Dividing up work calls or identification of total activities and
classification of such activities into units and subunits. There are
three bases for primary grouping of activities at the second level of
the organization just below the top level. Units at the second level
are commonly called departments when business functions are adopted
as the pattern of grouping activities. Such units go by the name of
divisions when either products manufactured or territories are
adopted as the means of classifying activities. There are, however,
two approaches to departmentation- top down and bottom-up approaches.
In the top-down approach, activities are divided step by step
downward form the chief executive's job to the operating jobs. In
the bottom-up approach, the division of activities is carried on in a
reverse order. Starting form operating jobs, there arise sections
form combining some correlated jobs, departments from combining some
sections and finally the chief executive position form putting
departments together. While the top-down approach gives emphasis on
co-ordination and managerial action, the bottom-up approach gives
emphasis on co-ordination and managerial action, the bottom-up
approach focuses attention on employee performance. Although the
top-down approach is easy for understanding the departmentation
process, both the approaches are utilized in actual practice.
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