Organizing Function of Management
“Organizing is the function of management that deals with the gathering and sorting of
resources that an organization needs in order to achieve the organizations goals effectively
and efficiently” (McNamara, 1997-2007). The organization function is what develops the
structure of the organization in reaching its goals. Organizing is how an organization uses
its resources to assign authority figures, divide the work into specific departments and
tasks, and to coordinate different tasks within the organization that need to be done, in
order for the organization to reach its goal. Organizational structure can be defined as, the
division of duties, authority and responsibilities within an organization among its
members. An organizations structure will have a deep impact on how well the organization
succeeds.
Organizations today have to be open-minded. In todays world, an organization has to be
open to change and be willing to change rules that had been set earlier on, in order for their
organization to succeed. In addition, the organization has to prepare their management
staff for change, and encourage the staff to find better methods toward improvement, and
to implement those methods. An organization with a decentralized structure is prepared for
change because lower level managers have the authority to make important decisions and
changes when needed. Cargill Corporation uses a decentralized organization for most
management decisions.
Cargill is a world-renowned corporation, the largest private corporation in the world.
Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and
services. They make everything from pharmaceuticals to food ingredients to cattle feed. I
have been employed by Cargill for the past three years and have first hand knowledge of
their business practices. Cargill employs over 158,000 employees at 1,100 locations in 66
countries. What makes them stand out from other corporations I have worked for is they
entitle a great more deal of trust to their business unit level manager and those managers
use knowledge management. “Knowledge management is the collection of processes that
govern the creation, dissemination, and utilization of knowledge” (Newman, 1991, p1).
Cargill knows that an efficient and effective manager needs to have the knowledge in order
to run the plant, so hands on training is provided for the staff, plus once a year forfour days
they attend safety and production training. This yearly refresher enables Cargill to meet
with all of management to discuss new issues, problems, to hear news from other business
units, and to find out company news. Not only does Cargill use the resource of knowledge
