Organizational Dynamics

Organizational dynamics includes the culture, structure and people.

Organization Culture

There are three distinct types of organization culture: learning, bureaucratic and rules-based.

A Learning Organization is the term given to a business, company, or firm that:
  • proactively addresses continuous improvement of its products or services as requested by its customers
  • innovates speedily enough to adapt to changing environments.
  • maintains a culture that supports continuous learning principles, which frequently involves critical thinking, and risk taking.
  • are more tolerant of errors in judgment or process, understanding that systems and people will be challenged.
  • becomes educated through their meaningful experiences, benchmarking, networking and collaboration.
  • reviews the skills, knowledge and abilities of its members to support change and transformation ongoing.
  • monitors the processes, policies, practices, procedures, data, and information that support decision making.
  • converges people and system resources in the DIKD continuum., which in part determines its maturity level. Click here for more information on the learning organization.
A Bureaucratic Organization is the term given to a government agency, political entity or educational institution that:
  • governs by the use of politics
  • rules by expectation of favors
  • stresses policies as the primary requirement to follow
  • addresses comments and concerns through vote or consensus
  • litigates based upon legal statutes
A Rules-based Organization is the term given to a regulated corporation, enterprise or establishment that:
  • follows standard operating procedures
  • trains by use of standard operating instructions
  • adheres to division directives
  • reinforces validation
  • engages verification on a cyclical basis
  • mandates Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs), Good Clinical Practices GCPs, Good Laboratory Practices (GLPs), etc.
  • encourages periodic audits
  • institutes investigations and root cause analysis
Structure

There are basically four structures that pertain to perceived power of the project manager with respects to utilization of resources and authority level.

  • Strong Matrix: Project Managers have more authority than Functional Managers.
  • Balanced Matrix: Project Managers share authority with Functional Managers.
  • Weak Matrix: Project Managers have less authority than Functional Managers.
  • Projectized: Project managers have full authority.

Note: Functional managers are departmental in scope, i.e., Sales, Marketing, Human Resources, Customer Service, etc.

Stakeholder Relationship Management

The set of comunication activities necessar to ensure effective working relationships. It involves primarily seven groups:

  • Sponsors
  • Senior Management
  • Project Team Members
  • Key Stakeholders, i.e., suppliers and distributors
  • General Stakeholders, i.e., internal employees
  • External customers
  • Other impactees, i.e., community at large