Organizations are continually restructured to meet the demands imposed by the environment. Restructuring can change the role of individuals in the formal and the informal organization. Many researchers believe that the greatest usefulness of behavioralists lies in their ability to help the informal organization adapt to changes and resolve the resulting conflicts. Unfortunately, behavioralists cannot be totally effective unless they have input into the formal organization as well. Whatever organizational form is finally selected, formal channels must be developed so that each individual has a clear description of the authority, responsibility, and accountability necessary for the work to proceed.
In the discussion of organizational structures, the following definitions will be used:
● Authority is the power granted to individuals (possibly by their position) so that they can make final decisions.
● Responsibility is the obligation incurred by individuals in their roles in the formal organization to effectively perform assignments.
● Accountability is being answerable for the satisfactory completion of a specific assignment. (Accountability = authority + responsibility.)
Authority and responsibility can be delegated to lower levels in the organization, whereas accountability usually rests with the individual. Yet many executives refuse to delegate and argue that an individual can have total accountability just through responsibility.
Even with these clearly definable divisions of authority, responsibility, and accountability, establishing good relationships between project and functional managers can take a great deal of time, especially during the conversion from a traditional to a project organizational form. Trust is the key to success here. The normal progression in the growth of trust is as follows:
● Even though a problem exists, both the project and functional managers deny that
any problem exists.
● When the problem finally surfaces, each manager blames the other.
● As trust develops, both managers readily admit responsibility for the problems.
● The project and functional managers meet face-to-face to work out the problem.
● The project and functional managers begin to formally and informally anticipate problems.
For each of the organizational structures described in the following sections, advantages and disadvantages are listed. Many of the disadvantages stem from possible conflicts arising from problems in authority, responsibility, and accountability.
Source : Project management A system approach to planning, scheduling and controlling [EIGHTH EDITION] By HAROLD KERZNER, Ph.D.