A.1.1 Organisational Types and Structures

A.1.1.1
Define major organisational types, their characteristics and corresponding internal structures (e.g. hierarchical vs “flat”), addressing aspects of legal status (e.g. charity vs. partnership), size (SME vs corporation)

Definitions:

1. An organization (or organisation — see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment.
2. A hierarchy is an arrangement of objects, people, elements, values, grades, orders, classes, etc.
3. Flat organization (also known as horizontal organization) refers to a organizational structure with few or no levels of intervening management between staff and managers. The idea is that well-trained workers will be more productive when they are more directly involved in the decision making process, rather than closely supervised by many layers of management.
   This structure is generally possible only in smaller organizations or individual units within larger organizations. When they reach a critical size, organizations can retain a streamlined structure but cannot keep a completely flat manager-to-staff relationship without impacting productivity.
4. Charity organization, an organisation formed for charitable purposes
5. A partnership is a type of business entity in which partners (owners) share with each other the profits or losses of the business undertaking in which all have invested. Partnerships are often favored over corporations for taxation purposes, as the partnership structure does not generally incur a tax on profits before it is distributed to the partners
6. Small and medium enterprises (also SMEs, small and medium businesses, SMBs, and variations thereof) are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.
7. A corporation is a separate legal entity, usually used to conduct business. Corporations exist as a product of corporate law, and their rules balance the interests of the shareholders that invest their capital and the employees who contribute their labor. People work together in corporations to produce. In modern times, corporations have become an increasingly dominant part of economic life. People rely on corporations for employment, for their goods and services, for the value of the pensions, for economic growth and social development.

A.1.1.2
Describe the role IT plays in an organisation

Definitions:

1. Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more recognizable than ever before. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

A.1.1.3
Show, using diagrams, the workflow within a number of different organisational structures

A.1.1.4
Identify the purpose of IT within an organisation

Definitions:

1. A workflow is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, work of a simple or complex mechanism, work of a group of persons, work of an organization of staff, or machines. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work, segregated in workshare, work split or whatever types of ordering. For control purposes, workflow may be a view on real work under a chosen aspect, thus serving as a virtual representation of actual work.

A.1.1.5

Identify the impact differing structures have on the management of IT