Organizational Research and Theory
The structures that subscribe to different organizations play a major role and determine how information flows throughout an organization as well as the reporting structure within the organization. In some organizations, decision making lies with the top management, and in other organizations, decision making responsibilities may be distributed within the organization. The latter part is what mainly constitutes a lateral structural arrangement where various departments work hand in hand in achieving a common organizational goal rather than working as distinct or separate entities. Lateral structural arrangements provide an avenue for coordination and communication between widely different aspects within an organization and more often change the nature of interaction and power dynamics between employees different from traditional organizational structures (Bombaci, 2010).
Scott (1992) notes that lateral relationships within organizations have been extensively utilized by organizations as legitimate sources of information and the way the information flows within these organizations has resulted in new generation forms of organizations that are different from the traditional organizational forms. He went ahead and identified some of the lateral structural arrangements as professional organizations, project teams, clan or organic systems and matrix structures. Based on this knowledge advanced by Scott (1992), this research paper seeks to evaluate and discuss a number of different lateral structural arrangements not already identified by Scott.
This paper is arranged in three major sections: Overview of lateral structural arrangements; understanding different lateral structural arrangements in use within organizations; and managerial implications of lateral structural arrangements within an organization.
The structure of an organization is, in the simplest terms, defined as the manner in which the organization divides its workforce into distinct roles, functions, tasks, and achieves effective coordination between these different roles and functions (Mintzberg, 1979). Lateral structures are defined as those organizational structures in which the employees or departments in the organization communication and coordinate work on the same level rather than up or down. These are mainly based on lateral relationships within organizations which are often within the same hierarchical level and help foster good working relationships between employees and departments within an organization (Joyce, McGee, & Slocum, 1997). The lateral relationships can either be either colleague relations: relationship between employees who subordinate to one superior or in the same department, or collateral relations: relationships between people in the same level with the organization but working in different departments (Bombaci, 2010).
The main driving force and theory behind the importance of lateral structures is that these structures