What Is a Functional Organizational Structure?

Functional organizational structure is also called U-shaped organization. Also known as the U-shaped organization originated from the organizational structure established by Fayol in the early last century when he served as general manager of the coal mine company he operated, so it is also called "Fayol model". It organizes the division of labor by function, that is, from the top to the bottom of the enterprise, the management business and its personnel who assume the same function are grouped together, and the corresponding management department and management position are set up. With the increase in the number of production varieties, the development of market diversification should be based on different product types and market forms, and establish various business unit systems that integrate production and sales, and are self-financing.

Functional organization

Functional organizational structure is also called U-shaped organization. Also known as U-shaped organization

This is based on working methods and skills as the basis for division.

1. Management agencies and personnel at all levels implement a highly specialized division of labor, each fulfilling a certain

There are very prominent problems in project work in functional organizations, which are manifested in:

1. There is no strong power center or individual directly responsible for the project;

We represent from the figure

1. In various enterprises,

In such an organizational structure, there must be a functional department, which is the most helpful for the implementation of a project, or at least the most likely to make the project successful, so you can put this project in this function Sector as part of it.

Functional Organization Structure Advantage

1. Greater flexibility for users

As long as the superior selected for a project is an appropriate functional department, the project can obtain the professional and technical personnel it needs from this department-on the one hand, in order to implement the project, these personnel can be seconded temporarily and wait for them After completing their tasks, they can return to their original daily work. On the other hand, the technical bases of functional experts in the functional departments are usually broad, which allows them to work between different projects. With a functional organizational structure, the same technical experts can be used for different projects at the same time.

2. As the professionals belong to the same department, it is conducive to the exchange of knowledge and experience, a project can obtain support from all the knowledge and technology existing in the department, which is extremely helpful to the creative solution of the technical problems of the project.

3. Professionals can get a smooth promotion path from their own department

Participants need professional development and progress. It is not enough to rely on receiving honors from successful projects. They also need to rely on a relatively stable functional department in order to have a foundation.

4. Conducive to maintaining the technical continuity of the project

In a project or even a company, personnel mobility is inevitable. In this case, to maintain the technical continuity of the project, the functional department is the most reliable foundation.

Taking the project as part of the department is not only technically, but also in terms of policy, engineering, management, etc., it is conducive to maintaining its continuity.

Disadvantages of Functional Organization Structure

1. The working methods caused by functional departments are often faced with their own

To complete a complex project, multiple functional departments are usually required to work together. The focus of each department is often in this area, and the goal of the entire project is ignored. Even if this can be overcome, there is still a problem that it will be more difficult to conduct cross-sectoral communication and cooperation. And the way a successful project works must be problem-oriented.

2. Under this organizational structure, the activities and their focus are not the customers

This is related to the first disadvantage. From the perspective of the entire department, because functional departments have their daily work, their priority is often not the interests of the project and customers, but those in the project that are directly related to the interests of the functional department Related issues. In this way, problems that are outside its scope are likely to be left out, resulting in insufficient support for the project.

From a micro perspective, for the personnel deployed to the project, they often do not regard the project as the main job, and even some people will take the project task as an additional burden, and the result must be the motivation of the staff Affected badly.

3. This project organization structure leads to ambiguous responsibilities

In this structure, the project is often broken down into different parts, and the project manager is responsible for some of them, and the others are responsible for others. As a result, in many cases, it is impossible to find one person to take full responsibility for the project.

This situation can actually be attributed to the existence of multiple management levels between the project and the customer. It is conceivable that it will inevitably bring coordination difficulties and cause confusion. And the continuation of this chaotic situation will inevitably lead to the delay in responding to customer needs, and the difficulty will increase.

Examples of functional organizations

For example: in any higher education institution is a purely functional organization. Student enrollment in the school belongs to different departments, department heads and administrative agencies.