7. Simple Form, Lean Staff
[Para 24] There are no correct forms of organization, only useful ones. From personal experience with my own enterprise and others, I know how easy it is to proliferate an organiza tion chart with dotted boxes for positions that "should" exist but do not yet exist because of lack of resources. There is no inherent reason to have, for example, a vice president of engi neering or a manager of human resources unless the engineering and administrative functions of the enterprise are best served by having these positions.
[Para 25] The structure of the enterprise and the positions created, particularly staff （i. e. , nonline） positions, should be determined by the mission, strategies, and plans of theenterprise. Further, as strategies and plans change, the nature of the organization should beadapted appropriately. This requires viewing the organization as a dynamic entity that is modified to serve the enterprises needs.
[Para 26] While maintaining a simple form and lean staff is an important practice, it isnot an easy practice. It is a natural tendency for people to strive for position and power, and todefend it once attained. Rather than deal with the problems associated with this tendency,management frequently ignores such problems, particularly if things are going well. Then,when the cycle changes and things are not going so well, management "discovers" that manypeople in the enterprise are aware of the longstanding problem and waiting for management todo something about it. At this point, there are no resources available to be creativeretraining, for exampleand more drastic solutions become necessary.
[Para 27] Vigilant maintenance of simple form and lean staff can help to avoid thesetypes of problems. A complementary strategy is to adopt a humancentered approach and develop people rather than positions. In other words, by valuing people for what they provide to theenterprise rather than what their positions provide, it is possible to lessen the tendency of people to define themselves in terms of their positions.
展开
