Pattern classification of organizational flattening

Matrix organizational structure is an organizational form based on the vertical organizational system of linear functional system, which is formed by adding a horizontal leadership system to improve the shortcomings of poor horizontal connection and lack of flexibility. It can also be called "non-long-term fixed organization". Its organizational structure is shown in figure 1.

Its characteristic is to set up a special organization with cross-functional departments around a special task, such as setting up a special product (project) team to engage in new product development and sending people from relevant departments to participate in different stages of research, design, testing and manufacturing. This organizational structure is fixed, but the personnel are changing. Who needs to come and go after the task is completed. The project team and the person in charge are also appointed by the temporary organization. After the task is completed, it is dissolved and the relevant personnel return to their original units. Therefore, this organizational structure is very suitable for horizontal cooperation and key projects. Enterprises can be used to complete major engineering projects or management reform tasks involving a wide range, temporary and complex. It is especially suitable for scientific research and other units focusing on development and experiment, especially applied research units.

The advantages of matrix structure are:

Flexible, can be organized or dissolved with the development and end of the project; Because this structure is organized according to the project, the task is clear, the purpose is clear, and people with expertise in all aspects are fully prepared. Therefore, in the new working group, they can communicate and integrate, and they can link their work with the overall work to offer suggestions and suggestions for overcoming difficulties and solving problems. Because the personnel transferred from all sides have a sense of trust and honor, they have increased their sense of responsibility, stimulated their enthusiasm for work and promoted the realization of the project; It has also strengthened cooperation and information exchange between different departments, and overcome the phenomenon that all departments are out of touch in the linear functional structure; Strengthen the horizontal contact and make full use of professional equipment and personnel.

The disadvantages of matrix system are:

The responsibility of the project leader is greater than the power, because the people involved in the project come from different departments, and their subordinate relationship is still in the original unit, just for fighting, so it is difficult for the project leader to manage them, and there are not enough rewards and punishments. This dual management of personnel is a congenital defect of matrix structure; Because the project members come from various functional departments and still have to return to their original units after the task is completed, it is easy to produce temporary ideas and short-term behaviors, which will have a certain impact on the work. Self-management team SMT (self-management team) is the basic unit in team organization. The so-called self-management team is a unit that responds to specific customer needs, grasps the necessary resources and capabilities, and implements self-management with the support of the organizational platform. Through free combination, each strategic unit chooses its own members and leaders, determines its own operating system and tools, and uses information technology to formulate its own best working methods. Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, General Motors and other internationally renowned enterprises have adopted this organization. SMT minimizes the interdependence within the organization. The basic characteristics of team organization are: the working team makes most decisions and chooses the team leader, who is the person in charge rather than the boss; Information exchange is carried out directly between people, without intermediate links; The team will independently determine and assume corresponding responsibilities; The team will determine and implement most of its training plans.

It has the following characteristics:

(1) The self-management team accommodates the basic resources and capabilities of the organization. On the basis of flexible production technology and information technology, authorize the team to obtain the resources needed to complete the whole task, such as raw materials, information, equipment, machines and materials.

(2) Dilution of vertical boundaries of departments. On the premise of paying full attention to the enthusiasm, initiative and ability of employees, the team has eliminated the obstacles among departments, functions, disciplines and majors, and members can acquire comprehensive skills through cross-training and cooperate with each other to complete organizational tasks.

(3) One-stop service and team decision-making. Supported by a concise and efficient organizational platform (overall strategy, information technology, funds, etc.). ), the team has been given great decision-making power. Team members can independently plan, solve problems, decide priorities, control funds, monitor results and coordinate related activities with other departments or teams. Self-management team is dynamic and integrated, and can provide "one-stop" service for ever-changing customer needs. From the perspective of value provision, the self-management team independently undertakes all the work of one or more links in value appreciation.

(4) Top managers are driven by the market and their roles change. In the flat organization, the self-management team is responsible for the operating performance of the unit, and its managers have changed from the traditional executive role to the main initiator of innovation activities, creating and pursuing new development opportunities for the company. Middle managers are greatly simplified and no longer play the role of complete control. On the contrary, they are transformed into providing basic managers with key resources such as customer and supplier information, personnel training plan, performance and salary system design, and assisting the horizontal integration of knowledge, skills and resources among teams. Due to the rapid dispersion of resources and responsibilities, senior managers mainly focus on formulating overall strategies, driving the innovation process and playing the role of designers and coaches.

In the competition based on speed and solution supply, the self-management team can only handle relatively limited resources. In order to meet customers' wishes, effectively reduce costs, reduce risks and shorten development time, the self-management team must highly rely on extensive horizontal cooperation with other teams or external organizations; The self-management team can independently complete one or more links of value-added, which lays the foundation for its multi-party cooperation with other teams within or between organizations. In the new organization driven by market demand, the self-management team is its basic unit, and this organizational form must be flat. Network enterprise is a kind of virtual enterprise. A generally accepted definition of network organization is that a network organization is a consortium composed of several independent individuals, departments and enterprises to accomplish the same task. Its operation does not depend on the traditional hierarchical control, but on the basis of clarifying the roles and tasks of its members, it achieves the same goal through intensive multilateral contacts, mutual benefit and interactive cooperation.

In the organizational structure of network-based enterprises, all departments of the enterprise are nodes on the network, and each department can directly exchange information and knowledge with other departments, and the relationship between them is parallel and equal, rather than the organizational form of hierarchical infiltration in the past. Intensive multilateral contact and full cooperation are the most important characteristics of network organizations, which is the biggest difference between them and traditional enterprise organizations. This organizational structure has the characteristics of network in form, that is, equality, multiplicity and diversity of contact.

In the process of enterprise network transformation, it is necessary to popularize the use of information technology, make many management departments and managers give way to information systems, cancel intermediate management or greatly streamline, thus flattening the organizational structure of enterprises and continuously improving the management level of enterprises.

The applicable premise of network organization: economic globalization and high environmental uncertainty.

Basic types of network organization

According to the identity characteristics of organization members and their different relationships, network organizations can be divided into four basic types, namely, internal network, vertical network, inter-market network and opportunity network. These four types of networks are described in detail below.

(1) internal network

Internal network includes two meanings. The first aspect is to make information flow more quickly between senior managers and ordinary employees by reducing management levels; The second aspect is to make information and knowledge spread faster in the horizontal direction by breaking the boundaries between departments (but this does not mean the disappearance of division of labor between departments). In this way, the enterprise will become a flat network consortium composed of employees with unclear boundaries in multiple departments, with faster information flow and less friction between departments. Correspondingly, the organizational structure of enterprises has also changed from production-oriented to customer-oriented.

(2) Vertical network

Vertical network is an inter-enterprise network organization composed of enterprises located in different links of the value chain of a specific industry. Raw material suppliers, parts suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and other upstream and downstream enterprises not only exchange products and funds, but also exchange and enjoy other elements such as technology and information. The connection between enterprises in vertical network is to maximize the interests of the whole value chain (including customers), because only when the interests of the whole value chain are maximized can the value created by enterprises in all links of the value chain be finally realized. The organizational function of vertical network is usually performed by enterprises that create core added value in the value chain. For example, General Motors and Toyota Motor Corporation have established vertical networks composed of many suppliers and distributors respectively. Enterprises in the network have achieved timely supply and agile manufacturing through close cooperation, which greatly improved efficiency and reduced costs.

(3) Cross-market network

Inter-market network refers to the network composed of enterprises in different industries, which are interdependent to some extent. The most typical example of inter-market network is the consortium system in Japan. Large-scale manufacturing enterprises, financial enterprises and comprehensive trading companies are interrelated in equity, participate in management, enjoy resources, take collective action on major strategic decisions, and maintain long-term and close ties among all parties. Financial enterprises (including commercial banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions) provide long-term and stable financial support for other member enterprises in the form of equity and creditor's rights. Comprehensive trading companies provide various domestic and foreign trade services for member enterprises, including raw material procurement and finished product sales, and provide trade credit to avoid trading risks.

(4) Opportunity network

Opportunity network is an enterprise group organized around customers. The core of this group is an enterprise specialized in collecting, sorting and classifying market information. It builds a communication platform between consumers and production enterprises, which gives consumers greater choices, and producers face a wider range of consumers, which is conducive to the full development of transactions between the two groups. Opportunistic network plays a key role in standardizing product standards, network security and trading methods. The typical core enterprises of Opportunity Network include long-established mailing catalogue companies and emerging e-commerce platform enterprises (such as Amazon and Yi Bei). ), connecting many producers and consumers together to form an opportunity network.

Basic characteristics of network organization

The network organization structure within an enterprise is uncertain, and the network organization of each company is different. But they all have some basic characteristics:

(1) Cooperation, democracy, freedom and tolerance. The characteristics of products in the era of knowledge production are continuous innovation and creative labor. However, the collection of knowledge and information needed for innovation is always unevenly distributed. Creative labor requires superiors to respect subordinates, encourage innovation, allow failure, and encourage the exchange of different opinions. The corresponding network organization forms include: rationalization proposal, peer performance evaluation, etc.

Another important feature of network organization is its free and tolerant organizational culture. For example, in management, 3M allows employees to have some personal hobbies during working hours, and IBM also allows employees to do "private work" during working hours; Some companies implement self-management and self-evaluation, such as setting their own work quotas; Decentralization and empowerment are implemented in order to better stimulate and utilize people's interests and hobbies.

(2) The supply relationship of network enterprises is based on cooperation among enterprises, and the boundaries of enterprises are vague. Under the network supply relationship of new enterprises, cooperation has a more important position. Core enterprises can help suppliers solve technical problems, and the cost savings are shared by both parties. Supply enterprises can also modify the design requirements of core enterprises, and the reduced costs can also be shared by both parties. Enterprises turn from pursuing the maximization of their own interests to pursuing the maximization of the value of the whole value chain (supply chain).

This cooperative relationship blurs the traditional boundaries between enterprises, and these interrelated upstream and downstream enterprises form a larger virtual enterprise, also known as virtual integrated supply chain.

(3) Network organizations adapt to the knowledge-intensive requirements of creative labor through teams (grass-roots project teams and top management professional teams). Creative labor needs people with different knowledge backgrounds to combine with each other, and the enterprise team comes into being. Team is a way to strengthen cooperation and information exchange, and it is also a form of network organization.

(4) Network organizations can stimulate people's enthusiasm, initiative and self-management ability through the localization of power and responsibility. After the reform of decentralization, even in the subordinate units with non-independent accounting, the decision is not made by the superior department before being issued for implementation, but reported by the subordinate department after making its own decision, or made after consultation between the superior and the subordinate; What matters is not motivation, but performance. It is also one of the characteristics of network organization to establish profit center and cost center, and to divide and establish independent accounting units (with self-management team as accounting unit).

(5) Flexible network organization. Flexibility refers to the establishment of some unfixed, informal or temporary organizations in the organizational structure. These organizations are often task-oriented, can be established or cancelled as needed, and have a network but nonlinear relationship with formal organizations.

(6) Network organization has the characteristics of multi-culture, individuality and differentiation. In the network organization, everyone is a node in the network organization, and the relationship between them is closer than in the traditional linear organization. Various cultures, differences and personalities within enterprises are conducive to the integration of knowledge and information.

(7) Network organizations increase knowledge density through learning and training. Specific forms include: staff training, education investment, multi-post rotation, etc.