Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

Organization reviews

In exercising organizational choice an organizational 

review,  as  described  below,  will  help  in  the  evalu-

ation of the alternatives, but the law of the situation, 

as described originally by Mary Parker Follett (1924), 

should prevail. This states that the work that people 

are required to do depends on the objective require-

ments of the situation. The final choice will depend 

upon the context and circumstances of the organ-

ization – as Lupton (1975) pointed out, it is impor-

tant to achieve best fit.

Organizations may evolve organically without any 

conscious attempt to design them. But if a deliberate 

design programme is planned this should be based 

on the evidence that can be produced by a formal 

organization review conducted in the following stages:

1 

Activity analysis to establish what work is done 

and what needs to be done. Two questions 

need to be answered: 1) are all the activities 

required properly catered for?; 2) are any 

unnecessary activities being carried out?

2 

Structural analysis to determine how activities 

are grouped together; the number of levels in 

the hierarchy; the extent to which authority 

is decentralized to divisions and strategic 

business units (SBUs); where functions such 

as finance, HR, IT and research and 

development are placed in the structure  

(eg as central functions or integrated into 

divisions or SBUs); the relationships that 

exist between different units and functions 

(with particular attention being given to the 

way in which they communicate and 

cooperate with one another). Attention 

would be paid to such issues as the logic of