Internal organisation: structure and organisation chart

Explain why every company needs to organise itself, even if it is small, drawing on two concepts: the division of labour (each person specialises in a task) and the need for coordination (so that the pieces fit together). Illustrate this with a bakery employing the owner, two bakers, and a shop assistant.

Match each task with the functional department that carries it out (general management, commercial, production, finance or people) and briefly justify each assignment: setting the year's objectives, studying what customers want, controlling product quality, managing the workforce's payroll and deciding how to pay for the new machinery.

A company has five typical functional departments: general management, commercial, production (or operations), finance, and human resources (people). State which department decides each matter and justify it: launching an advertising campaign, applying for a loan to buy a machine, hiring two operators, setting the monthly manufacturing schedule, and approving the opening of a second plant.

In an organisation chart, levels are distinguished: senior management, middle management and the base or operators. Explain what each level does and how they communicate with each other. Then place these people from a hotel at their level: the general manager, the head of reception, the receptionists and the head chef.

In a traditional company there are six hierarchical levels between the operator and the general manager; in a recent start-up there are only two. a) Explain the difference between a vertical (tall) structure and a flat structure. b) Analyse an advantage and a disadvantage of each, considering decision-making speed, the cost of middle management, and control over employees' work.

In one company, each boss manages an average of 15 people and there are few hierarchical levels; in another, each boss manages 4 people and there are many levels. a) Explain what the span of control is (the number of people who report directly to a manager) and how it relates to the height of the company's pyramid. b) Analyse which span fits better with routine, easy-to-supervise work and which with creative and complex work, justifying your answer.

A restaurant chain decides all menus, prices, and promotions from headquarters; another chain allows each restaurant to adapt its menu and prices to its local area. a) Identify which one is centralised and which is decentralised. b) Analyse two advantages of each option (uniformity and economies of scale versus adaptation to local customers and manager motivation) and reason which fits best in a sector where tastes vary greatly from one city to another.

The owner of a chain of three flower shops used to decide everything and now wants to delegate: each shop will have a manager with the power to decide orders, schedules and small expenses. a) Explain what delegating is and what three elements are transferred (authority to decide, responsibility for the result and the obligation to be accountable). b) Analyse what she should never delegate (setting the chain's strategy, supervising the final accounts) and what the owner needs for delegation to work (trust, training, information and results control).

“Instalaciones Voltaicas S.L.” has grown in three years from 8 to 42 workers and has quadrupled its turnover. However, the profit margin has fallen by 35 % and clients report average delays of three weeks in delivering quotes and execution. The founder and CEO states: “If I want things done right, I have to personally sign off on every purchase over 100 €, review weekly shifts, and validate every technical quote; my employees take no responsibility and make mistakes.”

1. a) Critically evaluate the founder's stance based on the concepts of span of control, agency costs, and centralization versus decentralization. Demonstrate how his management style generates internal diseconomies and talent drain.
2. b) Design a departmentalization and authority redistribution proposal for the 42 employees. Accurately define which strategic decisions General Management must retain and which tactical and operational decisions should be decentralized, establishing quantitative and responsibility limits.
3. c) Design three formal control and coordination mechanisms (which do not consist of direct, personal supervision by the founder) to ensure that delegation does not result in a loss of quality or budgetary deviations.

In a factory, the production department makes decisions on the assembly line (line unit), while the quality and risk prevention departments advise and control without having authority over the operators (staff or support units). a) Explain the difference between line units and staff units. b) Analyse what conflicts can arise between them (the staff "gets in the way" of production, the line ignores the staff's warnings) and how to avoid them.

A civil engineering consultancy firm has adopted a matrix structure: functional department heads (Structural Analysis, Geotechnics, Environment) coexist with project managers (High-Speed Rail Line, International Bridge, Commercial Port). In recent weeks, serious tensions have arisen:

• The High-Speed Rail Project Manager demands that two senior Structural engineers work exclusively on his project 50 hours a week to meet the delivery deadline under threat of financial penalties.

• At the same time, the Structural Functional Director orders them to dedicate 40% of their working hours to auditing the design of the International Bridge to ensure corporate technical standards and train junior engineers.

• The affected engineers report stress, conflicting orders, and operational paralysis.

1. a) Justify how the breakdown of the unity of command principle generates this conflict and explain what type of horizontal versus vertical tensions are intrinsic to this organizational model.
2. b) Design a decision-making protocol or a conflict resolution mechanism that allows prioritizing between functional directors and project managers without destroying matrix flexibility.
3. c) Critically evaluate whether it would be advisable for this consultancy firm to dismantle the matrix and return to a purely functional structure or to a project-based divisional structure, weighing the utilization rate of specialized resources against commercial response speed.

Distinguish between formal organisation (that which appears on the organisation chart: departments, hierarchy, written duties) and informal organisation (real unwritten relationships: friendships, influences, customs). Give two examples of each in an educational centre or a company you know, and explain why informal organisation can help or hinder.

At the logistics company “Trans-Iberia”, the newly appointed Operations Director has implemented a new digital route-allocation protocol to reduce fuel consumption by 12 %. Two months later, consumption has not dropped and driver complaints are mounting. An internal audit reveals that drivers ignore the application and continue turning to Carmen, an administrative manager with 25 years at the company who holds no hierarchical authority over them, who manually reorganizes shift charts on a whiteboard based on her empirical knowledge of traffic and the staff's personal affinities.

1. a) Analyze the existing conflict by contrasting the sources of power (legitimate formal authority versus expert and referent power in the informal organization). Justify why the new director's formal design has failed against Carmen's informal network.
2. b) Predict the organizational consequences for the company of strict disciplinary action (for example, penalizing Carmen and forcibly mandating the app's use) versus ignoring the situation and letting Carmen continue making decisions outside the system.
3. c) Design an organizational integration strategy that allows the Operations Management to leverage Carmen's relational capital and knowledge without undermining formal authority or giving up technological optimization.

At "Mecanizados del Norte S.A.", an automotive company with 60 employees, an organizational audit was commissioned following a generational handover in general management. The report yields the following conclusions:

1. The official organizational chart states that shifts and machine assignments are decided by the Plant Manager; however, in practice they are resolved daily by two veteran female assembly line operators without any formal title or responsibility bonus.

2. Urgent orders do not go through the Sales Director (as stipulated in the procedures manual); instead, sales reps contact workshop technicians directly via instant messaging, bypassing middle management.

3. The system operates with great operational agility, but when a serious manufacturing defect occurred that cost the company €45.000, no manager assumed contractual liability for the defective batch.

1. a) Critically analyze the rift between the formal and informal organization in this case. Justify why this informal structure arose and evaluate why, despite providing day-to-day flexibility, it is unfeasible for a company subject to strict quality audits and civil liability requirements.
2. b) Explain the labor, psychosocial, and compensation risks that the company assumes by keeping the two veteran operators exercising de facto managerial functions without backing in the formal organizational chart.
3. c) Design an organizational redesign plan to align the formal structure with operational reality without hindering process agility or demotivating the staff involved (include job definitions, formal delegation mechanisms, and an incentive system).