There are many different ways of quantifying what a department actually is, and its area of control will vary from organization to organization with overlaps of responsibility being treated differently by each.
• By Function
Each department has a direct function. Human resources, management, sales, purchasing and accounting are some of the classic examples of this. This sets up predefined areas of responsibility for each department, theoretically allowing management to keep a tighter control and view over the company.
• Departments by territory
This develops to deal with overseas business or simply to address the needs of particular areas. Different areas have a department each. This allows a closer managerial supervision of events within each department, and, by inference, each territory the company operates in.
• Departments by product
Each department revolves around a single project, for instance a vehicle project or an aircraft project. Even this may have to respect the authority of other more overreaching departments, such as human resources, purchasing, and so on.
• By Time
Typically, this would cover a shift pattern. Each department controls a particular shift, centralizing the administration into one easily used structure. This may simplify matters for managerial supervision.
• By Process
This is used to control the individual processes that make up a company. In the example of an aircraft being manufactured, for instance, there may be numerous design departments such as performance and simulation, departments controlling various manufacturing processes and other departments to control mass production, flight testing, pilot recruitment and managing, and so on.
• By Function
Each department has a direct function. Human resources, management, sales, purchasing and accounting are some of the classic examples of this. This sets up predefined areas of responsibility for each department, theoretically allowing management to keep a tighter control and view over the company.
• Departments by territory
This develops to deal with overseas business or simply to address the needs of particular areas. Different areas have a department each. This allows a closer managerial supervision of events within each department, and, by inference, each territory the company operates in.
• Departments by product
Each department revolves around a single project, for instance a vehicle project or an aircraft project. Even this may have to respect the authority of other more overreaching departments, such as human resources, purchasing, and so on.
• By Time
Typically, this would cover a shift pattern. Each department controls a particular shift, centralizing the administration into one easily used structure. This may simplify matters for managerial supervision.
• By Process
This is used to control the individual processes that make up a company. In the example of an aircraft being manufactured, for instance, there may be numerous design departments such as performance and simulation, departments controlling various manufacturing processes and other departments to control mass production, flight testing, pilot recruitment and managing, and so on.