Fundamentals of Management, 11/e

2 What Is Departmentalization?

Traditional View

Early management writers argued that after deciding what job tasks will be done by whom, common work activities needed to be grouped back together so work was done in a coordinated and integrated way. How jobs are grouped together is called departmentalization. There are five common forms (see Exhibit 8–2), although an organization may use its own unique classification. No single method of departmentalization was advocated by the early writers. The method or methods used would reflect the grouping that best contributed to the attainment of the goals of the organization and the individual units.

Exhibit 8–2

Types of Departmentalization

• Functional

Groups employees based on work performed (e.g., ...