Organisational Trends:

1 Organisations are economic and social entities in which a number of persons perform multifarious tasks in order to attain common goals. Four key organisational trends are visible currently: Globalisation, diversity, flatness, networking.

2 Organisational structure defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated.  Managers need to address six key elements when they design their organisation structure: work specialisation, departmentalisation,  chain of command, span of control, centralisation and decentralisation, and formalisation.

3 There are different types of organisational structures:

a  Spaghetti Organisation is a form of boundary less organisation.

b Amoeba-shaped organisation is another form of boundary less organisation which is structured like an amoeba with a central nucleus and a flexible operating structure enabling it to move into various kinds of projects and markets although operating as cross-functional teams.

c Vertical/tall organisations refer to increase within the length of the organisation chain of command.  A hierarchical chain of command represents the organization authority-accountability relationship among superiors and subordinates. Authority & responsibility flow from the top to the bottom by all the levels of hierarchy. Accountability flows to the lowest level to the highest level.

d Horizontal or flat organisations are a more appropriate model for the knowledge age. Those promote more downsized, decentralized, team- oriented organisations along with empowered workers. Flatness, or an absence of the organisational hierarchy, does not denote the elimination of individual roles or responsibilities. It does mean the end of people along with more over-riding authority over other people's work.

e Inverted pyramid structure has the chief executive officer at the top, senior executives underneath, and many more.  There are several layers in the management structure, that reflects who reports to whom.

f A firm styled as an orchestra could be an well-organized management structure, in that the CEO/top management and the employees/managers  operate along with the similar objective. It is an organisation of specialists of various types directing themselves and doing various types of work (the roles and responsibilities of every is clear in relation to his/her own task and that of others).

g Cluster organisation is an organisation structured around certain clusters which are inter-locked or networked representing a cluster organisation.  Every cluster consists of a group of people drawn from various functional and staff areas working together on a semi permanent basis to achieve certain preset goals.  A cluster handles its administrative functions, develops the required expertise, associates to customers, and is accountable for its actions. Every individual within the cluster has responsibility for his/her particular area of activity and also of the performance of the cluster as a overall.

h Virtual organisation is the type of structure in that a firm contracts out almost all functions. The only function retained through the organisation is the name and the coordination between the parties. A virtual organisation may not have even had a permanent office.

i  Matrix organisation structure procedures a dual chain of command.

Functional and project managers both exercise authority over organisational activities in a matrix structure.

j Functional organisation structure has functional departments consisting of those jobs within that employees perform same jobs at various levels. The generally used functions are: marketing, human resources, finance and accounting, manufacturing, research & development, & engineering.

k Product organisation structure has activities being separated on the basis of product line, individual products, services. These are grouped within departments and all significant functions viz. marketing, production, finance and human resources are contained inside every department.

4 Mergers & acquisitions are quite general in businesses and are frequent categorised as horizontal, vertical or conglomerate mergers. A horizontal merger occurs while two competitors combine. A vertical merger is a merged of companies which have a buyer-seller relationship. A conglomerate merger occurs while the companies are not competitors and do not have a buyer- seller relationship.