What is the difference between a functional and a product based Organisation structure?
John Hall
Updated on February 27, 2026
When a company uses functional departmentalization, marketing specialists, for example, work together in the same department. When a company uses product departmentalization, specialists in one product line work with other specialists in the same product line.
What is product organization?
the deployment of a firm’s sales force or the organisation of its marketing activities so that a separate division is responsible for each of its major products or product groups.
What companies use functional structure?
Functional Hierarchy. The functional hierarchy feature of Starbucks Coffee’s organizational structure refers to grouping based on business function. For example, the company has an HR department, a finance department and a marketing department.
Which is an example of a functional organization?
An organization in which the business activities are segregated based on different types of functions performed in the organization is known as a functional organization and such an organizational structure is known as functional structure.
What’s the difference between divisional organization and functional organization?
However, in a divisional organization, for similar functions each division formulates its own cost centers, which scatters costs and increases the risks of duplication of processes that ultimately leads to an increased cost for the whole organization. 5. Suitability:
Why are organizations organized around product or function?
Corporations, especially manufacturers, long have wrestled with the problem of how to structure their organizations to enable employees, particularly the specialists, to do their jobs with maximum efficiency and productivity. One perplexing issue has been whether to organize around functions or products.
What’s the difference between a functional and a product department?
A key difference between functional and product departmentalization is the basic ways in how departments are set. Some companies incorporate both functional and product departments. Functional departmentalization is commonly used to divide employees based on the common work process in which they engage.