Organization & Job Design

The structure of many organizations has tended to evolve over time in response to growth, new business opportunities, downsizing, cost cutting and a myriad of other situational dynamics.  Similarly, individual jobs within the hierarchy, particularly leadership jobs, often evolve to fit the skills and interests of the people available to fill them.  Consequently, the existing architecture of the organization may no longer be the one best suited to the strategic direction and current needs of the organization.  A good question to ask yourself …. “If I was creating this organization from scratch today, knowing what I know now and with no existing staff to consider, how would I design the organization structure and what would the individual jobs look like?” 

The success of any leadership team will be influenced by the architecture of the organization.  The broad functional roles and their  relationship to each other play an important part in determining how the team functions and communicates.  Individual job design must identify and differentiate the “primary accountabilities”, where 80% of the value and impact is realized, from the “general accountabilities” which play a supportive role.  A well designed job description will clearly communicate where the incumbent should focus their priorities and identify the key performance indicators (what is measured and how it is measured) that will be used to set goals.