Distinguish between task and activities in your organization or any organization you are familiar with.

Distinguish between task and activities in your organization or any organization you are familiar with. Suggest measures to improve the organization structure, which would enhance its effectiveness. Briefly describe the organization you are referring to.

The various multifaceted tasks and roles of an organisation have to be divided into smaller, manageable components to facilitate efficient achievement of objectives. The most common basis of differentiation and division are function, product, location and customer.
The functional structure is most suited when an organisation is dealing with single product or service. The activities can easily be segmented into similar, complementary activities such as production, marketing, finance, purchasing, etc. Depending on the nature of the organisation and its scope of activities, the functions it has to perform may differ vastly from those of other organisation.
At L.K. Global (India) (or LKG), the company with which I have been associated is a multi-product, multinational company operating in 13 countries with its head office in U.K. It has an average annual turnover of £ 400 million. It has two branches in India, one at Software Technology Park, Noida and other at IT Paradise, Bangalore. LKG's core business has been development and marketing of Software, Software and Networking Solutions. LKG has started its business in 1981 in U.K. as a software development company only with 25 programmers. But in this short span of time, it has grown and transformed into a multi-business, multinational company by successfully diversifying into, Construction, Finance and Internet Service Provider (ISP) businesses.
Before diversification, LKG has organised itself into a functional structure with Development,'Marketing, Finance, After Sales Service and Administration functions. At that time the tasks and activities were differentiated on the basis of functions.
In any organisation which is organised into functional structure, certain function(s) are very crucial for the organisation and upon success of which depends the success or failure of any organisation. These are generally called key functions or key activities. At LKG, before diversification the key function had been Software Development. And thus higher weightage used to be assigned to this function and most of the activities were organised around this key activity. Hence, the tasks and activities were differentiated on the basis of functions such as for Product Development department it was number of software developed per month. For marketing department it used to be number of software marketed, etc.
But with growth and diversification the contemporary structure started hindering the smooth operation at LKG India Ltd. Very soon the need was felt to organize LKG into Strategic Business Units (SBUs) with operations in each country representing one SBU. Till the time LKG was confined to software and software related business, the SBU structure worked well. But after the latest unrelated diversifications into Construction, Finance and Internet Service Provider (ISP) business, the structure has again started
exerting pressure on the strategies adopted by LKG. Another phenomenon at LKG is that the SBUs are imbalanced because the company is not Jn all the businesses in all the countries of operation. For instance, in U.K., the company is in all the businesses of Software development and marketing, Networking and Networking Solutions, Internet Service Provider, Finance and Construction. Whereas in India LKG is only in the business of Software development and Marketing, Networking and Networking Solutions. Similarly, in Cyprus, the company is in Software development and Marketing, Networking and Networking Solutions and in addition to this in Construction. In Bangladesh, LKG is only in the business of construction and finance. Hence, LKG does not have a balanced portfolio. But still in each SBU, tasks and activities are differentiated on functional basis.
As regards improvements in the current organisational structure in LKG India Ltd., I would suggest the following changes in it:
(a). Use of Matrix Structure : With a matrix organization in LKG, teams can be formed and team members should report to two or more managers. Matrix structures utilize functional and divisional chains of command simultaneously in the.same part of the organization, commonly for-one-of-a-kind projects. At LKG, this structure can be used to develop a new product, to ensure the continuing success of a product to which several departments directly contribute, and to solve a difficult problem. By superimposing a project structure upon the functional structure, a matrix organization can be formed that allows the organization to take advantage of new opportunities. This structure assigns specialists from different functional departments to work on one or more projects being led by project managers. The matrix concept facilitates working on concurrent projects by creating a dual chain of 'command, the project (program, systems, or product) manager and the functional manager. Project managers have authority over activities geared toward achieving organizational goals while functional managers have authority over promotion decisions and performance reviews. This structure in my belief would be a definite improvement over the existing structure.
(b). LKG should take care of its portfolio while assigning resources and while organizing. In no case Software development business should be subordinated to a country manager who is not from the field. Similarly, if in a particular country, the main business is Construction and Finance, the country manager should be expert from the same field and it should not be subordinated to Software development.
(c). Project managers should have authority over activities geared toward achieving organizational goals while functional managers should have authority over promotion decisions and performance reviews.
These changes in organisational set may bring about certain desired results such as to develop a new product, to ensure the continuing success of a product and to solve a difficult problem.