What is Functional Organization?

There are many types of organizations like committee organization, line organization etc. Today I am going to discuss the functional organization with you in this article of mine. If you are looking for the information regarding it then let me tell you that you have been landed on the right website.

Because in this article of mine, I will be telling you about the meaning, advantages, and disadvantages. Before that, I would like to tell you that organizations are classified into two and they are formal and informal.

They both sound same but they are quite different from each other. You can read the difference between formal and informal organization.

What is Functional Organization?

What is Functional Organization?

This type of organization was proposed by F.W. Taylor, the father of scientific management. In this type of organization, specialized people will be appointed to do specific jobs.

These specialized people include 8 foremens who will be giving instructions to the employees working in the organization. It means that the employees will be receiving the instructions from all the 8 foremen.

The foremen are as mentioned below.

  1. Time and cost clerk.
  2. Instructions clerk.
  3. Route clerk.
  4. Discipline clerk.
  5. Crang boss.
  6. Repair boss.
  7. Speed boss.
  8. Inspector boss.

Advantages of Functional Organization

The advantages or merits are as mentioned below.

1) Division of work and specialization.

The most important advantage of the functional organization is that provides scope for proper division of work and specialization.

2) Expert Knowledge.

The foremen who will be giving the instructions to the employees are specialized people and they will be having good knowledge about the work.

3) Less Burden

In case of this type, the workload on the top level management will be less as they have foremen who will be looking for specific things. The top level management can focus on critical issues only.

4) Development of Workers

The foremen are experts in their work and the employees will develop when then work under the supervision of the expert foremen.

5) Efficiency of Workers

The efficiency of workers is more in type when we compare it with the other types of organizations.

Disadvantages of Functional Organization

The disadvantages are as mentioned below.

1) No unity of command.

The employees will be receiving instructions from all 8 foremen which will cause confusion in employees. And hence the unity of command will not be maintained in the business firm.

2) It leads to conflicts

In this type of organization, it may lead to conflicts between the foremen as well as the employees.

3) More expensive

The business firm has to hire 8 specialists and also the employees. It has to pay the salary for all of them and hence it will get more expensive.

Conclusion

This was all about the functional organization, its advantages, and disadvantages. I hope you are clear with the difference now. If you have any kind of doubts in your mind then you can comment down below.