An organisation is a complex system that is structured systematically and includes a group of people backed by a management system that provides a collective effort towards the achievement of specific goals and objectives. It also provides the incentives to ensure the recruitment of other people to join in meeting the same purpose (Shafritz et al., 2015, p. 15). Unison Trade Union is an organisation in the United Kingdom that consists of over 1.3 million members in London and other regional and local branches with the purpose of protecting, enriching and changing the lives of workers across the United Kingdom through supporting and advocating for changes on workers issues, and improving workers’ welfare. Unison has around 1,100 staff workers organised to serve the interests of the members. The work undertaken by Unison in the United Kingdom is highly supported by the organisations structure, work design and work teams that are coordinated and directed towards the achievement of Unison's objectives, goals, and purpose in serving the UK workers. A well-organised and managed institution takes care of the workers while achieving improved outcomes for the customers (Shafritz et al., 2015, p. 26). Therefore, the paper will focus on the rational status of Unison through focusing on the organisation structure, work design, and the work teams.
Organisational Structure
According to the rational organisational theory, an organisation consisting of a group of people or social units that are well structured and highly managed to pursue a collective goal and meet specific needs. Based on Unison, it is an organisation as defined by its organisational structure. An organisational structure defines the role and responsibilities of the workers in an organisation as well as the way in which the workers relate to each other (Cooper, 2015, p. 87). Unison's current organisational structure applies the use of a mixed structure consisting of a centralised structure at the national level and decentralised structure. The mixed organisational structure ensures that the responsibilities and roles at Unison are divided based on functions at the national level and the regional levels.
The organisational structure at Unison applies the rational organisational theory through encouraging an administrative model of management in which the national decision-making process, is achieved through the senior members. As well as the application of the bureaucratic model in which the regions have the opportunity to make decisions in their jurisdictions (Simon, 2013, p. 54). Furthermore, the mixed organisational structure allows Unison to achieve its objectives through the application of hierarchical structure at the national level in which the roles and responsibilities of the members are defined based on their functions. However, the regional levels use the matrix structure in which the roles and responsibilities are defined based on their skills and competencies in the different functional areas.
The regional matrix structure at Unison.
The Unison mixed organisational structure ensures the senior management focuses on the decision-making issues concerning policy and employees welfare while the regional management focuses on the achievement of the Unison's objectives at the local and regional levels based on improved understanding of the local needs. Therefore, the application of a mixed organisational structure improves the rationale of Unison in the achievement of its objectives in fighting for the welfare and needs of the workers in the UK through being responsive to the workers needs at all levels. Furthermore, Unison is a rational organisation due to the defined and formalised workers roles in the organisational structure that are geared towards the achievement of specific goals as well as the application of focused decision-making approach to achieving the objectives. Additionally, the Unison organisational structure takes into account the concept of equality in employment through recognising the disabled, thereby increasing its rationality (Burrell and Cooper, 2015, p. 149). However, changing the organisational structure of Unison will affect the responsibilities and roles provided to individuals, thereby affecting the achievement of the goals and objectives. Moreover, changing the structure will affect the culture of the organisation leading to resistance, overlapping roles and creating conflicts between the workers and the management.
Work Design
Rational work design involves the application of logical, orderly and authority oriented approach in the development and provision of responsibilities to different workers in the organisation. Done by paying attention to the division of roles, ensuring promotion based on merit and implementing a hierarchical control system to ensure the creation of a perfect organisation (Moliner et al., 2013, p. 13880). Unison applies the rational work design approach based on the systematic division of labour among workers taking into consideration their competencies and skills. The job roles at Unison are well defined and specific to the objectives of the union. Therefore, the job roles are distributed to the workers based on the level of jurisdiction and the leadership skills of the individual (Stone and Stone, 2013, p. 102). The main job roles at Unison include national official, a regional official, area organisers and local organisers and team members.
The level of skills and competencies in the job roles increases in the hierarchy in that the leadership skills for being a national official is higher than for the individual who occupies the lower job roles. Unison applies a rational and bureaucratic work design which focuses on a clear career and recruitment path in which the skills and competencies of an individual determine the rank in the hierarchy of job roles. Hence, through promotion based on merit indicates the application of rational work design at Unison.
Additionally, the job design applied by Unison is highly rational based on the application of a hierarchy design which resembles a pyramid based on the existence of less and less people as you go up the hierarchy. In this essence, the span of control at Unison is shifted to the individual at the top of the hierarchy. For instance, the responsibility of the lower employees is shifted to the managers or the supervisors while the employees and team members have the responsibility to implement the work as assigned to them by their supervisors and the managers.
Most importantly, the rational work design at Unison is achieved through the learning and training opportunities provided to the recruits to ensure effective understanding of their roles in the organisation and aligning their skills to the achievement of the Unison goals, objectives, and purpose. For instance, based on the increased campaign to increase huge cuts in the public service, Unison has the challenge to ensure the recruitment of over 100 fund organisers with the good analytical and presentation skills. Additionally, the skills required during recruitment, the successful candidates would receive additional training in social networking to help in the organisation to achieve more focus at the local level (Heitmann and Roberts, 2010, p. 113). Therefore, through the focus on the rational work design, Unison is oriented towards the achievement of efficiency, effectiveness, and outcomes in serving the customers through improving the productivity of the workers and aligning their competencies to the relevant work and responsibilities.
Work Teams
Teamwork involves the application of a goal-oriented approach in the accomplishment of tasks in the organisation through a collective action design in which all the members are involved in the achievement of the goals. Teamwork is developed based on a unified approach, being enthusiastic to a common interest and ensuring the accomplishment of a specific task or for achieving a particular cause. The development of teamwork approach in the organisation is significant for timely achievement of deadlines, increased efficiency, and generation of new ideas and encouraging creativity to improve the support network and increased communication (West, 2012, p. 69). Unison applies the functional teamwork approach in which the team members are organised to perform specified functions and achieve particular goals.
The performance teams are made up of individuals from the same department or area of work, which means they are always meeting at the same place to undertake the organisational objectives. Functional teams are applied in the organisations with strict hierarchical structure since the teams are managed by a single manager, and all the members of the team respond and report to the manager. Unison functional teams are made up of team members who respond to local organisers, the team of local organisers reports to the area organisers while the area organisers report to the regional official who reports to the highest authority consisting of a national official. The application of functional teamwork approach ensures effective control at the organisation while improving responsibility in the work and accountability. The managers and higher authority in the hierarchy provides an oversight role improving the efficiency and productivity of the team members.
Additionally, at the regional level, Unison applies the use of departmental teams in which every department have a task-force given the responsibility of achieving the departmental goals and objectives. Corporate service team, learning and development team, health team, local government and education teams, organisation team and private companies and policy team are the departmental teams in Unison. The departmental teams focus on the achievement of the departments' goals and objectives at Unison, but collectively are guided by the purpose of Unison as an organisation. The departmental objectives are channeled to ensure the attainment of the purpose of the organisation (Burke and Barron, 2014, p. 15). Furthermore, these teams ensure the employees can apply their skills and competencies effectively in promoting Unison's purpose at the departmental level. The alignment of employee skills to the organisational purpose improves their productivity, thereby enhancing motivation and commitment to the purpose of the organisation.
Lastly, Unison also employs the use of a management team that ensures effective decision-making, strategic planning and proper control of the organisation. The management team focuses on the development of policies and standards that directs the employees in the achievement of the organisational vision and mission (Wang et al., 2014, p. 181). The management team at Unison consists of the directors, senior management and departmental heads who ensure effective decisions are achieved to drive the organisation towards growth and success. The management team also ensures effective communication in the organisation to improve Unison's outcomes.
Conclusion
Unison as a union consists of a collection of over 1,100, staff members working at its headquarters and regional offices across the United Kingdom. Furthermore, the organisation serves the purpose of ensuring the achievement of a collective bargain for over 1.3 million members across the UK through protecting, enriching and changing their lives. For Unison to achieve the purpose, it applies the use of a rational organisational structure, rational work design, and effective work teams. The rational organisational structure ensures that authority is established at Unison while at the same time providing the employees with the freedom to voice their issues and become involved in the decision-making process at different levels. Furthermore, the structure provides the opportunity for improved diversity and inclusion through focusing on equal opportunity employment and recruitment of workers to the organisation.
Additionally, the application of the rational work design ensures improved efficiency, productivity and effectiveness of Unison in achieving its purpose. The rational work design improves efficiency and productivity at Unison based on the recruitment of skilled workforce, promotion based on merit and high levels of bureaucracy in the division of responsibilities. Hence, based on the alignment of the employee competencies and skills to the responsibilities at Unison, the employees are highly motivated and committed to the achievement of Unison's purpose. Most importantly, through the application of functional, departmental and management teams, Unison ensures all the employees are committed at every level in the achievement of the organisation's objectives, vision, and mission. Hence, the rational organisational techniques are core to the success of Unison.
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