On Monday, January 24th, our class discussed the first part of Chapter 2: Organizational Structure and Process. We started by looking at a flowchart of the University of Alabama’s Division of Student Affairs. The chart showed the chain of command process that occurs within all the offices that report to the head of the Division of Student Affairs, Dr. Mark Nelson. We discovered that there are six individuals who report directly to Dr. Nelson, and these people are also over multiple offices. We created several hypothetical situations and discussed the flow of command that would occur. For example, the Director of the Blackburn Institute, Dr. Philip Westbrook, would report to Dr. Kathleen Cramer, the Senior Associate Vice President of External Affairs, who in turn would report to the Dr. Mark Nelson, who is both the Vice President of Student Affairs and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs. Our teacher, Creshema Murray, queried the class as to how long we thought this system had been in place. Many of us were surprised to hear that the system denoted in the flowchart had only been in existence for two years. We learned that the old hierarchy had been streamlined to allow for increased and more fluid communication. This example served as an introduction into the lesson. We discussed the structure of an organization, how it denotes the solid parts of an organization and provides a snapshot of how an organization works. We also learned about the duality of structure, that structure is both an outcome of and a resource for interaction, and that structure can be both enabling and constraining. A term we identified was structuration: the process by which structures emerge from interaction and then become resources for constraints on future interaction. We then discussed two of the three elements of organizational structure: hierarchy and differentiation/specialization. Hierarchy refers to the distribution of authority among organizational roles. It involves the levels of power within an organization, one group being dominate over another. Hierarchy is necessary in an organization, but it can create problems. If there are too many levels in an organization, communication can be strained between the levels. By restructuring the hierarchy of an organization, as was done in U of A’s Division of Student Affairs, the flow of communication between the differing levels of hierarchy can be improved. We then talked about the second key element of organizational communication: differentiation/specialization, which refers to an organization’s division of labor. While specialization is necessary since organizations want people who are experts in certain fields, it can lead to alienation. By learning about these key elements of organizations, we can become key employees and members of an organizations we become a part of in our future
By: Alex Goolsby