GMAT Essays (AWA)

‘Organizations should be structured in a clear hierarchy in which the people at each level, from top to bottom, are held accountable for completing a particular component of the work. Any other organizational structure goes against human nature and will ultimately prove fruitless.’

The statement above advocates that any organization should be organized in a clear hierarchy in which workers of each level are responsible of their own work. Moreover, the text adds that any other way of organization is not natural for human beings and fruitless. However, I disagree with this statement because of the following reasons.
Firstly, too solid and structured hierarchies are less productive in terms of loss of time to maneuver when something unusual happens in the company. This idea is supported in many theories that show how traditional pyramidal structures turned into a plane pyramid structure because with the latter we can make changes in the structure easily and faster. Additionally, with this plane pyramid structure orders from the top of the company can be transmitted quickly to the bottom and, in the same way, information from the bottom is easily to the top.
Secondly, the fact that each level of the structure is responsible of their own work creates the serious problem of lack of communication and coordination because different departments are not working as a team. Teamwork has become essential in nowadays businesses as a factor that improves productivity and achieves better results given that coordinated corporations that work as a team do tasks faster and better.
Thirdly, other ways to organize a corporation has been proved to work. This is the example of Sweden furniture company Ikea, which is organized like a clover and there is no a clear hierarchy because all leafs of the clover works as different parts of a team. Its success is a clear evidence that there are other organizational structures that work.
Overall, my opinion is that a solid and clear structure where each level is responsible of their work is clearly less productive and has more problems that other ways to organize a corporation.