Disadvantages/Advantages of Tall-shaped Structure in management

Disadvantages of Tall-shaped Structure

 Too much involvement in subordinates Job

One disadvantage of a tall shaped structure is that superior tends to get too involved in the work of the subordinates. This sometimes gets into the nerves of the subordinates resulting in cold behaviours. Sometimes, the subordinates argue that they are not allowed to exercise initiative and this reduces their level of creativity. This is also the feeling of less job satisfaction because of the closeness of supervision. The subordinate is too proud of the outcome of the job because he finds it difficult to separate his own efforts which he was to admire and be proud of and the efforts of the superior officer.

Too Many Levels

The tendency to divide activities and arising the activities to the individuals and few individuals to a manager result in tall shaped structure with too many levels. This creates problem of communication from the lowest level in the organization to the top levels. This is because information from below has to pass through the various levels. In the process, some piece of the information will be distorted and  modified, the information itself travels slowly and the in some cases the information may get lost on the way.

High Costs

Too many levels again create high costs. This is because the levels and the positions arising from them must be filled with personnel who will draw their salaries and wages. Officers need to be provided and these officers must be furnished and equipped. All these and more are what the accountants call overhead costs.

Wide Span of Control

On the other hand, when many subordinates report to a manager, the result is fewer levels of positives and a flat shaped organization. See diagramme below:

Showing flat-shaped structure

There are again advantages and disadvantages associated with this type of structure.

Advantages of Flat-Shaped Structure

Superiors are forced to delegate

In a flat-shaped structured, superior officers must delegate. This means there is a limit to the activities a manager has to perform, and of necessity he has to give excess activities to the subordinates with the accompanying authority. Also, by the nature of the job such as consultancy will force the manager to always have as many subordinates as possible with whom he consults with regularly.

Clear Policies must be made

Every member of the organization should be able to know what the policy of the enterprise is, what objective(s) that has emanated from the policy and so on. This is important because the manager has no time to be explaining to the many subordinates what the organization policy is and the objectives necessary to implement the policy are.

 Subordinates must be carefully Selected

This is important and is advantageous. It ensures good quality workforce. They should understand what is to be done, how to do it and when to do it without the prompting of the manager. In other words, in the absence of the manner for whatever reason the work must go on smoothly.

 Good Quality Decisions

Due to the large number of subordinates that is usually participated in decision making, the quality of such decision is high. Many subordinates are involved and all shades of opinion considered before the final decision.

Disadvantages of Flat-shaped Structure:

There are also a set of disadvantages associated with tall-shaped structure. The major ones are the following:

Overloaded superiors can become bottlenecks

When superiors are loaded with many subordinates to supervise, to take a decision demands a great deal of time. Decisions can further be delayed if the superior does not know the techniques of organizing and managing meetings.