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Posted at: Wed Mar 10 03:47:37 2004 (GMT)

   > Discuss this issue with other Syvum members in this forum.  Feel free to
   > post your own points or your essays here for the benefit of others, or to
   > receive feedback.
   
   Organizations should attempt to remove the large number of positions and
   salary levels that categorize employees by skill and experience because a
   flat structure is more probable to foster a congenial working environment
   within the company. I disagree with above statement for a number of reasons.
   
   
   For every job, motivation is an important factor. If organizations have to
   succeed and make a mark in this world of competition, they will have to find
   ways to reward their employees to strive to help in the growth of the
   organization. And one if the main motivating factors is money and power. The
   craving for more money and power is never ending. The promotions and salary
   hikes are one of the main goals individuals work for. 
   
   However, if the main aim for removing the positions within an organization
   and to flatten salary levels is to provide a better working environment,
   this can be achieved in other ways. Every employee could be told how
   important his work is to the organization and how he contributes to the
   company. If everyone is proud of what work he is doing, whether as a CEO or
   as a clerk, and they respect each others’ role in the organization, this
   will make the organization a better place to work. Some of the steps taken
   by some leading organizations are dropping the cabin structure and
   introduction of similar cubicles for employees of all designation, single
   cafeterias for people of every section of the hierarchy, same game rooms for
   all employees, use of first names for addressing peers rather than the use
   of words like Sir or Boss. 
   
   Hence if organizations aim to provide a better working environment for their
   employees, cutting down salary and the hierarchy is not the solution. They
   should try to look for other viable ways to this effect to bring about the
   feeling of equality.

Posted at: Mon Aug 23 10:49:19 2004 (GMT)

   The issue asks for an opinion from the readers regarding a flat versus
   hierarchical organizational structure, in the light of employees being
   categorized based on their skill and experience into different positions and
   salary levels, in the interest of fostering a congenial working environment
   within the company. I would vote in favor of a hierarchical organizational
   structure due to following reasons presented below.
   
   I believe that by categorizing employees into different positions and salary
   levels based on their skill and experience, organizations aims at creating a
   competitive working environment. When the employees realized that their
   promotion, salary rise and bonuses are based on their skill set and
   performance they will always remain on their toes to update themselves with
   the latest practices prevailing in the corporate world. Without any
   motivation the employees will not give their 100% to their work and this
   hinders the progress of the company. Moreover, an employee who is highly
   skilled and is backed by a considerable amount of experience will loose his
   motivation to deliver to his highest abilities when he realized that someone
   who is naďve and just joined the organization is on par with him in terms of
   rank and salary.Thus, hierarchical organization structure will act as a
   motivation for the employees.
   
   A good competitive and co-operative working environment is necessary for the
   progress of the company and also for the progress of its employees. When the
   employees perceives that their progress in the company is based on their
   skill and experience they will definitely co-operate among themselves and a
   concept of “Together we rise, divided we fall” will sail in the company’s
   air along with a positive competitive atmosphere.
   
   Furthermore, when there is a competitive and co-operative environment in a
   company, where its employees are striving hard and giving their best, the
   company’s productive is bound to rise which will reflect in it’s financial
   statements.	Moreover, such atmosphere in the company also presents a chance
   for innovations as the employees are on a constant look-out to improve their
   performance and skill set. 
   
   In conclusion, I firmly believe that a hierarchical organizational
   structure, where employees are categorized based on their experience and
   skill set, will definitely promote an environment which is conducive for
   positive competition, motivation for all, rise in employees and thus
   organization's productivity and a chance for innovation. 

Posted at: Sat Feb 18 13:11:54 2006 (GMT)

   
   It is the geniune dilema of most of the organizations whether to foster flat
   salary structure or heirarchial performance based structure. However, I feel
   that heirachial structure is more advantageous. Let me give some arguments
   to support my line of thinking.
   
   In hierarchial structure there is incentive for better performance.
   Employees try to put themelves and achieve higher targets than other. This
   keeps them energiged and motivated.
   
   Secondly, this structure recognizes better performing employees and keeps
   them confident and happy. For example, if in a team one employee is more
   talented and hardworking then he will expect better recognition and salary
   is the best incentive for the same. Otherwise he will get frustrated and
   leave the organization.
   
   Also, this structure developes a better  competitive enviornment in the
   company and helps employees to self-actualize. 
   
   These days organizations are trying to retain employee by giving even
   exiting names to their posts just to fulfil their psychocological needs. And
   this is helping them to retain their employees.
   
   Hence we can sday that performance based heirarchi and salary structure is
   good for organizations.It keeps employees motivated and helps them to
   achieve higher targets.

Posted at: Mon Mar 12 01:52:42 2007 (GMT)

   > Discuss this issue with other Syvum members in this forum.  Feel free to
   > post your own points or your essays here for the benefit of others, or to
   > receive feedback.
   
      The author is of the opinion that the business always benefits from
   competition. While competiton motivates organizations to use improved
   methods, it also leads to a race to win, where organizations override ethics
   and morality. Thus, I do not completely agree with the author's opinion. 
       Imagine a world, led by few monopolists. Quality wil take a backseat,
   prices will skyrocket and customer care will become an unknown term.
   Customers will feel ill-treated and unsatisfied. Thus, the presence of lot
   of players is necessary since it leads to competition. Healthy competition
   in turn necessitates that each player innovate, improve and	add value to
   its product. 
       A classic example of this is the start of Air Deccan, a low cost carrier
   in India. This fuelled ,many players to enter the domain. Tough competition
   between companies led to improved services and reduced air fares, thereby
   enabling the middle class commoner to travel by air.This example clearly
   shows the benefits of competition to businesses.
       Competition is, however not always to the advantage. History is full of
   the cases where organizations have used illegal or immoral methods to
   achieve their success. Enron scandal that came to light in 2003 is still
   fresh in memory. 
   In order to hide bankruptcy, the top management of Enron, a huge energy
   giant, bribed the tax officials to fabricate the documents. Once this came
   out in open, Enron lost its position in the market forever.
       To conclude, I partially disagree with the author's opinion that
   competition is always advantageous to the business.

Posted at: Fri May 11 21:19:31 2007 (GMT)

   I beg to disagree with the argument provided. Organizations have different
   positions and salary levels to cater to the market and organizational need.
   Author’s assumption of a flat structure, might not work for the best
   interest of the company.
   
   All organizations work for a certain goal. Goals can be very different i.e.
   growing investment, making profit, extending service to society, protection
   of environment etc. But at the core of each organization lies a goal that
   they strive to achieve. For an organization most important tool is its
   people. Competitive and motivated people make all the difference. And it’s
   always in the best interest of the Organization to attract the best and
   brightest in the market for their cause and retain them. 
   
   Organizations have a lot of positions to differentiate the work pattern.
   There is always a difference between the roles different people play in an
   organization. Positions mainly reflect those roles. Some roles are very
   critical and some are not. If we just wipe off the positions then it would
   create confusion in the organization. By creating position we define clearly
   the reporting structure. If there is no position there won’t be possible
   to devise a suitable reporting structure which is the back bone of an
   organization. People won’t know who their supervisor is and who is in
   charge.
   
   Organizations pay their employees based on the merit and the value that they
   are creating for the organization. A CEO makes all the critical decision for
   the organization. The future of the organization depends on those crucial
   decisions. So its quite natural that CEO should be well paid as he is at the
   helm of the organization. A worker just executes the job. He does not make
   much of a value addition to the organization. So if we compare to the job of
   CEO to that of the worker, then definitely CEO should be paid more. If we
   are making a flat structure, why an employee work hard and take all those
   difficult decision but get paid same as somebody else who is not
   contributing as much. So the bottom line is there is not much incentive for
   the greater contribution of the employees.
   
   Author assumed that a flat structure would produce more congenial
   atmosphere. But in actual fact it won’t. If we abolish the positions it
   will create chaos. People would have difficulty to find direction as there
   won’t be any superior to guide them. If we make the monetary benefit flat
   for everybody it will create a lot of friction. A person making more
   contribution will end up with same incentive as the person making less
   contribution. This is a dangerous situation for the organization as the
   talent will leave the organization for greener pasture. Organization will
   lose its credibility at the end of the day.
   
   By keeping monetary separation, organizations create a more competitive
   environment. Where there is competition there is excellence. Monetary
   benefit and positions are acknowledgement for greater contribution to the
   organization.

Posted at: Fri Jul 20 08:39:46 2007 (GMT)

   In my view, it is necessary to have different levels and hierarchies in an
   organisation. In order to support my school of thought I would like to
   present few arguments.
   
   Firstly, we if look at the skeleton of any big organisation, it is in the
   form of an inverted tree. Based on the different roles, positions are
   created. There are more employee at the operational level where as lesser at
   the higher levels. The People at the higher level are responsible for making
   key decisions and strategies and people at the lower level execute these
   strategies. Overall all members of the organsation work with a common
   objective to achive its growth targets and meet future goals. Hence there is
   a need to have multiple levels for the proper functioning of an
   organisations.
   
   Secondly, every person needs a motivation to work and to push himself beyond
   the limits. All living beings like to be appreciated and patted for the good
   work they do. Thus organisations with multiple designations and grades
   rewards the employee by promoting them based on their appraisals. This
   creates a healthy competetion among the employees and motivate them to give
   their best shot. 

Posted at: Tue Oct 9 15:11:46 2007 (GMT)

   organisation should attempt to remove large number of positions and salary
   levels that categorize employees by skill and experience because a flat
   structure is more probable to foster a congenial working environment within
   the company. i strongly disagree with the above statement for number of
   reasons.
	 its well-known that an organization's business strongly depends on its
   employee's effeciency and job-satisfaction. the levels of hierachy in an
   company are the major motivational factors for the growth of employees.
	 a person wont feel like eating food unless and until he/she is hungry,
   the same way i feel	hierarchial structure in an organisation create hunger
   for employees to work hard  for self growth.
	 the levels structure not only helps in maintaining the discipline of
   work strategies but also help the seniors to get the work done effectively
   by the sub-ordinates.
      hence, the level pattern has always proved to be best one  and will
   always continue to be.

Posted at: Tue Nov 13 02:23:49 2007 (GMT)

      
      Organizations should attempt to remove the large number of positions and
      salary levels that categorize employees by skill and experience because a
   
      flat structure is more probable to foster a congenial working environment
   
      within the company. I disagree with above statement for a number of
   reasons.
   
   The organization is a place where one can find thousands of people with
   thousands of reasons.Organization starts with the particular  goal and have
   to achieve with people who works with them. People who works with the
   organization have their own goal . But the most important goal is to earn
   money with the knowledge and enthusiasm in them. If they found that
   everybody has same value ,then motivation power goes done and they do not
   give their effort as they could have given.
   In survey it is found that the organizational structure has done better then
   those who do not have. Because every person in this world has different
   talent and different capacity to handle and have different attitude which
   helps to achieve different target and go further.It is possible to achieve
   target with more talent and experience then those who do not have.
   therefore I am no agree with the above statement and I believe that
   organizational structure does better then any other organization.

Posted at: Mon Sep 8 15:18:22 2008 (GMT)

   The biggest asset for a company is its employees. The success or failure of
   the company depends on how well the management utilizes the potential of its
   man power. It is imperative that a company has an organizational structure
   that identifies the hierarchy. This gives the employees a complete
   understanding of the power pyramid and the levels of responsibilities and
   ownerships. I do favor a hierarchical style of organization that eliminates
   much confusion prevalent in a flat structure. 
   
   Companies having a flat structure often lack clear chain of command. This
   leads to power struggle and chaos in the company. Due to lack of defined
   roles, the leadership is almost non existent that results in poor decision
   making. 
   
   Companies have never been so competitive. The ever increasing line of
   technology products makes the competition even fiercer. Companies vie for
   recognition of their products. Technological advancements have resulted in
   scarcity of top niche talent. Skilled workers have great opportunities for
   advancement. It becomes very important for a company to identify and define
   the skill levels for a specific job. Expertise in subject matter is an
   essential prerequisite. The talent and skill level for each grade of job
   within a category are very well defined prior to hiring. In this way, the
   company is able to accomplish its goals and meet its business objectives
   
   A well known automotive supplier company created a technical training
   program that lays out the career advancement path from a machine operator to
   Process Engineering Manager. A machine operator can advance in to a machine
   technician upon successfully completing a set of course work. The next level
   would be a process technician from where acquiring additional skill sets
   would take him to the level of process engineer. A process engineer with
   people skills and strong technical background could advance into process
   engineering manager. Ever since the company laid out this clear and concise
   career path, the employees were motivated to pursue and advance themselves
   to the next position. This resulted not only in betterment of the
   individuals in concern; however the management noticed a sharp increase in
   productivity. 
   
   In conclusion, organizations with hierarchical structure have a refined
   talent pool that can align itself to challenging and changing demands from
   its customer. The clarity and definition of roles at different
   classification and categories makes it very easy for the company to assign a
   team that will successfully accomplish the task. The benefits that will
   accrue by placing the right individuals at the right place are countless.

Posted at: Mon Jul 19 02:58:21 2010 (GMT)

   Most of the corporations and other businesses follow the hierarchical
   Management System which has positive impact on the Corporations as well as
   on the business.  Considering this fact, I shall present the argument
   partially refuting the author’s statement.  
   According to the hierarchical management system, any corporations and
   businesses, employees will be placed in different ranks based on their
   expertise and experience.  Salaries will vary depend on the employee
   ranking.  In this management system, everybody’s goal is to improve
   business and make profit to the company. Based on their role and
   responsibilities each employee put 100 % effort in their assigned task. If
   the salaries paid according to employees experience and an employee’s
   deserves that. That is the way of motivating the employees, which is every
   essential for any organization keep their employees highly performed.
   Motivation can be in the form of remuneration or giving them awards for
   their best performance. Then, everybody in the organization tried to do
   their best. Otherwise it does not make any difference between experienced
   person and freshman.  Ultimately company’s goal is to make profit and
   employees is to make the money. If this mutual understanding goes well then
   both company as well as the employee will be in good condition. 
   For an instance, if you consider team lead of an testing team and team
   member, team lead will have more responsibility as compared to and team
   member, at the same time he would be getting more salaries as well, so in
   that case he is ready to take the more challenges as well responsibilities
   and he can mentor the fresh people. 
   Conversely, employees at the flat organization would not have enthusiasm
   like the way it is there in the Organization with hierarchical management
   system. Since everyone has been treated as same. Though, it encourages
   collegiality and co-operation among the employees. There is no consideration
   or value for expertise and experience. In this case, people will not be
   motivated and they will not be ready to take any additional responsibilities
   apart from their regular tasks. If anyone joins newly to the organization
   and he is just out of the college and does not have much experience on the
   work he was been recruited. How someone will take care of him or does he
   have to learn himself and or he needs to disturb other employees till he
   gets hold on the work. 
   Finally in any organization, people should be given positions and
   opportunities based on their expertise and experience, which makes the
   people to work in enthusiasm which in turn gives the company good returns. 

Posted at: Tue Aug 17 17:08:00 2010 (GMT)