AO3 – Alternative Organisational

Hierarchy Structures
OCR National Level 2 in Business
Miss Nation
October 2010
PGL Liddington Hierarchy
PGL Liddington Hierarchy
PGL is organised by...
• Area
• Function
 Tall vs. Flat hierarchies

FLAT HIERARCHY

TALL
HIERARCHY
But what are other options?
Matrix Structure
 Matrix Structure
Advantages
• Thought to encourage
creativity
• Individual workers will have
greater understanding of the
challenges faced by different
departments
• Individuals will have more
opportunity for responsibility
as they could be the only
person with their skills in the
team
• Flexibility as workers get used
to working in different teams
Disadvantages
• Often requires extensive
support such as clerical and
secretarial staff to ensure
adequate communication
between team members and
with the organisation
management
• May make individuals feel
insecure and isolated
How could this be applied to
PGL?
 General Manager

Operations Managers

Key Stage 1 / 2 Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4

Team Leader Team Leader Team Leader

Key Stage 1 / 2 Key Stage 3 Key Stage 4

•Instructors •Instructors •Instructors
•Groupies •Groupies •Groupies
•House keeping •House keeping •House keeping
•Catering •Catering •Catering
 Impact on Workers
Benefits:
• Workers would get used to dealing with the age
group of their customers
• Workers would have more responsibility as they
could be the only one with certain skills in their
term

Drawbacks
• It could be isolating if other people in their team
don’t understand their job
 Impact on Managers
Benefits
• Staff might be more motivated if they are working with
the age group that they like – so less likely to....???
• Their teams would be experts in the needs of their key
stages

Drawbacks
• Have to manage people who do different jobs, which
they may not understand themselves – this would be
difficult
 Impact on Customers
Benefits
• Get used to the same groupies / instructors, so children
wouldn’t need to get to know different people
• Groupies / instructors would get used to their key stage
and get to know what they require

Drawbacks
• Could cause difficulties if they don’t get on with a
member of PGL staff that they are with all of the time
 What next?
1. Explain IN DETAIL an alternative way in which PGL
could organise their staff at Liddington.
2. Draw the new proposed organisation chart.
3. Explain how it would work – who would report to
whom, how would everybody know what to do.
4. Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of your proposal
to:
– Management
– Staff
– Customers
For merit and distinction level you will need to do this
twice, with two different methods of organising staff