(A) Linear-staff organizational structure
The linear-staff system (1ine and Staff System), also known as the linear-function system, is an organizational structure developed on the basis of the linear system and widely adopted. Its characteristic is to equip managers at all levels with functional institutions or personnel to act as staff officers and assistants of managers at the same level and share some management work, but these functional institutions or personnel have no command over lower-level managers. The functional departments and personnel in this structure are generally divided according to the nature of management business (such as sales, planning, research and exhibition, finance, personnel, etc.). ), and engaged in professional management, so that you can hire experts, give full play to their expertise, make up for the shortcomings of managers, reduce the burden on managers, and thus overcome the shortcomings of linear systems. At the same time, these departments and personnel are only staff officers and assistants of managers at the same level, and cannot directly give orders to subordinates, thus ensuring the unified command of managers and avoiding multi-head leadership. The disadvantages of this form are: ① the high concentration of power of top managers will inevitably lead to slow decision-making and poor adaptability to environmental changes; (2) Only senior managers are responsible for the realization of organizational goals, and all functional organizations only have professional management goals; ③ The communication and coordination between functional organizations and personnel are poor, and their views are limited; (4) It is not conducive to training reserve talents of senior managers.
(B) the organizational structure of the division system
For some large real estate brokerage agencies, because of their large scale and various businesses, it is not suitable to adopt the straight-line staff system with high concentration of senior management, so it is necessary to adopt the division system or the division system. This form is characterized by the establishment of several branches or business departments under the senior manager according to commodity types (such as houses, office buildings and shops), regions (such as Dongcheng District, Xicheng District, Chengnan District and north city) or customer groups, and the senior manager authorizes the branches to handle daily business activities. Each branch is similar to a small organization, and the structure can be established in the form of a linear staff system. Senior managers are still responsible for formulating the principles, objectives, plans or strategies of the whole organization and implementing them in all branches. Under him, according to the nature of management business, a very capable functional organization or personnel can still be set up to implement key supervision over the business activities of all branches.
The advantages of this structure are as follows: ① Each branch has greater autonomy, which is conducive to giving full play to the enthusiasm and initiative of branch managers and enhancing their ability to adapt to environmental changes. This is particularly important, because the real estate market is regional and the market segments are complex; (2) It helps top managers to get rid of daily affairs and concentrate on overall and long-term strategic decisions; ③ It is beneficial to strengthen management and realize the effectiveness and efficiency of management; (4) It is beneficial to cultivate reserve talents of senior managers. But there are also shortcomings: ① overlapping functional departments, increasing management personnel and high cost; (2) If the decentralization is improper, it will easily lead to the independence of each business department and damage the overall goals and interests of the organization; (3) The horizontal connection and coordination between divisions are difficult. This form is suitable for very large organizations, and attention should be paid to fostering strengths and avoiding weaknesses when adopting it.
(C) Matrix organizational structure
As mentioned above, it is difficult to communicate and coordinate horizontally in an organization that implements the "line-staff system" form by dividing functional departments according to the nature of management business. In order to ensure the completion of the task, it is necessary to set up a temporary organization (such as the real estate project team) according to the real estate project, and relevant functional departments will send personnel to participate. For large real estate agencies, due to the large business volume and different market characteristics in different regions, it is often necessary to set up permanent management departments according to regions, and integrate the personnel of various functional departments through these departments. In this way, the organizational structure of matrix system was born (see Figure 3-4). In some large-scale compound real estate brokerage institutions, this matrix organizational structure is more complicated, and it is often seen that professional functional departments, business departments divided by real estate type or region and various temporary project departments coexist at the same time.
When this form is adopted, the personnel sent by functional organizations and participating in horizontal organizations (divisions or project teams) are led by both functional organizations and horizontal organizations. This will help to strengthen the contact between functional personnel in the horizontal organization, communicate information and cooperate to complete the tasks of the horizontal organization. Matrix system is actually a transitional form between line system and business division system, which can absorb the main advantages of these two forms and overcome their shortcomings. The dual leadership of the matrix system violates the principle of unified command, and it will also cause some contradictions, leading to unclear responsibilities between institutions and wrangling. Therefore, middle and senior managers should pay attention to coordinating the contradictions and problems between functional departments and horizontal institutions in practical application.
(D) Network organizational structure
Network system is a new form of organization. The company headquarters only keeps lean organizations and subcontracts some basic functions, such as marketing, production, research and development, etc. , to be filled in by its affiliated enterprises and other independent enterprises. Under this organizational form, the company becomes a small-scale core organization-virtual organization, which can play its main commercial functions and establish close ties with relevant parties by relying on long-term subcontracting and electronic information systems. Contrary to the traditional organizational structure in which companies rely on various functional departments to complete all their work, under the network organizational structure, brokerage agencies seek various resources from outside the organization to perform various functions.
For example, real estate brokerage companies can outsource some businesses, especially those closely related to brokerage business, such as appraisal business and warrant agency business. If the real estate agency thinks that other professional companies are doing better or at lower cost, they can contract these businesses to these professional agencies.
This form gives the organization a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, especially suitable for the external environment with rapid scientific and technological progress and rapid changes in consumption fashion. Organizations can focus on their specialized activities with competitive advantages. Its disadvantage is that outsourcing some basic functions will inevitably increase the difficulty of control and lack strong control over outsourcing business. Therefore, managers of organizations adopting this form of organization will spend most of their time coordinating and controlling external relations.
Each organizational form has its advantages and disadvantages. In the application, we should comprehensively consider the company's strategy, scale, technology, environment and other factors according to the actual situation, pay attention to foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and use them flexibly to overcome the defects of various organizational forms. In the design of organizational structure, we should fully consider the control span and the relationship between centralization and decentralization. Judging from the current popular trend, even in the traditional functional structure, there is a trend of widening control span, flattening structure and decentralization. These trends are to cope with the complex market changes under fierce competition, respond with the fastest speed, and are more flexible than the traditional organizational structure.