Process Departmentalization – A Quick Overview

Do you know buying and selling any product or service is a complex job? Whenever you go to places like hotels, hospitals, or banks to get the desired service. You need to go through various departments. Hence, departments are created by the organization to allocate the different tasks to different departments to simplify the process. Such a process is called process departmentalization.

In the case of a hospital, you have to first go to the hospital reception counter, then to the doctor’s chamber, after that to the operation theatre in case you need any surgery, and finally, to the discharge counter.

The same applies when a company manufactures any product and passes it on to the customer’s hand. The product passes through several departments like manufacturing, designing, dyeing, etc.

Also, selling the product passes through several specialists like salespeople, analysts, auditors, supervisors, etc. & through many activities like prospecting, advertising, analysis, consulting, etc.

But, if buying & selling methods are so complex, how could a buyer or seller purchase and sell a product or service so quickly? Well! It’s all because of process departmentalization. As per this method, the responsibility of prospecting is given to the marketers, advertising to the ad agents, customer support to the support personnel, etc.

This method ensures that everything goes on smoothly without any complexity. It divides the complex process into simple ones by dividing different works into different functional departments specialized in the tasks. Come! Let us know more about it:

Process Departmentalization & Its Characteristics:

Process Departmentalization is nothing but a way of executing a process by sorting related activities & combining them into separate groups. These groups are specialized in their way of performing certain activities. Each of the activities is distinct from one another.

In other words, this type of departmentalization divides a process into specific groups of smaller responsibilities, thus making it easier for the organization members to run this process. Therefore, in process departmentalization, the various departments are segregated based on their function in production.

This kind of departmentalization supports the organization in making its business procedures more effortless & consistent. Process departmentalization is done based on two key factors, and they are:

1) Product Or Service:

For selling a product or service, the process is organized such that it has a procession of activities. And this procession of activities is divided as functional responsibilities between many departments or working groups.

2) Flow Of The Customer:

In the case of a customer, management is there in the process. It is divided by the organization based on the types of clients being served.

Benefits Of Process Departmentalization:

It establishes job specifications because of the preparation of the departments according to a process.

The organization will get the loyalty of the departmental managers because of the fixed process responsibility.

The communication & coordination between various departments become more effective because of the dependency of the departments on one another.

Adaptation to an altering environment is possible because of the flexibility of this method of departmentalization.

Rightful utilization of various resources & facilities is possible with this kind of departmentalization.

Productive utilization of specialized abilities & varieties of equipment is possible with this kind of departmentalization.

Drawbacks Of Process Departmentalization:

Process Departmentalization is not ideal for service organizations as the processes are not identified clearly. However, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be used at service organizations. What we mean is it is more appropriate for manufacturing companies.

If there is any delay in the process or production of a department is somehow wrong, the performance of other departments also gets affected.

There remains a chance of dispute among the managers of process departments with this method.

The responsibility of finance can’t be allocated to any process department.

The Final Words:

So, if you are also running a company, especially a product manufacturing one, definitely follow this process departmentalization method & your company’s whole process will run smoothly without any hassle.