問18
頻出度★★★
規模が小さい企業, 単一事業の企業, 市場の変化が少なく安定した顧客を持つ企業などに最適な組織構造はどれか。
平成24年度 春期 ITパスポート試験 問18
ストラテジ系企業活動 › 経営・組織論
This question's explanation and your answers so far.
解説
問 18
Incorrectア
A company-system organization (an internal in-company system; the input text writes it as カンパニ制組織) treats the business units inside a company as if they were independent companies, giving them authority even stronger than a divisional structure does — including investment decisions, personnel, and the management of assets and capital — along with matching responsibility for profit and loss. The aim is to speed up decision making and clarify responsibility by letting each in-company unit make its own management judgments. It therefore assumes multiple businesses and enough scale to be worth dividing up. In a small, single-business company there is no business to divide in the first place, and putting support departments in every in-company unit would only duplicate functions and swell fixed costs, making the company less efficient instead. It suits exactly the opposite kind of company from the one described in the question.
- イ
正解 The correct answer is イ, the functional organization. A functional organization (a function-based organization) is a structure in which departments are divided by work function, such as manufacturing, purchasing, sales, research and development, accounting, and human resources. Because people with the same specialty are gathered into one department, knowledge, know-how, and equipment can be concentrated, and economies of scale together with deeper expertise make it efficient. In addition, a single president stands above all the departments, so the chain of command forms a single line (each subordinate has only one boss), which makes responsibility clear and management simple. On the other hand, because each department looks only at its own function, horizontal cooperation is weak, overall coordination is concentrated at the top, and the response to changes in the environment tends to be slow. The three conditions in the question — small scale, a single business, and little market change with stable customers — describe exactly the situation in which those weaknesses do not surface. If there is only one business to coordinate, conflicts of interest between departments are small, and even one person at the top can see the whole picture. If there is little change, no agile reorganization is needed. In other words, the functional organization is the best fit for a company that meets the conditions for enjoying only its strengths, namely concentrated expertise and efficiency, and this is why it is the correct answer.
Incorrectウ
A project organization is a time-limited organization formed by temporarily gathering the necessary people from various departments for a specific purpose, such as developing a new product or introducing a system, and disbanded once that purpose is achieved. It suits work that has a clear goal and a deadline and that needs specialists from across departments to be mobilized quickly. It is not a permanent structure for running routine day-to-day operations; normally it is layered on top of a basic structure such as a functional organization only when it is needed. Because it is not something to choose as the basic form for a company with a stable market and mainly routine operations, it is wrong.
Incorrectエ
A matrix organization combines a functional axis with a business axis (by product, by region, or by project) into a grid, so that one employee belongs to both axes at the same time. Its strength is that it can aim at accumulating expertise and responding flexibly for each business at the same time, but because one person has two bosses (the two-boss situation), orders easily conflict, and the running costs — power struggles and the effort of coordination — are large. That burden is worth carrying only in a large company that handles several businesses and markets at once, faces rapid change in its environment, and must make decisions from several viewpoints. Introducing it in a small company with a single business and little change would leave only confusion and coordination costs relative to the benefits gained, so it does not fit.
ここがポイント
- The definition and the pros and cons of the functional organization (function-based organization) — a structure that divides departments by function, such as manufacturing, sales, accounting, and human resources. Its strengths are the efficiency gained by concentrating expertise and know-how and the clear responsibility gained by unifying the chain of command; its weaknesses are weak horizontal cooperation between departments and a slow response to changes in the environment. Memorize it together with the point that it is best suited to small-scale, single-business companies in a stable market, where those weaknesses do not become a problem.
- Sorting out when each organizational structure is used — the functional organization is for small-scale, single-business companies; the divisional structure and the company system (in-company system) delegate authority to speed up decisions in large companies that carry multiple businesses; the project organization is a time-limited formation disbanded once its purpose is achieved; and the matrix organization multiplies the functional axis by the business axis to cope with a complex environment, at the cost of the coordination burden created by having two bosses. Judge which form the question is asking for from the company size, the number of businesses, and the degree of market change that it states.
用語