Organizational Structure

Organizational Structure

An organization structure is a process to determine how certain activities and roles are directed in an organization; these include, responsibilities and rules. For an organization to achieve its aims, events such as coordination, supervision, and task allocations are supposed to be directed by the organizational structure of every company. Organization’s routine actions are affected by the organizational structure; this is determined by which person in that company or organization is participating in which decision making and how their views and decisions affect the growth of that particular organization. The organization is structured in various ways depending on its objective and goals, and this allows the organization to be effective, innovative, flexible, and caring towards achieving its goals and sustaining competitive merit. Types of organizational structures include;

Line organizational structure, in this type of construction, the organization operates direct, vertical relationship in different levels of command in the firm, where line departments to departments only are directly involved in achieving the crucial aims of the organization. In many typical organizations, the line department includes production and marketing, where the authority follows the chain of command. Due to the apparent authority structure in line organizational structure, excellent decision making is promoted, and its understanding is simple. The main demerit of this kind of arrangement is that the managers can be overburdened when many tasks are involved.

Line and staff organizational structure is the structure by which the staff specialists are added to a line of organization, for either support, serve, or advise the line in a certain way. Through the addition of the staff, the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization are improved, although they are only limited to making recommendations to the central line organization. The main functions of the staff are human resources, development, and research. At times, however, this kind of structure may bring conflict. Yet, they are resolved by having some specialists in the staff obtain line experience, thus making them understand the problems their line managers are facing. Specialized teams can be identified as advising, services, and control., This reduces the burden to the managers because they are relieved some of their functions.

Divisional organizational structure, this is the type of structure whereby an organization may have a different basis on which sections are formed.  These sections include function, product, geographic territory, combination approach, and project.

Committee organization, in this kind of organization, a group of people is appointed to decide on some issues.  Committee usually supplements line and staff functions, and it can be permanent or temporary. The temporary committee is mainly set to deal with a particular problem, after which it is dissolved on the hand; the permanent committee has the task of acting as an advisory capacity to organization managers or units.

Organizational Hierarchy and Its Importance

A way that an organization is structured using various levels of power/authority follows a vertical link chain of command, which involves the superiors and the subordinates levels are referred to as an organization hierarchy. A business must have a structured authority that will establish its internal control. In this way, the employees of different levels can identify and follow the chain of command, and this helps them in their services and reference points when it comes to decision making. The primary type of hierarchy in business is the traditional organizational hierarchy, this is where the leadership is like a pyramid, and it narrows top is the highest level of management such as CEOs, general managers, and CFOs. The middle level of the monument consists of the middle-level managers, supervisors, while at the full bottom are the employees. In an organization structured in this way, the hierarchical members only communicate with immediate superior or immediate subordinates, which means that the higher levels of the hierarchy control the lower levels. Merits of organizational hierarchy streamline operations in an organization, and this is because the structure determines the magnitude of leadership as well as nature as its distributed within a particular organization. The hierarchical structure also controls the communication and data flow in an organization. The hierarchy allows a proper authority and control of the staff, i.e., as the commands start from the top, there is a clear definition of role, responsibilities, and Aims. Every manager is responsible for their department, thus improving effectiveness and control. Hierarchical structure helps conveying more interdepartmental loyalty; a bond is created within the employees as they work together in fulfilling a common goal and having the same purposes. The different departments are bound together by the specific jargon of communication. The system also promotes a right path for promotions and success because when the employee understands the system, they will know the next step in the ladder and work effortlessly towards it.

The Psychology of Risk

Psychology of risk is how different individuals or organizations understand the mental procedure of how to react in response to risky situations, how to identify a dangerous situation and the impact of the risk, and how one can make a sound judgment while faced by threats. Research has shown that every risk management, either financial or disaster, has had a psychological issue at its root. These psychological issues may result in either good or bad decision making depending on the individual. According to the article, the psychology of risk by Katherine Heires (2017), Cognitive ability can be diminished in times of crisis and also the ability to make a sound and practical decision; this is because, in this time, the brain treats response occurs quickly. The possibility of these effects is very high. As the study shows, risk can be an intrinsically complex notion, and it a human mind invention that will help people in dealing with the things that are dangerous or harmful. The psychology of risk also involves the retraining of one brain, to avoid bad decisions in the time of danger, individuals can train their minds on how to respond and react in times of crises. The idea of training one’s mind can be helped by constructive and helpful group education that will take human psychology into account. In the psychology of risk, various game theories are done to determine the risk awareness and the response of individuals and the entire organization. Such approaches are made to allow the trainers to gain information about a company and get the areas that need to be addressed in risk management and awareness, which also encourages people to remember the essential facts in dealing with risk. A psychologist Shefrin (2002) said that the use of gaming helps people in recognizing the susceptibility to these kinds of psychological phenomena and will build organizational cultures that can assist people in mitigating these vulnerabilities.

Hazard and Hazard Assessment

Anything/agent that can cause harm or damage to property, humans, or the environment is defined as a hazard. Various things can cause harm to a person or an organization for example; electrical fault can cause fire, shock, or even electrocution; a condition like a wet floor may cause slips and falls that are referred to be a health hazard. Hazards can either human-induced or can naturally occur. The natural hazards, also referred to as physical hazards include floods, drought, fire, and tornadoes. In workplaces, hazards can be defined as the aspects related to work that can cause bodily harm or health risks to people in an organization. Natural hazards, therefore, can be termed as extreme events that originated in either lithosphere, earthquakes, landslides, hydrosphere, or atmosphere that are a danger to humans and their well-being. Hazard is considered a harm/hazard only when a human being is involved; that why it is considered to be either hostile or hazardous. Hazard can also be mechanical; a mechanical hazard is a hazard that consists of a machine, motor vehicle, plane crashes industrial processes, etc. Hazard in workplaces can be identified by carrying out a hazard assessment in a workplace and determining how the staff might be harmed.

The process of evaluating a workplace and identifying the potential for hazards that the staff of a particular organization may encounter while at work is known as hazard assessment, this should be reviewed annually and the investigations of injuries done to determine the underlying hazards. Various things must be included in hazard assessment, and they include; patrolling a workplace and looking for anything that can cause harm to the workers. Discussing with the employees or their representative about things that can cause damage, follow the instructions in case of any chemical use, and make sure they read the machine manuals carefully. The hazard assessment should be done during design implementation, as well as before the task is done or when it’s being done. An organization should go through previous records that had incidences and identify the causes and try to improve them. Mostly some of the occurrences that occur through hazards involve untrained or minor mistakes by the employees; in this case, an organization should make sure they offer training to the staff or employ trained employees. The hazards should be fixed as soon as they are discovered to avoid incidences in an organization. The organization can also consider introducing non-routine situations or emergencies to keep people in the workplace always ready in case of any occurrence. The primary causation of hazards includes physical, such as the slippery floor, fire, deemed lights, and hazardous objects in walking paths.  The others include chemicals and ergonomic, chemicals such as gases, harmful fumes, dust, etc. for the ergonomic it all about the design of the work station and repetitive movements.

Risk and Risk Assessment

The likely for an uncontrolled loss of valuable items can be termed as a risk. When something or someone is exposed to danger, damage, or harm, this can also be defined as a risk. One is at risk when their values are at risk, and these values may be social status, health, emotional well-being, or financial status. Some of these values can be achieved by taking a risk that will results from a particular cause of action or inaction, whether planned or not planned. There are various types of risk; business risk, non-business risk, and financial risk. To maximize shareholders values and profits, business enterprise themselves takes the business risk, an example of such risks is when a company introduces a new product to increase in its profit without knowing the market response. In a non-business risk, the risk may not be influenced or controlled by the organization but may be due to either political or economic imbalances. The financial risk the way an organization can lose funds or finances; this can be caused by several hosts of factors that include the interest rates, currency changes, and the stock price.

The overall method and procedures of identifying the risk factor and hazards that can because harm and analyzing them are called risk assessment. The assessment is a vital element for safety and well-being control which the primary purpose is to regulate the actions that the statutory duty requires an organization to comply under the health and safety at work act. In risk assessment, various potential events that can harm either; individuals and their assets or the environment, they are identified and scrutinized and judgment made in terms of tolerability of the risk on the risk analysis basis and bearing in mind the influencing factors. Risk assessment has divided into three types, namely, baseline continuous and issue-based. For the company to determine the risk for the first time, a baseline risk assessment is done, by which a broad-based risk profile is established, after which specific aspects are then highlighted depending on the results. In the issue-based risk assessment, various appropriate techniques are employed in doing the risk assessment, such as the fault tree FMEA and HAZOA. The evaluation is done mainly because of the introduction of new processes machines, the highlighted aspects, and the current risk assessment routine in an organization. The continuous risk assessment is the regular formal and informal routines of inspecting and observing the daily interval and activities in the organization.

Hazard and Risk Assessment Team and the Steps Involved In Hazard/Risk Team

Hazard and risk assessment is supposed to be done by a competent person or a group of people who have an excellent working knowledge of the organization setting. Other people who should be involved in the assessment team as the source of information is either supervisor or one of the workers who are well informed about the process under which the review is done, and this is because they are the ones who are most acquainted with the setups. The team should involve the individual who is familiar with the operations to help them in the identification of hazards and also determining the possibility of harm, like injuries and the diseases occurring and their severity. The benefit of including one of the organization members to the team is to enable them to acquire the ability to identify hazards, categorize, and evaluate risk.

Although there are no fixed ways to conduct risk/hazard assessment, there are five steps an organization can follow to ensure that the process is carried out correctly, they include; identifying the hazard, for an individual to be able to identify the danger, they must differentiate between a hazard and risk. The difference can be defined as hazard being something that can cause harm, and risk realizes that potential harm. The process of identification of harm can be done by walking around or asking the employees about the workplace. The second step is deciding who may be at risk/harmed and how, after the identification, the team should be able to understand who may be injured, for example, if it the workers or the public members and how this might happen. In the third step, the risks should be evaluated and a decision made on the control measures to be taken. By this, the team can come up with ways to protect the people identified and remove the hazards entirely and controlling the risks to avoid incidences/accidents. The next step will be to record the findings as it’s a legal requirement, in recording level there should be five or more employees, the purpose of this is to make sure that the first three steps have been followed and show the elimination plan decided on. Finally, the last step is to review the assessment and make the necessary updates.

The Importance of History in a Proper Hazard/Risk Assessment

A proper hazard/risk assessment history helps an organization in health and safety management planning; by having this history, an organization can create awareness of possible risks and hazards. It enables the business to determine the best control program required for a particular hazard and also determine whether more should be done to enhance the existing control measures. The history would play a big part in the prevention of injuries and risks, mainly if it were well conducted in the planning stage or the design stage. By using the historical analysis of a correctly done risk/health assessment, the organization will always be able to prioritize the areas that were identified and avoid incidence in the future. The history of risk assessment plays a very crucial part, especially when the financial risk is concerned; this is to make the necessary control measures are in place to avoid repetition. Also, the history of these assessments will help future employees and the management in monitoring the areas that will need to be regularly observed. The assessment history will enable in ensuring that there are no changes in the workplace that may introduce hazard/risk in the organization; that is, if any new machinery or construction presented, the organization would be able to identify refer and the previous finding and determine whether they are safe or not. Proper hazard/risk assessment history gives a good chance for an organization to do a better review regularly and ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the control method used. The history also reduces the regulatory capital, and this means that the organization will be able to save on its regular risk/hazard assessment cost. The past can be used as a training tool for the newly employed workers, thus helping in the reduction of incidences in the workplace. This also raises health and safety management and effective control. The history of the assessment will make the regular routines easier to conduct because they will have a clue on where to prioritize, thus minimizing energy used and cost. Finally, history enables every worker to have a duty of ensuring that the safety of the organization is enhanced and the regulations followed.