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Showing posts from September, 2011

Structured Freedom: Organizational Structure and Employee Independence

Over the years, much has been said and done regarding creating organizational structure, developing chains of command, standardizing jobs, and eliminating unnecessary thinking from daily job tasks. In particular, successful companies in the business world preach the value of well-defined organizational structure, with organizational charts often being referenced during times of evaluation and change. While the aforementioned concepts can definitely be good, is there a point where too much structure is bad, supervising requirements are excessive, job standardization is demoralizing, and employee thinking becomes devalued? In developing a sound organizational structure and organizational culture, more should be said about the concept of "structured freedom" . From an organizational standpoint, structure needs to be present, as it helps define workers' roles and shapes various group decision-making processes. While structure gets continuously recognized for its value in bus