The advantages of flat organizational structure are mainly reflected in the following aspects: First, the information flows smoothly, shortening the decision-making cycle. The flattening of organizational structure can reduce the distortion of information, increase the direct connection between superiors and subordinates, and change the way and efficiency of information communication and decision-making. Second, creativity and flexibility are strengthened, which leads to the improvement of morale and production efficiency and the enthusiasm of employees. Third, it can reduce costs. The reduction of management level and the number of employees and the improvement of work efficiency will inevitably lead to the reduction of product costs, thus reducing the overall operating costs of the company and enhancing the market competitive advantage. Fourth, it helps to enhance the organization's response ability and coordination ability. All departments and personnel of the enterprise face the market more directly, which reduces the time lag between decision-making and action, enhances the response ability to the dynamic changes of the market and competition, and thus makes the organizational ability more flexible and sensitive.
The transformation of organizational structure from "vertical" to "flat" is one of the effective ways for many well-known large enterprises to get out of the "big but not strong" dilemma. General Electric Company of the United States carried out "zero management" reform, and Jack Welch compared the demotion to taking off a heavy sweater for General Electric Company. For example, an engine assembly plant with more than 8,000 workers has only the factory director and workers, and there are no other levels. The necessary management positions in the production process are held by workers in turn. Some temporary positions, such as recruiting new employees, are temporarily transferred from old employees and dissolved after the task is completed. Changhong and Haier, well-known enterprises in domestic household appliances industry, have also adjusted their organizational structure, realizing the transformation from the original "vertical pyramid structure" to "flat structure". With the rapid development of information technology, departments and people can exchange information directly without following the top-down or bottom-up hierarchical structure. This undifferentiated, non-hierarchical and complicated way of information exchange within enterprises has greatly stimulated the network development of organizations, the carrier and application subject of information within enterprises.
Compared with bureaucratic organizations, the most essential feature of network organizations is to emphasize innovation and achieve a win-win situation through all-round exchanges and cooperation. All-round exchanges and cooperation include not only close cooperation between enterprises except market transactions, but also extensive exchanges and cooperation among departments and employees within enterprises, which are supported by information technology and will continue to strengthen with the development of information technology. Of course, the network relationship can't completely replace the role of authority principle in the organization, otherwise the organization will be chaotic, so the hierarchical structure in the network organization needs to be maintained all the time, but under the condition of network organization structure, a flat structure with fewer levels is adopted.
The networking of organizational structure is mainly manifested in the networking of internal structure and inter-enterprise structure. The networking of enterprise internal structure refers to breaking the departmental boundaries within the enterprise, and all departments and members are connected with each other in the form of network, so that information and knowledge can spread rapidly within the enterprise and resources can be shared to the maximum extent. Jack Welch once devoted himself to the boundlessness within the company, which made the internal communication unimpeded and greatly improved the management efficiency. Structured networks among enterprises include vertical networks and horizontal networks. Vertical network is a network organization composed of enterprises in different links of the value chain in the industry, such as suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and other upstream and downstream enterprises. For example, General Motors and Toyota Motor Corporation have established vertical networks composed of many suppliers and distributors respectively. This network relationship breaks the clear organizational boundaries between traditional enterprises and greatly improves the efficiency of resource utilization and the response speed to the market. Horizontal network refers to the network composed of enterprises in different industries. These enterprises have business contacts and depend on each other to some extent. The most typical example is the consortium system in Japan. Large-scale manufacturing enterprises, financial enterprises and comprehensive trading companies are interrelated in equity, participate in management, enjoy resources, take collective action on major strategic decisions, and maintain long-term and close ties among all parties.
The networking of organizations makes the traditional hierarchical organization and flexible planning team coexist, makes the flow of various resources more reasonable, condenses time and space through the network, accelerates the all-round operation of enterprises, and improves the efficiency and performance of enterprise organizations. Borderless refers to blurring the boundaries between departments of an enterprise, aiming at making all kinds of boundaries easier to penetrate, breaking the communication barriers between departments and facilitating the transmission of information.
In a specific mode. The representative borderless model is team organization, which means that employees break the original departmental boundaries, bypass the middle management level, unite to directly face customers and be responsible for the overall goals of the company, and win competitive advantages through group and collaboration advantages. This kind of organization has become a typical model of organizational structure innovation. Teams can generally be divided into two categories: one is "project team". Members are mainly professionals from all units of the company, whose task is to solve a specific problem and announce the dissolution after the problem is solved; The other is the "work team". It can be further divided into efficient teams and self-management teams. The work team is generally long-term and often engaged in the daily business work of the company.
Therefore, borderless thought is a very innovative enterprise organizational structure thought, which completely transcends national boundaries, systems, classes and strata. The function of the organization as a whole has been improved, which has far exceeded the function of each component. The flexibility of organizational structure refers to the adjustment of organizational structure and the establishment of temporary task-oriented team organization according to the changes of environment. The essence of organizational flexibility is to keep the balance between change and stability, which requires managers to have strong management control.
With the development of informationization, networking and globalization, the enjoyment of internal and external information and the use of talents have become the main characteristics of enterprises. With the development of global transnational economy and the growth of enterprise groups, a highly flexible mobile team organization with cross-region, cross-department, cross-industry and cross-function has taken shape. The most obvious advantage of flexible organization is flexibility, convenience and flexibility, because this structure can make full use of the internal and external resources of enterprises, enhance the ability of organizations to cope with market changes and competition, and help organizations better realize the unity of centralization and decentralization, stability and innovation. In addition, it can greatly reduce costs, promote the development of human resources and promote the flat development of enterprise organizational structure. In order to consolidate the customer relationship, Honeywell Company of the United States has set up a "commando team" composed of sales, design and manufacturing departments. According to the company's requirements, this temporary organization shortened the product development time from four years to 1 year, and brought back the customers who were about to leave. Obviously, the flexible organizational structure strengthens the communication and cooperation between departments, enables different aspects of knowledge to be shared, and forms a joint force, which is conducive to knowledge and technological innovation. Virtualization of organizational structure refers to the process of networking people, funds, knowledge or ideas in an intangible organization (referring to the unified office building, fixed assets, fixed personnel, etc.). ) to achieve certain organizational goals.
Virtual enterprise organization does not have any departments or organizational structure of conventional enterprises, but connects eight groups of elements such as knowledge, information and talents needed by the target through network technology to form a dynamic resource utilization complex. The typical application of virtual organization is to create virtual office space and virtual research institutions. The former means that employees of the same enterprise can be in different places, but they are linked together through information and network technology, just like in the same office building, sharing and exchanging information and knowledge synchronously; The latter means that an enterprise establishes an eight-point cooperation alliance with R&D personnel, experts or other collaborators who belong to or do not belong to the enterprise all over the world by means of communication network technology, and achieves certain goals across time and space.