Page 51 - DLIS406_ACADEMIC_LIBRARY_SYSTEM

Academic Library System

Notes by placing employees with shared skills and knowledge into departments for example
human resources, IT, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, and engineering. Functional
departmentalization can be used in all types of organizations.
• Product Departmentalization: Grouping activities by product line. Tasks can also be
grouped according to a specific product or service, thus placing all activities related to
the product or the service under one manager. Each major product area in the corporation
is under the authority of a senior manager who is specialist in, and is responsible for,
everything related to the product line. LA Gear is an example of company that uses
product departmentalization. Its structure is based on its varied product lines which
include women’s footwear, children’s footwear and men’s’ footwear.
• Customer Departmentalization: Grouping activities on the basis of common customers
or types of customers. Jobs may be grouped according to the type of customer served by
the organization. The assumption is that customers in each department have a common
set of problems and needs that can best be met by specialists. The sales activities in an
office supply firm can be broken down into three departments that serve retail, wholesale
and government accounts.
• Geographic Departmentalization: Grouping activities on the basis of territory. If an
organization’s customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography.
For example, the organization structure of Coca-Cola has reflected the company’s operation
in two broad geographic areas—the North American sector and the international sector,
which includes the Pacific Rim, the European Community, Northeast Europe, Africa and
Latin America groups.
• Process Departmentalization: Grouping activities on the basis of product or service or
customer flow. Because each process requires different skills, process departmentalization
allows homogenous activities to be categorized. For example, the applicants might need
to go through several departments namely validation, licensing and treasury, before
receiving the driver’s license.

Notes Owing to the complexity of tasks and the competitive environment in which
organisations operate, they often use a combination of the above-mentioned
methods in departmentalization.

Self Assessment

State whether true or false:
1. Library organization and library administration is not related to each other.
2. Administration include various elements, and organization is one of those elements.
3. Librarian is an information professional trained in library.

4. A fresher may take administrative position in library.

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