Organization and Jobs
The organization needs people to fulfill the goals. The organization does not work on its own, the people work for the organization to meet the goals. The organization defines tasks, roles and goals for the individual persons to meet its own goals.
No organization exists without people and no organization can survive the chaos inside the organization.
The successful organization uses the organizational design smartly. The organization is able to define its main tasks and it is able to make the jobs clearly defined for its members. The people in the organization have to have the clear understanding of their role in the organization.
The organizations usually define several roles in the beginning:
- Front Office
- Back Office
- Specialists
- Management
These four roles are the basic description for the roles in the organization as they can cover all the tasks within the organization.
The front office job role is responsible about for the contact with the external world and clients. The front office employees are the specialists for the contact with the customers and they understand the needs of the clients and they are able to negotiate about the details of the delivery of the outputs of the organization.
During the job design, the managers and owner are usually overestimating the role of the front office employees as they take them as the basis for the rest of the organization.
The back office employees are the heart of the organization. They fulfill the promises made to customers of the organization. The back office employees are very important as the organization is measured by the quality and speed of their work.
The specialists play very important role for the organization and the organization makes usually biggest mistakes with them. The specialists define the procedures, rules and they define the conditions for the products and services. The specialist focus on the know how of the organization, they are not focused on the daily management of the organization.
The organization makes a mistake, when the specialist is promoted to the managerial role. The specialist does not want to be the manager, they want to be better specialists in their own area.
The managers manage and lead the organization. They decide about the priorities, they utilize the resources and the follow the procedures and rules defined by the specialists. The managers are very important for the organization as the bring the self management and the control of the resources in the organization.
The usual organizational design starts with the four defined roles, the people can play in the organization. The specific job designs are then derived from the high level job roles.
