Departmental Structure
IUP uses a very standard hierarchical organization structure. The university is broken into Colleges which are further broken into departments. At IUP, the President is in charge of everything, his second in command is the provost, under the provost are the deans who run the colleges, under the deans are the chairs who run the departments, under the chairs are the faculty, and finally, way down at the bottom (is it a conspiracy?), are the students (Don’t worry–as soon as you graduate and start making big bucks in the business world, you’ll be back on top, since in society professors are near the bottom. See how it all evens out???).
This is what a hierarchy is: some people are at the top and more are at the bottom. In this type of structure, the people at the top usually have more power than those at the bottom (except when those at the bottom sue or strike). Now, you might not like this type of organization (no one near the bottom ever does), but supposedly, it does make things more efficient. This structure helps direct the flow of communication as well resources (money) and power (who gets to make decisions). One thing the structure does do is show the chain of command. And that certainly helps the managers (at IUP the deans). A manager doesn’t have time to tell every single person what to do, especially if a company has lots of employees.
The organizational structure helps the managers spread the word through their sub-commanders and helps them delegate work to those below them. It also makes it easier for reporting purposes: you tell your boss who tells their boss who tells there boss back up the chain until the most critical information reaches the top (of course a lot can get lost as things get summarized on the way up).
Our Class Company
Even in a small class or business, a simple organizational structure can be useful for dividing up the work. So that’s what we’ll try for our Team Project. We’ll role play (pretend) that we are all members of one company. Dr. Pagnucci will be the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) for the Class Company. That means he gets to make the decisions, gets all sorts of free stock options and bonuses, and doesn’t do much work. (See, already it’s like the real world. Now, do you really want to graduate?)
Each one of you will be an employee of the Class Company and each one of you will select a Department to join. Once you join your department, I want you to create a Department Web page to organize your departmental information.
Department Web Page
Your Department Web Page should include the following information:
- Department Title-the name of your department
- Department Mission Statement-a short statement about the purpose and goals of your department as they relate to the Class Company
- Department Logo-a graphic image that represents your department and its mission
- Department Slogan-a word or short phrase that “sells” your department and it’s mission
- Department Coordinator-This will be the contact person for your department. The coordinator is the person the CEO will email to check on your department’s progress. The coordinator is also the person whose folder you will use for storing files on the English server. The coordinator should be a responsible person, although every member is equally responsible for the performance and success of your department. Include a link to the coordinator’s Employee Profile.
- Department Members-A list of all department members linked to each members’ Employee Profile.
- Articles Contracted-Create a list of the articles your individual team members are writing. Include the title of each article, a short description of each article, and a link to each article.
- Articles Wanted-Create a list of additional articles your department would like to have. These are articles other class members will select to write for your department. Include a a short topic heading for each article you want as well as a short description of what the article should be about.
Uploading Your Department Page to the Web
Once you have your department web page together, do the following:
- Have your Department Coordinator store store your department web page in their h:wwwiup folder
- Save as a Web Page called department.htm
- Give Dr. Pagnucci the web address for your group’s department web page. It will be something like:
- http://www.people.iup.edu/xxxx/department.htm