Consequences of Too Many Levels of Organization
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
Posted by:

It is an almost universal disease of bureaucratic systems that have too many levels of organization.

– Elliott Jaques

teambuilding, organization development leadership expert michael cardus

I Continue to see excess layers & honor promotions leading to made-up positions that only increase the bureaucracy and frustration of everyone in the organization.

What is hell is a ‘Deputy-Associate Vice President’?

Excessive layers within the hierarchy reinforce triangulation of management. Creating frustration because subordinates are skipping the unnecessary layers and actually going to those that can add value to their work.

Managers are angry with each other because they are stepping on each others toes when it comes to getting work done and task assignments to subordinates.

Then you wonder why you have a ‘Culture Problem’ or ‘Engagement Problem’. The people are fine and they want to be engaged…the organizational system that you created is the problem!


Consequences of Too Many Levels of Organization
  • Employees skipping the chain-of-command.  By-passing their assigned direct manager because of excessively long lines of management.
  • Uncertainty as too where your manager actually sits on the org chart. Do you really report to your direct manager, or the one above them? Or even the one above them?
  • Managers uncertainty as too where their subordinates actually sit on the org chart? Are you accountable for the output of the staff directly below you, or the ones below them as well?
  • Excessive paper / email / voice mail passing up and down too many levels – red tape worms.
  • Tight Coupling of Manager to employee
  • Feeling that subordinates and management are too close in authority, accountability and work; as shown on the org chart.
  • Feeling of organizational clutter;
  • Managers “looking over the shoulders / breathing down the necks” of subordinates;
  • Too many levels involved in any problem and process;
  • Too much interference in just getting work done;
  • Not being allowed to do the work at hand;

Friend Chris Reich from Teach U shared his insights on;

Tight Coupling:

  • Tight coupling destroys productivity of many businesses. Something minor goes wrong. A decision needs to be made. Only Joe can make the decision. Joe is out until tomorrow. HALT! If the coupling is too loose, no one understands who is in charge. So the looseness is there IF Joe can’t make an immediate decision not so that the lackeys can always go around Joe.
    This is a very big problem in government and the military especially. When the hierarchy is tightly coupled, little disturbances cause immediate paralysis.

 

What do you think?

How many managerial/employee levels should there be within a company? How can this be fixed?

Create-Learning Contact

michael cardus is create-learning

image by by christopher.woo

Share

Related posts:

  1. Right Bus, Right People, Right Seats? Why Your Organization and Team are Still Unproductive.
  2. Organization Culture Change & Complexity
  3. 5 Steps to Planning A Change Within Your Organization & Team
Category: Corporate Team Building, Leadership, Management, Organization Development, Team Building, Team Training

Comments

Leave a Reply