OER-CRAFT

Organisational design for Art&Craft microenterprises

SFA_TF_1_4_EN  

 Title:
Organisational design for Art&Craft microenterprises
 Keywords
Organisational design, coordination, functional areas and activities, management levels, supervision and authority
 Author:
UMA
 Languages:
English
 Objectives/goals:
1.    Being aware of the necessity of coordination and organisation
2.    Knowing how to represent the organization of a firm
3.    Knowing the basic and complementary activities of a craft business
4.    Being able to distribute activities and coordinate them
5.    Displaying the authority and making-decision power along the structure


 Description:
Once plans have established the schedule to carry out the activities, it is necessary to distribute them among the staff and ensure that they will be implemented and coordinated as planned.

The first step is to identify all the activities that must be carried out (procurement, design, manufacturing, distribution, etc.) and distribute them to the people who must make them. But additionally, these activities must be coordinated for ensuring that they can begin start and end finish on time, counting on the necessary inputs and other factors just in time.

The design of an effective organization can ensure the coordination among the activities, by two means: pointing out their interrelations for ensuring an effective communication between connected activities and establishing the supervision over them.



 Contents

• Every business has tomust carry out three basic activities to create value: development, production and marketing. They are called functional activities.

• Referred to the artisanal sector, the functional basic activities will be the artistic / artisanal design, the manufacture of the products in the artisan workshop and their placing on the market by whatever means.

• In addition to these basic activities, there are others that are necessary to support the former: procurement / acquisition of materials, financial management, billing and accounting, maintenance, after-sales services, personnel management, etc.

• In handicrafts, some complementary activities can be decisive for the success of the business, such as obtaining special materials or the training of personnel in the trade

• The basic activities are normally carried out by the master craftsman or artist, since they reflect the experience and know-how, the expertise of the trade.

• Other activities that are more transversal to any business should be delegated or outsourced: financial and accounting management, billing or website management for marketing, including the sale itself through association with commercial networks or distributors.

• Coordination between these activities is essential and a good initial planning is basic, but then it must be ensured that the key activities do communicate with each other to combine their efforts for the common purpose. For example, purchases should be coordinated with production to ensure that the necessary materials are available when needed, maintenance should be coordinated with production so as not to interfere with programs, etc.

• In microenterprises, coordination is basically obtained from communication, which must be constant and fluid among the people responsible for the key activities, and from the authority that supervises the whole.

• The design of the organization consists in establishing the tasks to be performed, the relations between them and the hierarchy that will supervise and ensure the coordination of the whole.

• The organizational structure is represented in the organizational chart, which reflects the organs (positions, areas, sections or departments) and the relationship between them (authority relations and labor relations)

• Work and authority relationships must be clear: everyone should know who is accountable and what tasks is they should perform, as well as with whom they should interact in their work to receive inputs or deliver their outputs.



 Indicators


 Bibliography

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zpvw3k7/revision/1
https://study.com/academy/lesson/organizational-chart-and-hierarchy-definition-examples.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_chart
https://www.southampton.ac.uk/hr/services/od-explained/index.page
https://www.managementstudyguide.com/coordination.htm


 Related material:
2.1.4_artcademy_training_fiche_organisational_design_coordination_basic_uma_en.docx