and situations. They are optimistic and resilient, and can motivate and inspire
others. According to ABC model of attitude suggested by Eagly & Chaiken 199, human attitude
as an object has three components identified as Affect (A), Behaviour (B) and Cognition (C).
Affect component represents the individual’s feelings about the object Attitude, Behaviour
component represents the individual’s intention towards the object Attitude, and Cognitive
component represents the beliefs of an individual towards the object attitude.
  Contingency theory of leadership. There is no single right leadership because the internal and
external dimensions of the environment require the leader to adapt to that particular situation. It claims
that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead,
the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation. The
contingency theory of leadership, also known as Fiedler's Contingency Theory, states that a
leader's effectiveness is dependent on the situation and their leadership style. This theory
suggests that a leader's style is difficult to change and that it's best to match the leader to the
situation.

Here are some key points about the contingency theory of leadership:

 Situational favorableness: The favorableness of a situation is determined by three variables:

leader-member relationship, task structure, and leader's position power.
 Leadership style: A leader's style is measured using the Least Preferred Co-worker test. A high
score indicates a relational style, while a low score indicates a task-oriented style.
 Matching leaders to situations: The theory provides a framework for matching leaders to
situations.
 No single best style: There is no single best style of leadership.
 Leadership style is hard to change: A leader's style is hard to change because it's forged over a
lifetime.

The modern challenges of leadership call for strategic thinking, building of scenarios and
developing capacity for rapid, adaptive response based on a broad range of leadership strategies,
rather than long-range planning in a world where the equation of change has assumed an
exponential growth. These new challenges require both mutually and inclusiveness through
connective edges. Individual innate abilities, distinctiveness, idiosyncrasies, dissent and
individualism must be given space to unfold
Leadership and Impact On Organizational
Leadership is the process by which a person influences others to accomplish an objective, and
directs the organization in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Six leadership types
can be identified:
i) The Coercive style (The Dictator)
ii) The Authoritative style (The Visionary)
iii) The Affiliative style (The People’s person)
iv) The Democratic style (The Listener)
v) The Pacesetting style (The super man/superwoman
vi) The Coaching style (The Nurturer)
 Leadership styles offer clear guidance to the manager, using these styles as appropriate as
situations require. Thus, all of these styles are useful at different times, but used at the wrong
time, they can be disastrous. For example, too much of listening when immediate action is
required, or only providing a vision when a team needs building or rebuilding. The type of
leadership style used will affect performance and result. A summary of how the different
leadership styles affect the organizational performance are as follows:
1) Coercive Style
Positive Aspects
 Appropriate in severe situations and emergency
 Able to break failed business habits and shock people into new ways of working
 Can work with problem employees when all else have failed
Negative Aspects
 Top-down decisions override new ideas
 Staff unable to act on their own initiative
 Undermines motivation to employees

2) Authoritative style
Positive Aspects
 Most effective among the six leadership styles
 Motivates people and able to lead the to clear direction
 Maximizes commitment to the business’ goals and strategy with defined standards
 Gives employees the freedom to innovate, experiment and take calculated risks

Negative Aspects
 Will not work when working with a team of experts/peers who are more experienced
 Can undermine an effective team if authoritative becomes overbearing
3) Affiliative style
Positive Aspects
 Reaps strong loyalty by building strong and emotional bonds.
 Drives up flexibility and does not impose unnecessary structures on how work is done
 Offers ample positive feedback for motivation
 Creates a sense of belonging for employees

Negative Aspects
 Exclusive focus on praise can allow poor performance to go uncorrected.
 Perception that mediocrity is tolerated
 Rarely offers constructive advice on how to improve (directionless)

4) Democratic style
 Positive Aspects
 Drives up flexibility and responsibility when letting employees have a say in decisions
 Employees tend to be realistic about what they can and cannot accomplish

Negative Aspects
 Employees may not be competent or informed enough to offer sound advice.
 Unable to reach to a consensus/decision

5) Pacesetting style
Positive Aspects
 Works well when all employees are self-motivated, highly competent and need little
direction/coordination
 Gets works done on time and even ahead of schedule

Negative Aspects
 Overwhelmed by demands for excellence; morale will drop
 Employees do not feel trusted to work in their own way or to take initiatives as ideas will
be shot down
 Work becomes task focused, dependent and routine, with no sense of flexibility and
responsibility.
6) Coaching style
Positive Aspects
 Helps employees to identify their strengths and weaknesses, establish long-term
development goals, and helps to attain them
 Employees are more responsible when they know what is expected of them

Negative Aspects
 Ineffective if employees are resistant to learning or changing their ways
 May create fear or apathy through ongoing performance feedback
Conclusion :As the ability to influence followers, leadership involves the use of power and the
acceptance of the leader by the followers. Leaders who used styles that positively affect the
climate had better financial results than those who do not. Also, studies have shown that leaders
who have mastered four or more leadership styles (especially, the authoritative, democratic,
affiliative, and coaching styles) have the very best Organizational performance.

ASSIGNMENT: Discuss Contingency theory and its impact on the Organizational design and
apply your knowledge of the contingency theory to real work situations with good examples.
Submit :6th January 2025