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Departmentation by projects

24 February, 2015 - 17:30

Project organizations are specifically designed to deal with changing environments. A project in this sense is a series of related activities required to accomplish a work outcome, such as the development of a new product. Projects and task forces or teams are generally unique—designed to work on a nonrecurring project. They are tightly organized units under the direction of a manager with broad powers of authority.

A team is given a project with specific tasks or operational concerns. This team is composed of employees from the firm who have expertise or skills that can be applied directly to the project. The members of the team manage the project without direct supervision and assume responsibility for the results. When work teams function well, the need for a large number of supervisors decreases.