Organization Chart - Overview

Organization charts show the communication and responsibility assignments of an organizational structure graphically and with the help of organizational units. Organizational units are called positions and are the only plan elements in organization charts apart from connectors.

The representation allows for:

the distinction between positions with superordinate or executive responsibilities and positions with subordinate responsibilities and their duties
the identification of lines of communication in an organization
the specification of hierarchical structures and authorities
the presentation of human resources (Employee, Department, Management)
the assignment of business functions from a specialist map to organizational structures

Plan Elements

Position

Organizational units in an organization chart are called Positions.
Superordinate positions are organizational units that serve as executives. This inlcudes, as an example, the business management. Subordinate positions are organizational units that serve as executors. This may include employees or departments.
Business Functions are organizational units that can also appear in specialist maps. This includes all non-personell positions of an enterprise.

Plan Element Relations

An organization chart can be used to create containments and lines of communication between positions.

First of all positions can comprise each other graphically. This will be evaluated as a containment. Positions can also be related to each other with connectors. Connecting two positions can be used to display containments and lines of communication.

Containment

A position that contains another position graphically is also considered to be its container in the repository.
This behavior is used in the example to display the manning of a position. The position 'Managing Director, Science' contains the person 'Dr. Joseph Foo'.

Similarly a connector with one marked end and one unmarked end creates a containment between two positions. The marked end can be a diamond, dot, arrow or any other style. The position that is anchored at the marked end is always contained in the position that is anchored at the other side of the connector.
In the example the departments 'Development' and 'Production' are components of the 'Main Department of Scientific Technology'.

Communication

A connector with two unmarked ends or two identical ends creates a line of communication between two positions.
The example shows the 'Managing Director, Operation' communicating with the departments 'Personell', 'Finances and Accounting' and 'Purchasing and Materials Managing' and vice versa.