Basic Guidelines for Reorganizing a Current Organization
Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright 1997-2008.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision.
Sections of This Topic Include:
Suggested Previous ReadingReorganizing Will Be Easier If You Have Been Doing ...
Typical Problems that Suggest Need for Reorganizing
First Guideline for Reorganizing - Review Overall Purpose of Organization
Organizational Change: General Guidelines for Carrying it Out
Specific Suggestions
Additional Perspectives on Organizational Design
Suggested Previous Reading
Get Some Basic Perspective About Organizations (Optional)
The following introduction to organizations will give the reader a broad overview of the context and nature of business organizations. It may help the reader to keep perspective during a reorganization. It's about a one-hour read.Introduction to Organizations
Reorganizing Will Be Easier if You Have Been Doing ...
You will have a pretty good handle on the need for change and what what changes must be done if you've been1. Conducting strategic planning to regularly review the purpose of your organization, its overall goals and who should be doing what to meet those goals
2. Using sound principles of employee performance management to regularly review what employees should be doing to produce results, how they're doing toward their results, and what must be done to help them do a better job of achieving results
Typical Problems That Suggest Need for Reorganizing
There are a wide variety of reasons for reorganizing an organization, particularly in today's rapidly changing marketplace. However, there are several reasons for reorganization that seem to keep coming up in small businesses, whether for-profit or nonprofit. These reasons include1. An employee keeps complaining (and you agree) that he or she is overloaded with work.
2. Employees complain that their activities overlap.
3. An employee indicates (and you agree) that he or she does not have enough work to do during a work day.
4. Employees complain that they're reporting to more than one boss, or supervisor.
5. An employee complains that their work includes very different tasks. For example, they may have a highly complex and demanding project (e.g., leading strategic planning) and a large routine, recurring task (sorting a great deal of the organization's daily mail).
6. Management notices a large amount of employee turnover, that is, employees don't stay long enough with the organization.
7. A department, or major function in the organization, has recurring problems.
NOTE: It is not always problems that provoke the need for reorganizing. For example, if the organization has been conducting strategic planning and produced new goals, these goals may require the organization to reorganize. For example, if the business wants to expand marketshare in a certain region, then the organization may need a new office in that region, more sales people, etc.
First Guideline for Reorganizing - Revisit Overall Purpose of Business
Recurring problems often seem to have little to do with the business's overall purpose and goals. However, any attempts at reorganizing may be just fine tuning, or tweaking, if not done with the long term in mind. In fact, the recurring problems may be a symptom of the organization's not having clearly thought out what its overall purpose and goals are. Without visiting the overall purpose and goals, redesign is usually a highly reactive and very short-term fix. Carefully consider conducting a strategic planning process to guide you through reviewing your organization's purpose. SeeStrategic Planning
How Is Organization-Wide Change Best Carried Out?
Successful change must involve top management, including the board and chief executive. Usually there's a champion who initially instigates the change by being visionary, persuasive and consistent. A change agent role is usually responsible to translate the vision to a realistic plan and carry out the plan. Change is usually best carried out as a team-wide effort. Communications about the change should be frequent and with all organization members. To sustain change, the structures of the organization itself should be modified, including strategic plans, policies and procedures. This change in the structures of the organization typically involves an unfreezing, change and re-freezing process.The best approaches to address resistances is through increased and sustained communications and education. For example, the leader should meet with all managers and staff to explain reasons for the change, how it generally will be carried out and where others can go for additional information. A plan should be developed and communicated. Plans do change. That's fine, but communicate that the plan has changed and why. Forums should be held for organization members to express their ideas for the plan. They should be able to express their concerns and frustrations as well. For additional information, see the topic Organizational Change including the article Basics Context for Organizational Change.
Specific Suggestions
In addition to the above general guidelines, there are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind.1. Consider using a consultant. Ensure the consultant is highly experienced in organization-wide change. Ask to see references and check the references.
2. Widely communicate the potential need for change. Communicate what you're doing about it. Communicate what was done and how it worked out.
3. Get as much feedback as practical from employees, including what they think are the problems and what should be done to resolve them. If possible, work with a team of employees to manage the change.
4. Don't get wrapped up in doing change for the sake of change. Know why you're making the change. What goal(s) do you hope to accomplish?
6. Plan the change. How do you plan to reach the goals, what will you need to reach the goals, how long might it take and how will you know when you've reached your goals or not? Focus on the coordination of the departments/programs in your organization, not on each part by itself. Have someone in charge of the plan.
7. End up having every employee ultimately reporting to one person, if possible, and they should know who that person is. Job descriptions are often complained about, but they are useful in specifying who reports to whom.
8. Delegate decisions to employees as much as possible. This includes granting them the authority and responsibility to get the job done. As much as possible, let them decide how to do the project.
9. The process won't be an "aha!" It will take longer than you think.
10. Keep perspective. Keep focused on meeting the needs of your customer or clients.
11. Take care of yourself first. Organization-wide change can be highly stressful.
12. Don't seek to control change, but rather to expect it, understand it and manage it.
13. Include closure in the plan. Acknowledge and celebrate your accomplishments.
14. Read some resources about organizational change, including new forms and structures.
Additional Perspectives on Organizational Design
Organizational Design -- Guidelines
For the Category of Management:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
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Personal Development -- Related
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For Managing Other Individuals, See
Supervision -- Related
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For Managing Teams, See
Facilitation and Teams -- Related
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For Leading, See
Leadership -- Recommended Books
General (For-Profit and Nonprofit)
General (For-Profit and Nonprofit)
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Nonprofit-Specific
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
