Redesigning the Organizational Structure to Reach Efficiency: The Case of Ministry of Health and Medical Education of Iran

Introduction

Any organization requires effective and efficient leadership along with necessary requirements such as various sources in order to achieve its mission, objectives and vision. This is the main bottleneck of organizations when they are going to bring fundamental changes. From the perspective of organizational change and development and related issues, the following aspects can be considered as dimensions and the main components of a comprehensive transformation of the organization:

• 1.

  Change in objectives, goals, strategies and policies.

• 2.

  Developments in science and organizational technology.

• 3.

  Development of human resources and skills, capabilities and competencies.

• 4.

  The transformation of the structures, systems and organizational systems and processes

• 5.

  Change in organizational culture.

• 6.

  And change in knowledge, attitude and style of management and leadership of managers (especially leaders and senior managers of an organization).

The last case is more important than others which is in fact a major stimulus to fulfill them.In fact, the senior managers are the ones who prepare this way to transform other pillars with having deep knowledge, competence and courage (Thurow, 1999) in the basic decision-makings and by creating necessary administrative and technical infrastructure. In the meantime, organizational structure with all its dimensions and its key components (Scott & Davis, 2005) is one of the most important tools in the hands of managers and many managerial techniques and tools can be formed based on its framework. It can even be said that it clarifies the structure, the total outline of the systems, processes, organizational relationships and responsibilities and ways of doing things.

Organizational structure in its simplest definition is the division of duties and coordination between personnel of the organization and it shows the framework of relationships governing occupations, systems and organizational processes and human resource (including individuals and groups) who try to achieve the specified goals (Scott,2005;Galbraith,1977).The structure of an organization (such as the Ministry of Health and Medical Education) requires partial revision or even total redesigning due to the changes in missions, strategies, policies and objectives once environmental and technological changes take place. This evolutionary redesign and implementation of its plan can have the maximum effectiveness and efficiency when all aspects and components of a coherent structure are considered carefully, and these components are as follows:

• •

  Chart of organizational units (including the original chart and detailed ones).

• •

  Duties of units (up to the lowest level of responsibility centers such as the offices, departments and units).

• •

  Occupational structure (list of jobs and positions, job descriptions, job characteristics and qualifying conditions).

• •

  Decision-making structure (structure assemblies, councils, committees and community centers of, decision-making, policy-making and authority).

This research outlines the methodology and undertaken activities and main results of this project in the structure of central department of Ministry. Firstly, the model and macro methodology of redesigning the structure of Ministry has been explained. Then, various main components of this model are clarified. Last but not least, the results are briefly explained in three main stages.