organizational unit
OU (or organizational unit ; English organizational unit ) is in the organization theory , the smallest unit in which cognate (partial) tasks and activities are summarized.
General
Organizational units are the classic and fundamental elements of a formal organization . The smallest organizational unit in organizations is the position that Erich Potthoff defines as “the functional organizational unit related to a human worker ”. Furthermore are hierarchically in the organizational structure particular workgroups , departments , divisions and business areas as organizational units. In large companies , the strategic business unit is also an organizational unit; in corporations , entire subsidiaries can be managed by the parent company as an organizational unit. Also subsidiaries or branches may be organizational units. Organizational units are linked to the hierarchically structured organizational system of the line organization with the help of line relationships. The additional staff line organization relieves the line instances and makes the superiors less dependent on the subordinate area.
Organizational units are characterized by related activities in a largely homogeneous field of work . According to Edmund Heinen , from a formal point of view, they are subsystems of the overall system of (industrial) operations and other economic units such as public budgets , clubs , associations or authorities . So authorities have an organizational unit of public administration , in the other organizational units properties and owned companies or public companies are present. In terms of their homogeneous business area, they are all considered to be an organizational unit.
species
While the position occupied by only one authority represents a unipersonal organizational unit , the units above it are multi- person organizational units , to which competencies are assigned either for just one authority or for several. After the task, a distinction between authorizing officer instances, decision-protective bars , decision units, implementation units and control units .
Operational functions are performed by functional organizational units for procurement , production , financing and sales . This also applies to the cross-sectional or service functions of corporate management with the tasks of organization and planning , as well as to human resources , administration , information , research and development and logistics . The basic principle of functional organization is the division of employees into organizational units, each of which fulfills a specific function . Accordingly, with this form of organization, the specialist personnel necessary for the function to be fulfilled is combined in each organizational unit. In the organizational chart of stock corporations , the management board and the board members are often represented as a special organizational unit.
Process-oriented organizational units are increasingly being formed according to business processes and are replacing function-oriented organizational structures. This is part of since 1993 to be observed business process reengineering ( English business process redesign ), where similar processes are grouped into their own organizational units. Process-oriented organizational units are geared towards the external ( customer ) or internal service recipient.
Organizational issues
Organizational units serve the organizational department as the addressee for the fulfillment of their organizational tasks. The definition and hierarchization of organizational units is carried out in cooperation with the organizational department; the hierarchy of the units is carried out using an organizational chart. The hierarchy of organizational units leads to the authority of superordinate bodies and to the delegation of tasks, competencies and responsibility, taking into account the congruence principle of the organization towards subordinate positions. In the event of disruptions, the latter have the right to vertically escalate information or decisions - despite their own competencies - to higher-level organizational units without an inadmissible return delegation being present.
An organizational unit has power when it can induce other organizational units to adopt certain goals , values or beliefs as decision-making premises. According to David J. Hickson , the power of an organizational unit results from its ability to reduce uncertainty / uncertainty , its substitutability and the degree of dependency in the work process .
Web links
literature
- Götz Schmidt: Organization - structural organizational structures , 5th edition, 2011, ISBN 978-3-921313-79-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Edmund Heinen, Industrial Operations: Decisions in Industrial Operations , 1978, p. 171
- ↑ Erich Potthoff, company organization , in: Karl Hax / Kurt Wessels, Handbook of Economics, Volume I, 1966, p. 55
- ↑ Edmund Heinen, Industrial Operations: Decisions in Industrial Operations , 1978, p. 171
- ↑ Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, Kompakt-Lexikon Management , 2013, p. 272
- ↑ Rudi Studer, Concepts for a distributed knowledge-based software production environment , 1987, p. 12
- ↑ Klaus Altfelder, Staff Offices and Central Departments as Forms of Organization of Leadership , 1965, p. 26
- ↑ Michael Bitz / Michel Domsch / Ralf Ewert / Franz W. Wagner (eds.), Vahlens Kompendium der Betriebswirtschaftslehre , Volume 2, 2014, p. 93
- ↑ August-Wilhelm Scheer, Process-Oriented Enterprise Modeling , 1994, p. 1
- ↑ Michael Bitz / Michel Domsch / Ralf Ewert / Franz W. Wagner (eds.), Vahlens Compendium of Business Administration , Volume 2, 2014, p. 85
- ↑ Jürgen Galler, From business process model to workflow model , 1997, p. 154
- ^ Edmund Heinen, Industrial Operations: Decisions in Industrial Operations , 1978, p. 193
- ↑ David J. Hickson / David J. Hinings / CA Lee / RE Schneck / Johannes M. Pennings, A strategic Contingecy Theory of intraorganizational Power , in: Administrative Science Quarterly 16, 1971, pp. 216-229