Departmentation permits an organization to take advantage of specialization and makes managerial control easier.
Following are the bases of departmentation:
(a) Departmentation by Function:
Is the most widely employed basis for organizing activities? The basic aim of functionalization is to simplify complexity by grouping all the work to be done into major functional departments. This helps an institution to apply a wide range of knowledge, skills and abilities.
Some examples of departmentation by functions at the university level include teaching/academic departments, examination department, affiliation department, recruitment department and so on.
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(b) Departments by Subject Specialization:
Is adopted on the basis of the subjects taught such as English, History, Mathematics, Music, Fine arts departments and so on. Each department here is a fairly autonomous unit having a head of the department who is responsible for its activities. It ensures equal and adequate importance and development of each subject area.
(c) Departmentation by Territory:
Arises when one ‘management’ runs more than one sister institutions located in different geographical areas so as to ensure adequate attention to each institution.
(d) Departmentation by ‘Customer’:
Refers to creating separate departments to serve the needs of customers, i.e., students with different needs such as junior and senior college students, different media of instruction, and affiliations to different boards of education such as SSC, CBSE, ICSE etc.
(e) Departmentation by Process:
Is based on the process used in the ‘production’. This implies separate departments for learning in a formal atmosphere and learning through the distance mode. Each mode has its unique requirements in terms of attendance, time-table, learning materials and teacher-student contacts which could be satisfied if there are separate departments for formal and distance modes of education.
(f) Matrix Organization:
Is one where managers/teachers as classroom managers are assigned more than one task/project. Its activities cut across traditional functional departments. However, it breaks the principle of unity of command. An illustration of matrix organization applicable to educational institution is given below:
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In this form of organization, power shifts from person to person as activities change. Power is decentralized and flexible. This particular example combines departmentation based on: (i) functions and (ii) subject specializations.
This system can work effectively with a limited group of people who are thoroughly trained in the method and are committed to making the system work. However, this system can give rise to power conflicts. This type of organization is also known as Grid organization.
Organization is not an end in itself but a means to ; n end. A wrong organizational structure can be detrimental to institutional effectiveness. The type of organization structure can be determined on the basis of:
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(i) Activities analysis in terms of which important activities have been left out, which activities have lost their significance and which activity groups have become obstacles to performance.
(ii) Decision analysis in terms of the degree of future orientation in the decisions, the impact of decisions on the other functions, value considerations in decisions and whether decisions are periodically recurrent.
(iii) Relations analysis in terms of the contribution of managerial activities to the organization as a whole.
An effective organization structure has two basic purposes:
(a) Contributing towards achievement of institution objectives, and
(b) Providing scope for involvement of human being so that he can take initiative and contribute his maximum to the achievement of institutional objectives.