Organisational Structure

Introduction

The organisational structure is a system used to define the hierarchy within an organisation and usually represented in an organogram.

Why

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This toolkit is useful when your organisation:

• is in an initial stage and does not have a defined organisational chart.
• has an organisational structure but wants to review and improve it, for example to have reporting and communication lines more clear and various roles and responsibilities coordinated.
• has a plan to grow or restructure programs and needs to plan organisational structure accordingly, so that it creates a future scenario for organisational growth and expansion and potential succession planning.

What you can expect

In eight steps this toolkit guides you in creating and mapping your organisation structure. Here you’ll find a step-by-step guide, tools, examples and other resources for designing or redesigning your organisational structure.

Step 1: Establish Need

• Talk with the team about the importance of having or renewing the organisational structure.
• Agree with the team to undertake an organisational structure assessment and to develop an organisational structure.
• Assign one person to take the project forward. This can be a team member in charge of human resources, a management team member, a board member or a highly skilled volunteer.

Watch this video by the University of Ghana that explains the basics of organisation design and structure:

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Step 2: Understand current structure

• Study the current structure and task division in the organisation by reading the job descriptions and by interviewing organisation staff to understand:
  • Job profiles
  • Reporting lines
  • Roles and responsibilities
  • Communication flow
  • Decision making

Step 3: Analyse organogram

• Analyse the current organisational structure, identify gaps and critical issues.
• Conduct a Functions Outline exercise (if not yet available) to divide responsibilities and tasks more equally and identify the need for creating new positions. This tool is also explained and used in the toolkit Job Description.
• Develop recommendations for improvements by making a prospective organogram. This one-pager gives you some guidelines.

Step 4: Create or update organogram

• Discuss the prospective organogram with your team.
• Create a definitive version of the organogram and have it approved.
• Watch the tutorial below on how to draw an organogram in Excel.
• Identify the need for new positions.
• Present the new structure to the board and get its approval.

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Step 5: Recruitment plan

• Create an action plan for recruitment if vacant positions have been identified.
• Write vacancy advertisements.
• Write job descriptions for all positions.

Step 6: Future organogram

• Discuss a (approximate) future organogram towards a more professional structure with the organisation leaders.
• Ensure that the structure is flexible enough to accommodate new projects and growth.

Step 7: Sharing

• Share the current and prospective organogram and celebrate it with the organisations leaders and staff.
• Announce open positions officially to the whole team and open them for internal and external applications.
• Ensure that each member has a clear understanding of his/her role and how it fits within the larger structure. Everyone should know who to report to and who to consult for information.

Step 8: Follow-up

• Conduct a workshop with all staff members, three or four months after the implementation of the organogram, to ensure that the prospective organisational structure is not only on paper, but has effectively been implemented.
• Measure the impact and effectiveness of the new structure, for example with a RASCI Matrix and assess how staff members feel about the new structure.

Key To Success

• The whole staff should be interviewed to understand the current structure: staff members might have a different view about the structure than the leaders.
• In order to build ownership for the new organogram, the process of building a new structure should be consultative and involve the leaders and staff as much as possible. The whole team should approve of the organogram.
• The organogram should be simple and easy to understand and appropriate to the size and resources of the organisation.

Challenges

• The immediate need for the organisational structure and defined roles and responsibilities may not be felt, although there is a sense of conflict.
• The organisational structure exists on paper but has become obsolete.