Organizational Structures Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Organizational Structures - Research Paper Example The Metadata servers today enable the organizations to opt for a centralized storage, retrieval and sharing of data, which are more in tandem with the flat and lean organizational structures. Flat and lean organizational structures supported by Metadata servers do allow the organizations to lower costs, simplify systems support and to respect data integrity. Any operating organization needs to affiliate to a specific organizational structure in order to fulfill its organizational goals. The basic purpose of organizational structures is to support organizational hierarchy aimed at a systematic allocation and accomplishment of organizational functions (Dalton, Lawrence & Lorsch, 1991, p. 1). Hence, mostly it is possible to deduct the essential character of any organization and the values it adheres to by simply having a look at its organizational structure (Dalton, Lawrence & Lorsch, 1991, p. 1). Just a couple of decades ago, the organizations focused around a manufacturing mindset wer e affiliated to primarily hierarchical organizational structures which were strictly regimented with regards to facilitating access to information and allocating organizational functions. ... As already said, the bureaucratic structures happened to be strictly hierarchical when it came to managing people. Hence, even in post bureaucratic structures, though the organizations showed a concern for new trends and ideas, still these organizational structures happened to be hierarchical in their approach. The Divisional organizational structures tended to segment the varied functional areas of organizations into divisions (Salaman, 2001). Each division functioned independently and had access to its own resources so as to fulfill the organizational goals allocated to it (Salaman, 2001). Though the divisional organizational structures allowed the organizations to meet the specific needs of each division more systematically, still such structures hampered the sharing and processing of information as the employees in each specific division worked independently (Salaman, 2001). Besides, the inability to benefit from the information retrieved from Metadata servers made the divisional organizational structures utterly unwieldy and costly to operate. Many organizations, especially the large organizations do prefer to opt for functional organizational structures where the organizations are segmented as per the respective functions (Salaman, 2001). Functional organizational structures do have their advantages in the sense that they enhance the efficiency of varied functional groups within organizations, thereby allowing for easy and rapid management of organizational issues and challenges. Yet, functional organizational structures failed to eliminate one serious flaw that was common to divisional structures, which was making way for a free and unhampered sharing of information and data. The modern organizations tried to get over this hurdle by