• Team working is not suitable for all jobs – although some managers do not like to admit this.
• Teamwork should be introduced because it leads to better performance, not because people feel better or more secure.
• Team processes (especially seeking consensus) can delay decision-making. The team may also produce the compromise decision, not the right decision.
• Social relationships might be maintained at the expense of other aspects of performance.
• Group norms may restrict individual personality and flair.
• ‘Group think’ (Janis): team consensus and cohesion may prevent consideration of alternatives or constructive criticism, leading the team to make risky, ill-considered decisions.
• Personality clashes and political behaviour within a team can get in the way of effective performance.

• It helps the organisation to take a long view and avoid short-termism, while at the same time providing a sensible approach to the uncertainty of the future.
• It guides the allocation of resources.
• It co-ordinates the activities of the various parts of the organisation, ensuring the integration of operational management decisions into the higher strategy, the wider organisational context and longer-term goals.
• It sets a standard by which the actual performance of the organisation is measured and controlled.
• It comforts providers of finance in particular, and encourages suppliers and employees to think in terms of a long-term relationship.
• The process of forming strategy requires wide and complex input, so it can have a beneficial effect on managers’ personal development and awareness, and can assist with management succession planning.

• Identifies risks. Strategic planning helps identify and manage risks.
• Forces managers to think. Strategic planning can encourage creativity and initiative by tapping the ideas of the management team.
• Forces decision making. Companies cannot remain static – they have to cope with changes in the environment. A strategic plan draws attention to the need to change and adapt, not just to ‘stand still’ and survive.
• Better control. Management control can be better exercised if targets are explicit.
• Enforces consistency at all levels. Long-term, medium-term and short-term objectives, plans and controls can be made consistent with one another. Otherwise, strategies can be rendered ineffective by budgeting systems and performance measures that have no strategic content.

• Support structured decisions at operational and management control levels.
• Designed to report on existing operations.
• Have little analytical capability.
• Relatively inflexible.
• Have an internal focus

• They are written down.
• They are circulated to interested parties in the organisation.
• They specify the outcomes (eg where the business wishes to be in five years’ time.
• They specify how the outcomes are going to be achieved.
• They trigger the production of operational plans lower down the hierarchy

• Accountability, ultimately to Parliament.
• Funding. The public sector can obtain funds in three main ways.
  o Raising taxes
  o Making charges (e.g. for prescriptions)
  o Borrowing
• Demand for services. There is a relationship between the price charged for something and the ‘demand’. In the public sector demand for many services is practically limitless.
• Limited resources. Despite the potentially huge demand for public services, constraints on government expenditure mean that resources are limited and that demand cannot always be met.
• Public interest. Governments once believed the public interest was best served if the state run certain services.

• Front line manager dealing with the day to day operational level.
• Does more technical and operational work.
• Gatekeeper for communication between managerial and non managerial staff, both upward (conveying reports and suggestions) and downward (conveying policies, instructions and feedback).
• Monitors and controls work by means of day to day, frequent and detailed information.

• Entrepreneurship – ability to spot business opportunities and mobilise resources to capitalise on them.
• Interpersonal skills – networking, influencing, negotiation, resolution coaching etc.
• Decision making and problem solving skills – seeing the big picture.
• Time management and personal organisation.
• Self development skills – ability to learn continuously from experience, to grow in self awareness and to exploit learning opportunities.

Job Analysis is the process of collecting, analysing and setting out information about the content of jobs to provide the basis for a job description and data for recruitment, training, job evaluation and performance management. Job analysis concentrates on what job holders are expected to do.

• Purpose of the job – Prepare or provide financial information.
• Content of the job – Task to be performed
• Accountabilities – deliverables.
• Performance Criteria – measurement of how you are on the job.
• Responsibilities – Decisions the employee is responsible for.
• Organisational Factors -Who to report to.
• Developmental Factors -Promotion paths and or career prospects.
• Environmental Factors -Working conditions, security and safety issues

The functional structure is centralised and produces a rigid framework for efficient management control. It is found in those private sector organisations that have outgrown the simple structure and in many parts of the public sector. This structure consists of a managing director (or equivalent title), very often in overall control, and a board of directors whose role is to oversee the organisation on behalf of the shareholders. The board makes the medium-term and long-term decisions for the organisation. Communication channels are short and vertical. Managers with specialist knowledge, such as accountancy, control specialist functional departments. The department is responsible for taking short-term operational decisions.

The rigidity of the functional structure means it can only function effectively where the organisation provides clearly-defined products or services to clearly-defined markets. This structure does not have the flexibility needed to deal with complexity. This is the weakness of the structure; it controls chaos which facilitates growth, but then finds diversity of product or service and market very difficult to cope with. With departments rigidly aligned, cross-functional team-working needed for diversification and innovation is very difficult.

The divisional structure deals with the complexity of different product or services and different markets. It is a decentralised structure. The various divisions are based on either product or geographical lines, which ever leads to greatest efficiency. Within the divisions there is a separate organisational structure. The simplified environment within the division usually means the functional structure is possible. The board of directors will only take the long-term strategic decisions. Divisional heads will be responsible for medium and short-term decisions. One of the consequences of the divisional structure is increased cost. This is partly alleviated through the sharing of central services such as human resource management, finance and legal services. This allows the organisation to operate centralised policies while maintaining the maximum amount of devolved activity.

The divisional structure can lead to some inefficiency, for example, divisions may find themselves in competition with each other. Each division will be able to account for its own income and expenditure. The head office will set targets and expect divisions to achieve these targets. Income from the divisions is usually aggregated to form the total income for the organisation. This means the divisions need to ask head office for funds and resources. The allocation of these funds can lead to interdivisional rivalry.

The matrix structure is a combination of two or more organisation structures. It is a hybrid structure because it combines functional organisation with project organisation. Therefore, it has the merits and demerits of these two structures. In s matrix organisation, the functional manager will have authority over the functional aspects of a job while the project manager will be responsible for the financial and physical resources which will be required to do the job.

Decisions in a matrix organisation are usually the best since they are made by experts. Again, the structure is very responsive to changes in the environment because it allows for quick decision making. A matrix structure deploys staff from different departments to work as a team and this serves as a source of belongingness and motivation.

On the other hand, the matrix structure requires a high degree of co-operation of employees who have been brought from different departments, without which performance may suffer. Another problem of the structure is that it increases management overhead costs. There is the potential for conflicting management directives which may be detrimental to organisational efficiency.