What is an Organizational Structure?

A company's organizational structure concerns the authority, control, and reporting structure for employees.  

What is a Flat Organizational Structure?

A flat organizational structure means that an organization has few (if any) levels of management between the workforce and the highest-level managers. 

What is the Effect of a Flat Organizational Structure?

The absence of middle managers places more authority, such as decision-making functions, at the worker level. It generally means greater autonomy and authority for the worker. It can also be more efficient for the organization to not have various levels of bureaucracy. This structure can serve to motivate employees who are more autonomous. 

What is the Organizational Structure in a Hierarchical Structure?

In a hierarchical structure, workers report to a front-line manager. These front-line managers report to middle managers. These managers report to top-level managers. This structure generally creates a pyramid to represent authority, control, and communication. 

What is the Organizational Structure in a Flat Structure?

In a flat organizational structure, there are few levels of management. Thus workers will report directly to higher-level managers. This means that the role of middle-managers is shared between the workers and the higher-level managers. 

Employee Oversight in a Flat Organizational Structure

The flat structure generally employs collaborative work teams as a method of employee oversight. 

What are the disadvantage of a Flat Organizational Structure? 

The flat structure can cause a lack of clarity on who is responsible and accountable for specific activities. 

It can also be difficult for outsiders to determine who is the appropriate point of contact for any communication. 

Without managers who have final decision-making authority, employees may conflict on specific decisions. 

Competitive individuals may attempt to establish greater power or more authority than their peers.