Lambton College Departmentalization

Lambton College of Applied Arts and Technology is a post-secondary institution serving over three thousand students annually in Ontario. The operation of an educational institution is vast and has a lot of components. One of the main operational areas is academic programming, but there are a number of other services to assist the delivery of these programs and other operational goals.

Lambton College uses a functional departmentalization approach for organizational structure. This form of departmentalization is used so each individual has specific knowledge and training in their individual position. As outlined in the organizational charts attached, there are three main areas I'm assessing. The office of the president and chief executive
officer is the highest level of the structure, the academic chart covers all areas of academic programming and delivery and the student success and campus services chart covers any additional service on campus to assist the college in achieving operational goals.

For operational effectiveness, it makes sense to have the organizational structure of the college setup in this manner. Every department has a specific purpose and in order to achieve that purpose, it is important to have staff trained in that specialization. For example, anyone working for the academic schools, especially faculty members need to have extensive knowledge and experience in the area they teach. This not only ensures their competencies in their position but also provides an enhanced educational experience for our students. Additionally, for added efficiency having a department responsible for only a few key functions ensures effective operation and defined roles for staff.

Lambton College uses a unique mix of line and staff authority. The use of a line authority is in place to identify direct reports for the management team and gives staff a clear command of authority. An example of how this works is with our administrative area. Every vice-president and a selection of deans and directors report to the president and chief executive officer. The CEO will then identify goals and priorities for each area.

An example of how staff authority is used is with our academic areas. Each academic program has a program coordinator, who acts as a manager of that specific program and is responsible for the faculty team of that program. The coordinator ensures everything is running smoothly but cannot change a professor's specific duties. Every professor hired reports directly to the dean of their school who will outline the duties associated with their role and make changes as needed.

From my experience working at the college using a mix both methods seem to work. I like knowing exactly who to go to for approvals and intensify any issues that come up. Also, having a designated person on our team available provide leadership and collaborate with every day allows me to be more effective and in my opinion results in a better work experience.

Every staff member at the college no matter what classification it may be has a specific role with unique functions.
All of these roles are designed to assist a particular department in meeting their operational goals. Once the need for a job is identified a position description form is created for that role. This document outlines the exact duties and responsibilities of that role and how time will be used to achieve the functions of that particular role. Some roles are more operationally focused, and some are more student driven.

For example, my role as an enrolment advisor is highly student driven with fourth five percent of year is spent working to achieve specific enrolment goals

Another big part of the college's job design process is the performance review phase. Every year all full-time staff members have a performance review with their direct manager. This process is in place to allow for job enlargement and enrichment. One is of this process is for staff to identify how they would like to grow in their job and then management will work to identify the feasibility of these ideas and begin to implement the changes on the position description
form.

This process allows for individual direct dialogue between staff and management and allows for the continual growth of each staff member which results in higher efficiencies for the college but also increased internal motivation for employees because they feel their job has a significant purpose. The college really does invest in the staff on campus and really wants you to find success and evolution in your job.

From my experience working on campus, the college has a well oriented organizational structure that is designed to achieve all strategic priorities, offer a unique and personalized educational experience for students and allow staff to succeed.

However, with any organization, there is room for improvement.
One of the main disadvantages to functional departmentalization is the lack of cross-department coordination and communication. I see many examples of this on a daily basis, especially within the student services division, because these roles are separate but have similarities and we often find ourselves referring students to multiple departments to solve one problem, this frustrates students and can also reduce productivity in some instances. One recommendation to solve this problem is cross-department training. Enlarging one person's role in each department to have knowledge of all operation can increase the service level provided to the student and allow for added productivity for the
staff.

Another recommendation that should be considered are the number of responsibilities each department is in charge of. As a smaller institution often times one department is in charge of multiple roles. For example, the director, learning innovation center, continuing and online learning & educational pathways initiatives has seven main responsibilities and only 8 full-time staff members the achieve those goals. Creating a way for more even distribution of duties would elevate this problem.

Overall Lambton College has created an organizational structure developed to achieve organizational priorities on a consistent basis in a manner that allows staff to succeed and perhaps with a few updates and changes will become event stronger.