Engineering Management

KNR 4553 / KNL 4603

Topic 3 - Organizing
 • Organizing means arranging
and relating work so that it can
be done efficiently by the
appropriate people(Glushko
2013; Lewis 2014)
• Managers are empowered to
design the organizational
structure—the team, group,
department, and so on—and to
define the working
relationships conducive for
attaining the company’s
objectives

Introduction
 Some
Definitions
• Span of control: refers to the number of
people supervised by a manager or
supervisor.
• Organization types:
• The line organization (e.g., a profit
center) performs activities directly
related to the company’s main goals.
• the staff organization (e.g., a cost
center) provides advice and
comments in support of the line
organization’s work.
• Overlap and duplication of responsibility:
refers to a situation where two or more
people do the same work and make the
same decisions.
Some
Definitions

• Specialization: refers to the

increased degree of skill
concentration in narrow technical
domains.
• Work arrangement: Work needs to
be arranged in a rational and
logical manner. The logical
arrangement of work promotes
task accomplishments and
enhances personal satisfaction for
more workers over a longer period
of time.
Some
Definitions

• Authority refers to the legal or

rightful power of a person, by
assignment or by being associated
with a position, to command, act,
or make decisions.
• Responsibility is the duty to
perform work assumed by a
position holder in an efficient and
professional manner.
• Accountability represents an
upward-directed obligation to
secure the desired results of the
assigned work.
Activities of
Organizing
• Organizing one’s own
workplace for productivity
• Developing organizational
structure
• Delegating
• Establishing working
relationships
Organizing one’s own
workplace for productivity
• Engineering managers need to be organized with
respect to time, paper, and space.
• A few rules of thumb that are recommended for the
engineering managers to become more efficient:
• Use an online calendar that indicates time slots blocked
out for important tasks.
• Maintain a “to-do” list.
• File papers based on “access,” or use a logical keyword
system under which to find the document later.
• Implement a system for keeping track of names and phone
numbers.
• Cuivate the use of the phone.
Developing
organizational structure
• To help ensure that important work
related to the key objectives of the unit
or department is performed.
• Eliminate or minimize the overlap and
the duplication of responsibilities.
• better position to utilize available
talents, encourage mutual support
among workers, provide technological
foci, and facilitate problem solving.
Types of
Organizational
Structure
• Functional Organization
• Discipline-Based Organization
• Product/Region-Based Organization
• Matrix Organization
• Team Organization
• Network Organization
Functional
Organization
• The functional structure is a very widely
used organizational form in industry.
• Advantages:
• permits a hierarchy of skills to be
developed and maintained
• facilitates specialization in order to
achieve high levels of excellence
• simplifies coordination as experts in
various functional areas are logically
grouped together
• allows the use of current technologies
and state-of-the-art equipment.
Functional
Organization
• Disadvantages:
• encouraging excessive centralization
• delaying decision-making due to
barriers created by the departmental
boundaries
• compounding communication line loss
• restricting the development of
managerial skills of employees
• limiting employee growth because of
constrained exposure to professional
experience outside of the departments.
Functional Organization
 Discipline-Based Organization
• Universities, governmental laboratories, and some contract
research firms are organized according to disciplines.
 Product/Region-Based Organization
• Large companies may produce and market products/services of
various types to different customers in geographically dispersed
locations.
 Matrix Organization
• Some companies utilize the matrix organizational structure as a
short-term arrangement for specific projects and tasks involving
both functional group employees and project managers
 Team Organization
• A team is composed of members who are “on loan” from their
respective functional departments and are thus assigned to work
full time for the team leader in tackling high-priority, short-
duration tasks or projects
 Network Organization
• Companies form alliances, create business networks, and establish
supply chains with regional companies to manufacture, assemble,
market, deliver, and service products for specific regional markets
YOUR TASK:
What are the advantages
and disadvantages of the
following organization
type?

• Discipline-Based Organization
• Product/Region-Based Organization
• Matrix Organization
• Team Organization
• Network Organization
 Delegating

• After a specific form of organization is

established, unit, department, team,
division, or regional group, the next
step is for the engineering manager to
delegate the proper responsibility and
authority to the selected leaders and
workers.
• to establish the upward-directed
accountability needed to achieve the
defined organizational objectives
• for the purpose of improving the
engineering manager’s overall
efficiency by assigning responsibility
and authority and by creating
accountability
Delegating
Delegating
For delegating, the following guidelines,
which are also illustrated in previous
Figure may be helpful:
1. What the engineering manager
cannot do and the employee can
do, the employee does it.
2. What both the engineering
manager and employee cannot do,
the engineering manager does it.
3. What both the engineering
manager and the employee can do,
the employee does it.
4. What the engineering manager can
do and the employee cannot, the
engineering manager does it.
Establishing
working
relationships
to ensure that people are
working together well
enough to achieve the
company objectives.

Roles Clarification
• Line roles
• Coordinating roles
• Advisory roles
Establishing working
relationships
Line roles:
Employees with line roles are those in
profit centers with monopoly rights
within the company to provide products
and services to clients and customers.
Coordinating roles:
Employees in some cost centers have
monopoly rights for developing and
recommending constraints on the
position duties of others. These
constraints can take the form of
approvals, policies, procedures, or
planning
Advisory roles:
Employees in other cost centers provide
services in support of the profit centers.
Example of Roles Assignment
Establishing working
relationships
- Conflict Resolution
• In the real-world environment, there
are conflicts of many types. Examples:
• technical, including design,
analysis, and interpretation of
test results;
• operational, including
procedures to perform specific
tasks and assign responsibility;
• emotional, such as treating
bruised egos and hurt personal
feelings;
• political, such as knowing whom
to consult and who has a say on
specific projects or issues.
Establishing working
relationships
- Conflict Resolution

Conflicts may be resolved

by
1. dominance—dictating a
solution,
2. compromise—
negotiation based on a
relative power base,
3. collaboration that leads
to finding a win–win
solution.
Conclusions
• Organizing is an important
function of engineering
management with a direct
impact on the manager’s ability
to get work done efficiently.
• Organizing is also important for
enhancing the quality of work
output.
• Engineering managers need to
understand the power of
organizing and use the function
intelligently.