"The writer has found, in analyzing and diagnosing
organization and accounting work, that charts can express more on one page than
is sometimes expressed in several chapters of writing, and has been the author
and originator of many methods of charting industrial expressions. It is
necessary, as a first step, for analytical and other purposes, to make a chart
expressing all of the relations governing the organization of a business so as
to show the very foundation upon which all authorities, accounting, and
business transactions are based and conducted. There have been more failures
scored both personally and financially for lack of these very elements in a
business than by reason of any other one thing. As well try to build a house
without a foundation as to try to conduct a business, especially a
manufacturing business, without proper organization." (Clinton E. Woods, "Organizing a factory",
"An Organization Chart is a cross section picture covering
every relationship in the bank. It is a schematic survey showing department functions
and interrelations, lines of authority, responsibility, communication and
counsel. Its purpose is 'to bring the various human parts of the organization
into effective correlation and co-operation'."
"The frame work of the entire organization should be
sketched, and the particular place in the scheme of things which his department
and his position occupy should be explained. Almost any one can be shown a
particular location on a map. An organization chart is a map." (John W Schulze, "Office Administration", 1919)
"The most elementary aspect of administration is organization the structure of social institutions and their constituent parts, the composition of economic enterprises and their various branches, the organization of governmental agencies and their numerous departments. As it is mainly a matter of structure, organization bears the same rudimentary relationship to administration as does the science of anatomy or skeletology to the field of medicine. An administrative organization can be sketched and charted just as the human body can be physically depicted. Apart from its graphic convenience and its 'teachable' quality, however, what intrinsic relationship does organization bear to administration?" (Albert Lepawsky, "Administration: the art and science of organization and management", 1949)
"Although organization charts are useful, necessary, and often revealing tools, they are subject to many important limitations. In the first place, a chart shows only formal authority relationships and omits the many significant informal and informational relationships that exist in a living organization. Moreover, it does not picture how much authority exists at any point in the organization." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)
"Essential to organization planning, then, is the search for an ideal form of organization to reflect the basic goals of the enterprise. This entails not only charting the main lines of organization and reflecting the organizational philosophy of the enterprise leaders (e.g., shall authority be as centralized as possible, or should the company try to break its operations down into semiautonomous product or territorial divisions?), but also a sketching out of authority relationships throughout the structure." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)
"If charts do not reflect actual organization and if the organization is intended to be as charted, it is the job of effective management to see that actual organization conforms with that desired. Organization charts cannot supplant good organizing, nor can a chart take the place of spelling out authority relationships clearly and completely, of outlining duties of managers and their subordinates, and of defining responsibilities." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)
"One of the tools for making organization principles work is the organization chart. Any organization which exists can be charted, for a chart is nothing more than an indication of how departments are tied together along their principal lines of authority." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)
"Since a chart maps lines of authority, sometimes the mere charting of an organization will show inconsistencies and complexities and lead to their correction. A chart also acts as a guide for managers and new personnel in an organization, revealing how they tie into the entire structure. Charts are, therefore, not only evidences of organization planning but also road maps for decision making, and training devices for those who would learn how a company is organized." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)
"While good charting will attempt, as far as possible, to make levels on the chart conform to levels of importance in the business enterprise, it cannot always do so. This problem can be handled by clearly spelling out authority relationships." (Harold Koontz & Cyril O Donnell, "Principles of Management", 1955)
"The relations outlined on an organization chart provide a framework within which fuller and more spontaneous human behavior takes place. The formal system may draw upon that behavior for added strength; it will in its turn be subordinated to personal and group egotism." (Philip Selznick, "Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation", 1957)
"It is probable that one day we shall begin to draw
organization charts as a series of linked groups rather than as a hierarchical
structure of individual 'reporting' relationships." (Douglas McGregor, "The Human Side of Enterprise", 1960)
"In some firms role relationships prescribed by the chart
seemed to be of secondary importance to personal relationships between
individuals. (Joan Woodward, "Industrial Organization: Theory and practice", 1965)
"Every organization structure, even a poor one, can be
charted, for a chart merely indicates how departments are tied together along
the principal lines of authority. It is therefore somewhat surprising to find
top managers occasionally taking pride in the fact that they do not have an
organization chart or, if they do have one, feeling that the chart should be
kept a secret." (Harold Koontz, "Principles of management", 1968)
"[…] the organization chart will initially reflect the first
system design, which is almost surely not the right one […] as one learns, he
changes the design […]. Management structures also need to be changed as the
system changes […]" (Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software
Engineering", 1975)
"An organization chart is a graphic device that uses pictorial methods to show qualitative information about an organization. [...] The organization chart can be used to show one or more of three things: (1) What the various staff positions in the organization are, how they are structurally related to each other and the span of control and chain of command within the organization. (2) What the different units of the organization are and how they are arranged and related to each other. (3) What the various functions are within the organization and how they are organized and related." (Robert Lefferts, "Elements of Graphics: How to prepare charts and graphs for effective reports", 1981)
"Every company has two organizational structures: the formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday living relationship of the men and women in the organization." (Harold Geneen & Alvin Moscow, "Managing", 1984)
"Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to
nothing." (Colin Powell, "My American Journey", 1995)
"The premise here is that the hierarchy lines on the chart are also the only communication conduit. Information can flow only along the lines. [...] The hierarchy lines are paths of authority. When communication happens only over the hierarchy lines, that's a priori evidence that the managers are trying to hold on to all control. This is not only inefficient but an insult to the people underneath." (Tom DeMarco, "Slack: Getting Past Burnout, Busywork, and the Myth of Total Efficiency", 2001)
"Traditional organizational charts tend to institutionalize
inefficiency, and misalignment of natural talents to job descriptions." (John
Hoover, "Unleashing Leadership", 2005)
"Organization charts are subject to important limitations. A
chart shows only formal authority relationships and omits the many significant
informal and informational relationships." (Harold Koontz and Heinz Weihrich, "Essentials
Of Management", 2006)
"When you accepted your job, you were not chosen solely to fill a position on the organization chart; you were chosen to fill a responsibility." (David Cottrell, "Monday Morning Mentoring: Ten Lessons to Guide You Up the Ladder", 2009)
"[…] decisions based on org-chart structure tend to optimize for only part of the organization, ignoring upstream and downstream effects. Local optimizations help the teams directly involved, but they don’t necessarily help improve the overall delivery of value to customers. Their impact might be negligent if there are larger bottlenecks in the stream of work."
"However, in a highly collaborative context filled with uncertainty over outcomes, relying on the org chart as a principal mechanism of splitting the work to be done leads to unrealistic expectations." (Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais, "Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow", 2019)
"Organizations that rely too heavily on org charts and matrixes to split and control work often fail to create the necessary conditions to embrace innovation while still delivering at a fast pace. In order to succeed at that, organizations need stable teams and effective team patterns and interactions. They need to invest in empowered, skilled teams as the foundation for agility and adaptability. To stay alive in ever more competitive markets, organizations need teams and people who are able to sense when context changes and evolve accordingly."
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