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Job Specialization |
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Mintzberg notes that when companies restrict or specialize the operational tasks that workers do, what he refers to as "horizontal job specialization", there also arises the need to specialize the managerial tasks that they do. This he calls "vertical job specialization". As managers require workers to perform smaller and smaller, more specialized tasks (horizontally), their ability to manage their own work is also shrunken (vertically).
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The main thrust of both vertical and horizontal job specialization is increased productivity through repetition - at least that is the intention. In practice, excessive job specialization often leads to underutilization of highly specialized employees. Moreover, when this is taken to its extreme, this process of ever more specialized tasks on the one hand, and responsibilities on the other, leads to a divorce between thinking and doing.
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Mintzberg, Henry. The Structuring of Organizations. Prentice-Hall Inc. Englewood Cliffs, NJ.1979.
This is the classic text on organizational behaviour and design, and it provides us with a very handy introduction to organizational development. Written by Canada's foremost management thinker -- Henry Mintzberg -- The Structuring of Organizations gives readers a framework and a vocabulary for understanding and describing the many systemic sociological and psychological phenomena which occur in organizations. As such, it empowers readers with a means to redesign their organizations with informed choice.
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