What is serviceService is any activity or benefit that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Most organizations provide a service of some sort or another. For organizationssuch as airlines, trains, universities, car rental, health or government agenciesservice represents a major part of what they have to offer. They are known asservice organizations.OR SERservice organization" is defined as an organization providing services to "user entities", for which these services are likely to be relevant to these user entities' internal control for financial reporting. Thus, the term "user entity" is simply an organization using the service of a service organization.How and why services are organized is important.There must be a determination to ascertain whether, and if so which, organizational factors lead to success or failurein providing a good service.1. Sequential 2. Continuous 3. Consistent4. Logical5. As per consumer requirementManagement may well lay down the organizational parameters. Employees will be active in whether these parameters are adhered to or subverted. Equally, it will be the organization that customers will judge when it comes to providing quality service. Ultimately, the organization will be seen as worthy or undeserving of praise.Organization realitiesServices and products are not created in a vacuum. They are produced by organiza-tions that vary in size, structure and culture. Knowledge of how organizations operate,and why, assists our understanding of behaviour in organizations. This is particularlyimportant for services, as customers are involved in varying degrees in the productionand delivery process. According to one leading authority in services marketing, howto organize to implement the services strategy is among the most crucial of decisions.Unfortunately, the literature on organizational behaviouris contested by some as not adequately reflecting organizational thatrealities may obstruct any move toward determining the optimum organization for service.Structure of organizationsThe typically hierarchicalarrangement of lines of authority, communications, rights and duties of an organization. Organizationalstructure determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled, and coordinated, and how information flows between the different levels of management.A structure depends on the organization'sobjectives and strategy. In a centralized structure, the top layer of management has most of the decision making power and has tight control over departments and divisions. In a decentralized structure, the decision making power is distributed and the departments and divisions may have different degrees of independence

Different Types of Organizational StructureOrganizations are set up in specific ways to accomplish different goals, and the structure of an organization can help or hinder its progress toward accomplishing these goals. Organizations large and small can achieve higher sales and other profit by properly matching their needs with the structure they use to operate. There are three main types of organizational structure: functional, divisional and matrix structure.Functional StructureFunctional structure is set up so that each portion of the organization is grouped according to its purpose. In this type of organization, for example, there may be a marketing department, a sales department and a production department. The functional structure works very well for small businesses in which each department can rely on the talent and knowledge of its workers and support itself. However, one of the drawbacks to a functional structure is that the coordination and communication between departments can be restricted by the organizational boundaries of having the various departments working separately.Divisional StructureDivisional structure typically is used in larger companies that operate in a wide geographic area or that have separate smaller organizations within the umbrella group to cover different types of products or market areas. For example, the now-defunct Tecumseh Products Company was organized divisionally--with a small engine division, a compressor division, a parts division and divisions for each geographic area to handle specific needs.The benefit of this structure is that needs can be met more rapidly and more specifically; however, communication is inhibited because employees in different divisions are not working together. Divisional structure is costly because of its size and scope. Small businesses can use a divisional structure on a smaller scale, having different offices in different parts of the city, for example, or assigning different sales teams to handle different geographic areas.MatrixThe third main type of organizational structure, called the matrix structure, is a hybrid of divisional and functional structure. Typically used in large multinational companies, the matrix structure allows for the benefits of functional and divisional structures to exist in one organization. This can create power struggles because most areas of the company will have a dual management--a functional manager and a product or divisional manager working at the same level and covering some of the same managerial territory.

Culture of organizationsWork culture is a topic that many of us are familiar with, mostly because we work and we more often than not do this with other people. The type of organization, the staff, the principles, policies and values of the work place all make organizational culture what it is. So what type of work culture do you work in? What type works better than others? There is a large variety of organizational cultures that materialize in different environments; some occur au natural and some are implemented by the higher-ups in the company. Workplace ethos silently (and sometimes not-so-silently) guide employees on how to behave amongst each other, with customers and with management.Importance of Organizational CultureThe culture of a workplace makes the organization what it is. Culture is the sum of attitudes, customs and beliefs that distinguish one group of people from another. Organizational culture is no different from ethnic culture except it usually includes people from all different backgrounds and histories. These cross-cultural connections can blossom into ingenuity and understanding that promote a better workplace and arguably a better world community. An office culture creates a unique brand for a company which helps them stand out amongst the rest of their competitors. It also defines standards and set procedures that give the company and furthermore the employees direction as they conduct their daily business. Culture unifies people and allows them to learn from one another and strive to be the best they can be. No company exists without a culture, but every company operates under a different type of one.Types of organization cultureThe Four Major CultureThe Hierarchy (Control) CultureThe earliest approach to organizing in the modern era was based on the work of a German sociologist, Max Weber, who studied government organizations in Europe during the early 1900s. To accomplish this, Weber (1947) proposed seven characteristics rules, specialization, meritocracy, hierarchy, separate ownership, impersonality, and accountability. These characteristics were highly effective in accomplishing their purpose and were adopted widely in organizations whose major challenge was to generate efficient, reliable, smoothly flowing, predictable output. Because the environment was relatively stable, tasks and functions could be integrated and coordinated, uniformity in products and services was maintained, and workers and jobs were under control. Clear lines of decision-making authority, standardized rules and procedures, and control and accountability mechanisms were valued as the keys to success.2. The Market (Compete) CultureAnother form of organizing became popular during the late 1960s as organizations faced new competitive challenges. This form relied on a fundamentally different set of assumptions than the hierarchy did and was based largely on the work of Oliver Williamson (1975),3 Bill Ouchi (1981), and their colleagues. These organizational scholars identified an alternative set of activities that they argued served as the foundation of organizational effectiveness. The most important of these was transaction costs.3. The Clan (Collaborate) CultureA third ideal form of organization is represented by the upper-left quadrant in. It is called a clan because of its similarity to a family-type organization. They seemed more like extended families than economic entities. Instead of the rules and procedures of hierarchies or the competitive profit centers of markets, typical characteristics of clan-type firms were teamwork, employee involvement programs, and corporate commitment to employees.4. The Adhocracy (Create) CultureAs the developed world shifted from the industrial age to the information age, a fourth ideal type of organizing emerged. It is an organizational form that is most responsive to the hyperturbulent, ever-accelerating conditions that increasingly typify the organizational world of the twenty-first century. It was assumed that adaptation and innovativeness lead to new resources and profitability, so emphasis was placed on creating a vision of the future, organized anarchy, and disciplined imagination5.Normative CultureThis is your everyday corporate workplace. Normative culture is very cut and dry, following strict regulations and guidelines that uphold the policies of the organization. Employees rarely deviate from their specific job role, break rules or do anything other than what is asked of them. These type of organizations run a tight ship and are not suited for every type of employee. 6.Club CultureNothing but the best. This type of culture requires employees to be very skilled and competent in their niche of work. Educational qualifications, prior work experience and even personal interests are taken into consideration before an employee is hired. Club culture can be seen in organizations like the commercial pilots and specialty branches of the military..7.Process CultureThis type of office culture provides a set of regulations and procedures that the employees follow. Its different than the normative culture as the regulations are not a bullet-pointed list of dos and donts so much as it is an ideology that the employees adhere to. Employees know what they are getting into when they sign-up and are often self-starters. 4.Bet Your Company CultureThis culture is for the patient risk-takers. Organizations that follow this culture are known to literally bet the success or failure of their company on single decisions of which the outcome is completely unknown. It can be a wild ride working for this type of company as you dont know what each day is going to bring. The consequences of the decisions made by the individuals working in the bet-your-company culture can be so dire that the company goes under; contrarily, they can be so excellent that the company thrives more than ever before.

Organizational climateSupportWhat is Organizational Climate?Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that governs how people behave in organizations. The culture of an organization provides boundaries and guidelines that help members of the organization know the correct way to perform their jobs. The culture of an organization is ingrained in the behavior of the members of an organization and is very difficult to change. For this reason, culture can be thought of as the 'personality' of the organization. The unique culture of an organization creates a distinct atmosphere that is felt by the people who are part of the group, and this atmosphere is known as the climate of an organization. We define organizational climate as how members of an organization experience the culture of an organization. The climate of an organization is subject to change frequently and can be shaped by the upper management of an organization. If culture represents the personality of the organization, climate is the organization's mood. Organizational climate is much easier to experience and measure than organizational culture and also much easier to change. Types of Organizational ClimateThere are many different types of climates that can be produced by the culture of an organization and they can be grouped in many different ways. One way to categorize the different types of organizational climates is climates that are people-oriented, rule-oriented, innovation-oriented and goal-oriented. Avoiding actionOver-conforming: Action is often avoided by resorting to a strict interpretation ofones responsibility, e.g. The rules clearly say and citing supportive pre-cedents, e.g. Its always been done this way. Rigid adherence to rules can be poten-tially explosive in a service like social security. The situation may be defused bydistancing oneself from the rules, e.g. I dont make the rules, or Listen, if it wereup to me . Passing the buck: Responsibility for doing something is passed to someone else,e.g. Im too busy or Thats not my job. Playing dumb: An unwanted task is avoided by falsely pleading ignorance or inabil-ity, e.g. I dont know anything about that or X is better able to handle that . Depersonalizing: Unwanted demands from clients or subordinates are avoidedby treating them as objects or numbers rather than people, e.g. a doctor may referto hospital patients not by name but by their illness, talking about them in thethird person, using medical terminology incomprehensible to patients, avoidingeye contact, and providing curt and patronizing answers to patients questions.

Avoiding blameBuffing: This term was coined to describe the practice of rigorously documentingactivity or fabricating documents to project an image of competence and thor-oughness. It is widely referred to as covering your ass. Playing safe: Situations that may reflect unfavourably on a person are avoided. Justifying: Responsibility for a certain event is minimized by acknowledgingpartial responsibility and including some expression of remorse. Scapegoating: Blame is deflected to others.

EmpowermentThis article presents an empowerment model (EM) to be used by service users in human service organizations (HSOs). The EM is a structure for service user input to be integrated within the HSO at various administrative levels through a four-step sequential process. The article fills a distinct void in the literature as there are numerous accounts about the importance of empowerment, but few on processes that need to be defined to operationalize the concept. Implications are directed toward administrators as they need to take leadership in implementing the EM in order to deliver more efficient and relevant services to their clients.It has been stated that many organizations have discovered that to be truly respon-sive to customer needs, front-line providers need to be empowered to accommodatecustomer requests and to recover on the spot when things go wrong. Empowermentmeans giving employees the desire, skills, tools and authority to serve the cus-tomer. Teamwork the traditional control model operates vertically whereas teamworkemphasizes horizontal cooperation between employees from different functionalareas, coming together to form a team. Appropriate measurements, rewards and recognition employees should berewarded for performance in meeting customer-based standards. Development of a service culture throughout the organization there needs to bea recognition of the importance of service.