Organising — Meaning, Process & Importance

5.1 Opening Case — Way to Go, Wipro!

How does an Indian information-technology firm position itself to compete with global heavyweights such as IBM and Accenture? The NCERT chapter opens with the restructuring story of Wipro Technologies^? — one of India's largest IT solutions providers — to make a single, sharp managerial point: once plans are laid down, the next critical step is to organise resources so that those plans can actually be implemented. This is the function of organising^?.

From this case the chapter draws one bedrock insight: plans alone do not deliver results — structure does. Wipro modified the relationships within its management hierarchy to suit its goals, ensuring that resources were deployed optimally and people could work collectively for a common purpose. This is exactly what the management function of organising is designed to achieve.

5.2 Concept of Organising — Meaning and Definition

Once plans have been laid down and objectives specified, the next step is to organise resources in a manner that leads to the accomplishment of those objectives. A critical issue in achieving the goals specified in the planning process is structuring the work of an enterprise to adapt to the dynamic business environment. The activities of an enterprise must be organised so that plans can be successfully implemented.

For planning to be fruitful, several considerations — the resources that will be needed, the optimum utilisation of those resources, the translation of work into attainable tasks, and empowering the workforce — must all be properly understood and dealt with. The Wipro example shows clearly that organising plays a significant role in implementing plans.

Take a familiar example. Have you ever paid attention to how the school fete actually takes place? The whole activity is divided into task groups — the food committee, the decoration committee, the ticketing committee — each dealing with a specific area. These groups operate under the overall supervision of the official in charge of the event, with coordinating relationships established among them so that there is smooth interaction and clarity about each group's contribution. All of these activities together form the organising function.

Organising essentially implies a process which coordinates human efforts, assembles resources and integrates both into a unified whole to be utilised for achieving specified objectives. It can therefore be defined as a process that initiates implementation of plans by clarifying jobs and working relationships and effectively deploying resources for the attainment of identified, desired results (goals).

The organising function^? leads to the creation of an organisation structure^?, which involves designing roles to be filled by suitably skilled people and defining the inter-relationships between these roles. This is important not only for productive cooperation among personnel but also for clarification of the extent of authority, responsibility for results, and logical grouping of activities. By doing so, organising eliminates ambiguity in the performance of duties.

5.3 Steps in the Process of Organising

Organising involves a series of steps that must be taken in order to achieve the desired goal. NCERT illustrates the steps with a simple example: suppose twelve students work for the school library during the summer vacation and one afternoon are told to unload a shipment of new releases, stock the bookshelves and dispose of all packaging waste. If each student decides to do it in their own way, the result will be mass confusion. However, if one student supervises the work by grouping students, dividing the work, assigning each group a quota and developing reporting relationships, the job will be done faster and better. From this description, four core steps emerge.

Step 1 — Identification and Division of Work

The first step in organising is to identify and divide the work that has to be done in accordance with previously determined plans. Work is split into manageable activities so that duplication can be avoided and the burden of work can be shared among employees. In our school-library example, this is the moment when the supervisor decides that there are three distinct tasks — unload, stock, dispose — rather than treating it as one giant job for everyone.

Step 2 — Departmentalisation

Once work has been divided into small, manageable activities, those activities which are similar in nature are grouped together. Such sets facilitate specialisation^?. This grouping process is called departmentation^?. Departments can be created using several criteria. Among the most popular bases are territory (north, south, west, etc.) and products (appliances, clothes, cosmetics, etc.).

Step 3 — Assignment of Duties

It is necessary to define the work of different job positions and accordingly allocate work to various employees. Once departments have been formed, each is placed under the charge of an individual; jobs are then allocated to the members of each department in accordance with their skills and competencies. A proper match between the nature of a job and the ability of an individual is essential — work must be assigned to those best fitted to perform it well.

Step 4 — Establishing Authority and Reporting Relationships

Merely allocating work is not enough. Each individual should also know who he has to take orders from and to whom he is accountable. The establishment of such clear relationships helps to create a hierarchical structure and helps in coordination amongst the various departments.

Step 5 — Coordination

The four steps culminate in coordination — the integration of all individual efforts into a unified pursuit of the common goal. NCERT highlights that establishing reporting relationships "helps to create a hierarchical structure and helps in coordination amongst various departments". Without this final step, division of work simply scatters effort.

5.4 Importance of Organising

Performance of the organising function paves the way for a smooth transition of the enterprise in a dynamic business environment. The significance of organising arises from the fact that it helps in the survival and growth of an enterprise and equips it to meet various challenges. NCERT identifies seven points highlighting why organising is crucial.

5.5 Indicative Visualisation — Functional Concentration vs De-layering

The Wipro restructuring shifted the firm from heavy hierarchy to leaner, customer-aligned subsidiaries. The chart below is an indicative pedagogical sample contrasting the rough size and revenue distribution of three product-line subsidiaries created during the Wipro restructuring (each $300 million in earnings, per the case).