The Team-Friendly Organizational Structure: A Paradigm Shift

Sherryl G. Wilkins, PMP

PM Network 39 (August 1999)

Globalization, along with the change in the United States to a service economy, has prompted organizations to transform themselves in order to maintain and achieve leadership and enterprise agility. The structure of an organization is the formal means by which it coordinates the activities of its workforce to accomplish its goals and objectives. Periodically, organizations must restructure in order to stay competitive and efficient. The new environment requires a fresh look at the strategic visions and assumptions that have historically driven the organization. The organizational structure should take its form from a firm’s chosen strategy. This transformation requires new roles and responsibilities, with a new set of management practices. The challenge of organizations will be to prevail over inertia and people’s fear of change, along with establishing new measures of success.