Definition Of Departmentation
Departmentation may be defined as the process of forming departments or grouping activities of an organisation into a number of separate units for the purpose of efficient functioning. This term varies a great deal between different organisations. For example, in business undertakings, terms are division, department and section; in Government, these are called branch, department and section; in military, regiment, battalion, groups and company.
The impact of departmentation is a delineation of executive responsibilities and a grouping of operating activities. Every level in the hierarchy below the apex is departmentalised and each succeeding lower level involves further departmental differentiation.
Need For Departmentation
The necessity of departmentation arises because of the anxiety on the part of management to achieve the organisational goals through coordinated efforts of the individuals working in the organisation. More specifically it is necessitated by the following considerations.
i) Departmentation permits an organisation to take advantage of specialisation.
ii) Departmentation enables each person to know the role he is expected to play in the total activities of the company.
iii) Departmentation facilitates communication, coordination and control and contributes to the organisational success.
iv) Departmentation provides a platform around which the loyalties of organisational members may be built.
v) It enables a manager to locate the sources of information, skills and competence to take certain vital managerial decisions.
