Ongoing changes in structures have a direct impact on both the organization of work and individuals.
By Liliane Held-Khawam, author of the book “Management by Coaching: Coping with Complexity in a Changing World”.
A few upheavals that impact organizational structures
From a stable pyramidal organization…
The number of intermediary echelons between top managers and employees used to be important. Promotions were mainly based on technical skills. The number of activities under management was limited. employees would not necessarily seek to take initiatives and, actually, were asked not to take too many. In such organizations, the notion of customer-orientation was getting lost, as everyone was more concerned about running their little unit, almost as an end in itself. The time available to react and make decisions used to be very long. For many employees, it was a happy time: they did not incur many risks, as they were not exposed to the environment, and their individual performance was hardly measurable. They belonged to a large family; their personal identity was so to speak merged with that of the company.
…to a “flat” (process-focused) one
Being faced with the globalization of markets, with ever higher customer expectations, with an increased demand for tailor-made goods and services, with a competition stemming from just everywhere, offering the same products at ever decreasing costs, companies have been forced to radically rethink their complex, heavy and often inefficient structures. This is the period in which approaches such as “Total quality management”, “Customer-oriented organization”, “Intrapreneurship” and – more recently – “Business Process Reengineering” have emerged.
In a “workflow-oriented” organization, customers (whether internal or external) lie at the core of all corporate activities. All services are thus organized around the customers. A workflows-based functioning that integrates the diverse steps of the production process is adopted. The main goal is to cut the company’s reaction time, by making the way from the order to the delivery as short as possible. As a consequence, divisions are decompartmentalized, structures are flattened, the number of links in the workflows is cut, the functioning of the organizations is simplified.
Such principles seem ever so simple and natural, that most decision-makers and consultants think that they will be able to enhance the organization’s efficiency simply by modifying its structures and changing its workflows and procedures. Some even claim that the quality of structures is the only element that will determine the successfulness of a company!
However, in real life, changes in the organization of work have a direct impact on both employees and managers. The consequences may be felt:
- at technical and technological level: need for polyvalence, for an understanding of upstream and downstream activities, for an adaptation to the needs of the customers, for an increased rapidity, increase in the workload, optimization of workflows…
- at personal level: greatly increased personal exposure with increased responsibilities, need for a more global vision, for a more developed communication…
These incidences spare neither managers nor their employees.
The impact on employees
In a workflow-oriented organization, all members occupy a vital function that consists in meeting the needs of their own customers in an optimal way. Therefore, a quick and adequate reaction is required whenever there is a change in the needs of final customers, or whenever some innovation intervenes that could help improve the workflow. Under the present market conditions, this requires employees to remain constantly alert and display ever shorter reaction times.
Moreover, employees can count on ever less support from their superiors; the latter are indeed themselves engaged on several fronts at the same time. So they have to make decisions on their own, take responsibility – and anticipate!
Employees are thus left in the open. In the pyramidal organization, they used to fit into structures and processes that defined their activities and how they had to be carried out. In a workflow-oriented structure, both their strengths and weaknesses will be visible to all. They will be asked to take on more responsibilities, to display adaptation, anticipation, improvisation and coordination skills, as well as initiative and team spirit. Skills that were not so intensively required before.
The impact on managers
This type of organizational structure requires far less hierarchical echelons between the Board and grassroots employees. Costs – and thus personnel – have to be cut down. employees will have to contribute more heavily – both in terms of quantity and of quality – to final results. An cumulation of roles by the same person is not exceptional anymore. Where managers used to be in charge of 10 persons, they now are responsible of 20, 50 or 100 employees. Responsibilities increase, activities multiply.
In addition to this, the company’s strategy is not always clear. Shared responsibility, being a new phenomenon, often lacks clarity and create a sense of insecurity. Schedules of duties, being the source of so much rigidity, become obsolete. Managers are forced to take risks they had never had to deal with previously. Moreover, the notion of “performance” gains ground with a direct impact on the professional future and the remuneration of managers. This is why they feel more and more that they are on an ejection seat. This impression is accentuated by the fact that they have not been prepared for this new role and that they dispose of less intermediary steps to develop management skills.
Activities are integrated and even regrouped. It is therefore not possible anymore to master all the technical aspects of one’s work. Managers will have to rely more heavily than in the past on their personal skills (coordination, enthusiasm, leadership, communication…) to manage and mobilize their teams. Polyvalence (as opposed to specialization) becomes a major asset. So does the ability to analyze and manage complex situations, that has become a requirement in order to be able to evolve professionally.
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