essay - GMAT: Issue 15

"Organizations should be structured in a clear hierarchy in which the people at each level, from top to bottom, are held accountable for completing a particular component of the work. Any other organizational structure goes against human nature and will ultimately prove fruitless."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

Answer:
Although I perceive the benefits of hierarchy structure, I believe that the structure of any organization depends on the situation where the company stands.

First of all, an optimal organizational structure depends on the company's business, the company's mature level, or other situations. That is, there's no supreme structure in the world. For instance, more and more companies in a fast-changing industry begin adapting more flexible structure like project organization, which is an organization that has a lot of small groups and minimal hierarchies, in order to respond to customer's business needs. Therefore, we can't say, "This is the best organizational structure for all companies at this moment."

I personally believe that, as time goes, more flexible structure is suitable for companies than hierarchy structure. I have no argument with the benefits of a hierarchical structure because the clear chain of command might give the organization better results especially when the organization faces emergent situations (The typical example is an army). At the same time, however, the structure has drawbacks. For instance, it has a tendency to be bureaucratic; People begin to focus only on their own tasks and interests, and not to pay 6attention on others; The departments are irritated by each other because a conflict of interests occurs. In this 21 century, I believe that people should be more empowered and freely exert their imagination and creativity to achieve a higher target and a higher purpose, because by their nature they have free minds and desire to achieve a higher goal.

In conclusion, I agree that there is a benefit to adapt a hierarchical structure in the organization, but we can't say that the structure is all the best for all kinds of organization. It's because the optimal structure varies with the situations. In addition of this, I believe that more and more companies will begin to adapt more flexible structure to harness people's possibilities.