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Organizational chart

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An organizational chart (often called organization chart, organigram(me), or organogram(me)) is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of its parts and positions/jobs. The term is also used for similar diagrams, for example ones showing the different elements of a field of knowledge or a group of languages. The French Encyclopédie had one of the first organizational charts of knowledge in general.[citation needed]

Overview

An organizational chart of a company usually shows the managers and sub-workers who make up an organization. It also shows the relationships between the organization's staff members which can be one of the following:

  • Line - direct relationship between superior and subordinate.
  • Lateral - relationship between different departments on the same hierarchical level.
  • Staff - relationship between a managerial assistant and other areas. The assistant will be able to offer advice to a line manager. However, they have no authority over the line manager actions.
  • Functional - relationships between specialist positions and other areas. The specialist will normally have authority to insist that a line manager implements any of their instructions.

In many large companies the organization chart can be large and incredibly complicated and is therefore sometimes dissected into smaller charts for each individual department within the organization.

There are three different types of organization charts:

Limitations of an organizational chart

There are several limitations with organizational charts:

  • It only shows 'formal relationships' and tells nothing of the pattern of human (social) relationships which develop.
  • It very quickly becomes out-of-date, especially in large organizations which change their staff regularly.
  • When starting a business, or when changing from one organizational structure to another, it's appropriate that owners consider advantages and disadvantages of each structure in meeting business, personal and family goals.
  • The best structure for one type of business may not be the best for another. The best structure for a new business may not be suitable as the business expands.

In some cases, an organigraph may be more appropriate, particularly if one wants to show non-linear, non-hierarchical relationships in an organization.

Example of an organizational chart

The following is an example of a simple hierarchical organizational chart:

An example of a 'line relationship' in this chart would be between the general and the two colonels. These two colonels are directly responsible to the general.

An example of a 'lateral relationship' in this chart would be between "Sergeant A", and "Sergeant B" who both work on level and both report to the "Captain A".

Various shapes such as rectangles, squares, triangles, circles etc. can be used to indicate different roles. Colour can be used both for shape borders and connection lines to indicate differences in authority and responsibility, and possibly formal, advisory and informal links between people. A department or position yet to be created or currently vacant might be shown as a shape with a dotted outline. Importance of the position may be shown both with a change in size of the shape in addition to its vertical placement on the chart.

Drawing organizational charts

There are a number of software products that can be used to create organizational charts. OrgPlus, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft PowerPoint, and SmartDraw are common tools. For Mac OS X users there is OmniGraffle. Free software options include Kivio for Linux and Dia for most operating systems. There are also dedicated organizational charting products created by Nakisa, Ingentis, Acquire, HumanConcepts, TIMETOACT, Cezanne Software and PeopleBoard that allow companies to create organizational charts by connecting to SAP, PeopleSoft and Oracle ERP systems. Cogmap is a free web site that allows users to create public or private organization charts on-line.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Organizational charts.
Chart with free tools
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