The success of any business lies on the basis of how it keeps and maintains its company structure. To achieve this, the company must have its goals properly defined before embarking on any business activities. A company needs to set up a clearly defined hierarchy whereby those in charge of the company’s policies and procedures make key decisions. A company also has to chart out a strategy for growth which involves overall company development through effective planning and management of resources. The key to achieving all these is company organization. Without company organization, there can be no progress made towards attaining company objectives.
In a company with a business hierarchy, the company makes decisions concerning how to organize and manage its different levels. This structure depends on the company’s structure as a whole. If it is a small company with no definite hierarchy, then there is only a company president who makes key decisions. If a company is a large organization with a formal hierarchy, there are different levels within the company that make crucial decisions concerning how the company would run and maintain its policies. The company makes these decisions according to the policies and objectives set forth by the company’s chief executive officer (the company’s CEO).
The company’s hierarchy also depends on the structure of power. If there is a single chief operating officer, who makes all important decisions concerning how the company would run, there is a clear hierarchy. However, if there are two to three different managers who make crucial decisions, there can be a struggle for control among these different managers. It is in situations like this where a chief executive officer serves as both a CEO and a chair of the board.
There are three types of company hierarchy structure that need to be differentiated: flat organizations, flatarchies and flatter organizations. Flat Organizations have no clear line between top-down and bottom-up decision making. For example, if there are no official company goals and guidelines, there is no clear line between what is good and bad for the company. Instead of making the best decision for the company, everyone simply makes whatever they want to. Some companies use this type of hierarchy, which some people call a “pizza syndrome”, whereby no decisions are ever made from the top down.
On the other hand, flat organizations do have clearly defined hierarchy points and processes. The main difference is that in a flat organization, there are more senior managers that make decisions instead of one CEO or group of CEOs. Also, in a flat organization, there are no official guidelines or goals. Most business hierarchy would come from a team-based organizations because teams in team-based organizations make decisions together and, hence, there are clear benchmarks as to what makes a good decision.
Flatter organizations, on the other hand, are like a flat, jelly doughnut. There are no clearly defined boundaries where the company can look at its performance and decide what makes a good decision. Rather, all decisions are made in an almost vacuum, based only on the company’s own desires. For example, when a company wants to make a change in the company’s structure, it may not even bother to establish what those changes are. After all, the company’s mission is to make money, and change in the company’s structure will only make that happen.