Question

Explain how Mintzberg’s five basic parts of the organization fit together to perform needed functions. If an organization had to give up one of these five parts, such as during a severe downsizing, which one could it survive the longest without? Discuss.

Answer 1

Mintzberg's five basic parts of an organization work together and every part has its own value or importance. These are basically, Apex, technostructure, support staffs, operating core and middle line. But during corporate layoffs or downsizing in a company, things get smaller and the responsibilities of certain employees are strongly scrutinized, it means who are less productive they are under observation and they can be eliminated. Apex manages the work of the supervision and when the organization starts growing its the Apex's job to make sure by giving strategies that mission is executed properly. The operating core plays the vital role here, without which a company is meaningless. Their job is about doing the basic work and they are really self-sufficient and handling the production-related works are what they do. To put emphasis on an efficient business HR team have the pressure on themselves mostly because they choose the workers carefully and during downsizing, it is important that the limited amount of workers do the important jobs. Hiring manager also decides who will be losing their jobs and some companies make mistakes by firing extremely good employees, that lead to the insecurity of other efficient employees and they may also plan to resign from their jobs. Downsizing has good effects as well as bad effects because without a vision it will not work and if saving money is the main moto and people support it then it can be a good strategy. Mainly support staffs who provide the other services like cafeteria, public relations etc they are likely to lose their jobs most probably and an organization can survive without them for a period of time. Middle line also manages the people who do the operating jobs. They can be needed. Technostructure staff mainly follow the standardization process and their jobs are related to infrastructure.