Organisational model

An organisational model is used to describe how an organisation is structured in terms of departments or units, roles and positions, as well as individuals. The model shows the relationships between these elements and helps to visualise how the organisation is built. An organisational model also shows who holds, or can assume, a specific role and who, or which position, is responsible for a certain organisational unit.

The organisational model is an important piece of the puzzle that helps employees navigate the management system in a good way. It is usually common knowledge within an organisation who the manager is, but for a newly hired employee it can be helpful to start from their own role or position in order to quickly identify which processes they are involved in.

In an organisational model we use a number of different objects: Organisation, Position, Role, Individual and Forum.

Organisation

The Organisation object is used to name an entire organisation, department or unit. The naming is most often based on functions, where resources with competence in the same area are grouped together. Examples of organisational units can be Finance Department, Corporate Staff or Project Office.

Role and position

A position is a “title” and is usually something you can be employed as within an organisation. It represents a position and can be primarily responsible for, or belong to, an organisational unit. A position can consist of one or several roles. Examples of positions are Head of IT, Finance Assistant or System Developer.

A role is a competence or responsibility profile that arises from a need in a process, a project, a meeting or in relation to a system. A role can be linked to a position, but it can also be assigned directly to an individual. Examples of roles are Project Manager, Case Officer or System Owner.

It is, however, important to note that it is not always obvious what should be defined as a position versus a role in an organisation. In an organisation that runs many large projects, it is common for Project Manager to be a position. People are hired with the title Project Manager, and they have specific competences, tasks and responsibilities. In another organisation, where projects are more temporary in nature, Project Manager may instead be a role. Typically, a person who is employed in another position temporarily steps into the role of Project Manager.

In 2c8 Apps, this can be illustrated using relationships, see more below.

Individual

An individual represents a real person, and when an individual is named, the person’s name is written on the object. In larger organisations with many employees, it is usually most practical to only include individuals who hold senior positions or who have specific key roles. In smaller organisations, however, it may be reasonable to include all employees.

Forum

A forum can be described as a group of people who share a common, clearly defined purpose and a specific responsibility. The purpose can, for example, be to share and disseminate information, solve problems, make decisions, or follow up and evaluate results. Common examples of forums in an organisation are the board, management team, steering committee, product council or health and safety committee.

Work within a forum is usually carried out through different types of meetings where matters are prepared, discussed, decided upon and communicated further. For a meeting to function, input is required, and the result of the meeting constitutes its output. Forums rarely stand alone, but usually have clear links to other forums, positions and roles within the organisation.

In 2c8 Apps, you can map your meeting structure; see further details in this article.

Relationships

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Roles, positions and individuals can of course belong to an organisational unit; this is perhaps the most obvious relationship between objects in an organisational model. However, we can be more detailed than that. In 2c8 Apps, we can also visualise the relationship between an individual, a role and a position.

Starting with positions, a position can include a number of roles that are part of the position’s responsibility. For example, a manager may have the roles of Budget Owner and People Manager. In this case, we can use the relationship Consists of.

An individual can hold a position or a role, and here we use the relationship Holds to describe that connection. If an individual holds a position, the individual also holds the roles that the position consists of. An individual can also have the competence to take on roles beyond those included in the position, and in this case we can use the relationship Can play to visualise this.

What you choose to show in a specific organisational model depends on the purpose in that particular case, and it can become complex if you try to show all relationships in a single diagram. Below is an example that shows a reasonably complex structure.