Pros And Cons Of Flatter Hierarchal Structures

Increased globalisation, the introduction of more and more advanced technologies, wavering markets and omnipresent competition at the organisational level, change is found everywhere in contemporary organisations (By, 2007; Karoly, 2007). To accommodate the necessity to change we need to develop and design organisations in sustainable ways. This paper is about organisational design and development, within this field I want to focus on organisational structure. An organisational structure defines how activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision are directed towards achieving organisational goals (Pugh, 1990). Within the realm of organisational structures, I want to focus on the flatter hierarchal structures. A flat organisation …show more content…
The introduction of new models of organisations was anticipated to have a considerable impact on the division of labour and the roles of the middle management and supervisors (Buchanan and Preston, 1992; Lowe, 1993; Nilsson, 1996; Delbridge et al., 2000). As became clear from Seppälä’s (2004) study, when job contents of supervisors and employees become broader, more demanding and hasty, it is difficult to develop the new kind of leadership team based organisations require. Obviously, there are also proven advantages to the horizontal model. The move toward teamwork and flatter company structures is likely to improve the quality of life of ordinary working people: employees would have more decision-making powers greater responsibility and a wider range of tasks to perform, workers’ self-confidence and commitment would increase, the new working practices would bring a more informal atmosphere and the strict division between work and play would disappear (Flat organizations can puncture employee morale, …show more content…
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