The IT of an organisation can also depend on the scale of its operations. Traditionally licences for software are based on the number of staff using the systems, even small organisations can have 50 (or more) staff members and still be classed as a small organisation. Generally, smaller organisations will have an informal structure and confined to a single site. Whereas Medium organisations may have a more formal procedure which adopts policies and organisational structure to ensure that systems are maintained and compliance is met where necessary. A large scale organisation may have IT as one of the core responsibilities of the organisation as it is likely that some locations may be off site or long distance where remote access is vital. They may also rely heavily on WANs and expanded LANs to ensure that their systems are accessible across the sites available.

Management Styles

Because large and medium size organisations need a leader or manager, they may adopt one of four management styles, the use of these management styles allows the business to maintain contact with its employees.

• Autocratic, where a clear authority is established and decisions are only to be made by strategic or tactical individuals, operational staff may have relatively little power compared to the other management styles however, it may mean that staff may not feel demotivated if something goes wrong because they are not as involved in the organisation compared to the other leadership styles.
• Democratic, is where management is taken by ‘vote’ of opinion and is useful when undertaking projects and allows people with specialisms such as networking and database design to cast their opinions and thoughts on a project.
• Laissez-faire, is where management takes a smaller role and workers are expected to perform as they are needed and let their own ideas and creativity work to the task they are needed for, this should produce more individual work and is not always ideal for companies that do not require more than simple repetitive tasks.
• Paternalistic, is where management will use a paternal view of management and only get involved when needed or when feedback is requested, this has the added advantage of giving the workers both freedom and encouragement, but when help is needed they aren’t far away. Additionally, this gives management the ability to delegate tasks and establish authority without appearing autocratic.

The management of an organisation can greatly depend on the scale and urgency of the work involved in managing IT. Organisations that also have to follow a lot of compliance, such as government offices must also maintain those constraints effectively.