These factors influence specialization, departmentalization, and coordination. Although every organization has its own unique design, five basic structural arrangements can be identified. The Uform design is used to implement a singleproduct strategy. Because of the emphasis on functional activities, coordination is extremely important. The costs of staffing each department with experts is lower than in organizations with other configurations.
Uform design facilitates wide spans of management and allows the CEO to centralize authority.
Uform design slows decision making. Unit employees may lose sight of overall organizational goals, and it is difficult for the organization to monitor the performance of individual managers in the functional areas. The Hform design is used to implement a strategy of unrelated diversification. The typical Hform organization is likely to achieve only averagetoweak financial performance. The Mform organization, also called the divisional design, is similar to the Hform design, but most or all of its businesses are in the same or related industries.