Disadvantages of functional structure

For example, the total work activities of an enterprise may be divided into various functions like purchases, production, marketing , finance. Another disadvantage of functional organization structure is that these functional groups may not be able to communicate more often which decreases flexibility and innovation. When a company uses this type of structure , it groups its people according to their knowledge and skills which help them become specialists on that field. Organizations may choose from a number of common operating structures. One popular structure is the functional organization.

The functional organizational structure groups employees according to broad business activities, resulting in departments such as finance, marketing and production.

They always give more importance to their departmental objectives. Hence, overall organisational objectives suffer. For example, to establish its image, the production department may produce quality product ignoring. What are the advantages of a functional structure?

What does functional structure mean? In the long term, employees tend to feel bored and the monotony of the job can be off-putting. This decreases the overall efficiency of the employee.

The inter-department communication is very poor this creates an overall lack of growth as an organization.

The work can be quite one dimensional. After a while, the employees may start feeling monotony or boredom. The lack of new challenges can make them unenthusiastic for the job at hand. In this structure , the manager must take care of the appraisal system. Also learn about its advantages and disadvantages ! The organizational structure can be classified under following two types: ADVERTISEMENTS: 1. Functional Structure 2. The most common structure found within organizations, functional structure consists of units or departmental groups identified by specialty, such as engineering, development, marketing, finance, sales or human resources that are controlled from the top level of management.

This differs from a divisional or product. The matrix structure followed by Starbucks coffee is one of the best organizational structure examples. The primary reason for the firm’s success is its structure.

Different organizational structures that combine to form Starbuck’s matrix structure are divisional structure , functional structure , and team-based structure. If promotions are not handled well, an employee may be discouraged if a lower-performing peer is promoted over them. Disadvantages of a functional organizational structure Lack of attention. Each functional unit has its own basic work to do and it happens that project responsibilities are set aside to meet these primary obligations.

Additionally, the matrix structure is composed of both a traditional hierarchy of management, where employees are managed by a functional manager, as well as additional project. This structure is centralized and hierarchical, so information and lines of responsibility flow from top management down through the heads of the various specialized departments and to the employees who carry out the work of each functional unit.

Employees do not report to multiple managers. Each employee will report to his direct functional manager. This will reduce communication channels.

Conflict amongst Foremen: Under this type, foreman of equal rank will be many in number and this may lead to conflict among them. Discipline: Since workers have to work under different bosses, it is difficult to maintain discipline among them. A disadvantage of this structure is that the different functional groups may not communicate with one another, potentially decreasing flexibility and innovation.

The functional structure is commonly found in small companies and also in large companies with single product line or narrow product ranges. The following are the advantages of functional organisation structure : (1) Benefits of Specialisation: The whole company is divided into many departments on the basis of major activities to be performed. This in more and better work being accomplished in much lesser time.

Each department is headed by an expert manager. Similarly, in a centralized government structure , the decision-making authority is concentrated at the top, and all other lower levels follow the directions coming from the top of the organization structure. Advantages of Centralization.

An effective centralization offers the following advantages: 1. Moreover, due to the great amount of power of the project manager , it can be an issue for members of the team.