Page 2 ~ In addition to job description and organization charts in a company, there are other elements such as budgets, forms, appraisal systems, systems for introducing new products to the company, salary-administration systems, long-range forecasts, management-development systems, goal-setting systems, data-processing systems, and management-information systems. All are developed independently with very little integration and frequently with an increasing despair on the part of those who are called upon to develop the systems, through the recognition of how little relevance or connection there is between what they are doing and what the rest of the company is doing.
The framework within which reorganization is at present undertaken is one in which analysis, or reduction, alone is known and recognized. This inadequate framework brings about a violation of harmony, of structure. “Everyone knows” that to solve a problem one must start by breaking the problem down into smaller problems and, where necessary, these into yet smaller problems. One then goes about solving each of these simple problems and then synthesizes or integrates the solutions in a steadily ascending hierarchy. However, to break a problems down is to reduce the level of the problem, and by changing its level one changes the problem entirely.
To organize but part of the company is like trying to bake half a cake. Often a manager will say, “Well, first let us set up this and that department, or this and that role within the department, or perhaps this and that systems. let us get those working, and then later on we can turn our attention to the rest of the organization.” This is something like a housewife saying, “Let us first of all put in the flour and water and perhaps some currants, and later on we will get around to the eggs and sugar and the rest of the ingredients, when we have cooked the first part of the cake.”
February 17th, 2020 ~