Exam 8: Structuring Organizations for Todays Challenges

In an inverted organization,the job of management is to:

In Weber's view of a bureaucratic organization,the role of top management was to:

In large businesses,a line organization provides firms the ability to respond quickly to a changing environment.

One advantage of a bureaucratic organization is that:

HipHop Music Company assigns workers to departments based on similar skills.Currently,the company has a marketing department,a production department,a finance department,and a human resources department.This suggests that HipHop departmentalizes by:

The process of rating an organization's practices,processes,and products against the best of the world is known as:

Which of the following is an advantage of a matrix organization structure?

Jessica found a job at a bank,after losing her insurance company job when the firm went bankrupt.Although she has only been with this firm for a couple of weeks,she senses a rather austere climate where not too many people take the time to get to know one another.Several of her coworkers seem to get very nervous when managers walk by and breathe sighs of relief when the VP is away for the day.When she asked her supervisor why people seemed afraid of the VP,the supervisor quoted an old Tennyson poem,"Ours is not to reason why,ours is but to do and die." Jessica realizes the bank does not operate as an open organization.It lacks a thriving informal organization.It is unlikely that Jessica will feel an allegiance to this company.

Weber had a great deal of faith in managers.He was confident that a firm would do well if employees simply did as they were told.

When employees are self-managed,a company can implement a wider span of control.

As the span of control widens,there is usually a reduction of middle management and an emphasis on empowerment.

The process of setting up individual functional units of the business to do specialized tasks is called:

Jackie works in the finance department,at the home office of a large retailer.Her main responsibility is to watch department expenditures and find ways to cut costs whenever possible.Tim,the marketing director for the same company shares information with Jackie only when necessary.He finds her inflexible,and not understanding of what it takes to roll-out a new product line.Jackie and Tim typify a disadvantage of departmentalization.

As a new employee in a bureaucratic organization,Nancy can expect a great deal of independence and authority.

The traditional technique used to departmentalize an organization is by:

Flat organizations have fewer managers.

While most organizations have a formal organization structure,only poorly managed firms also have an informal organization.

Cross-functional self-managed teams are groups of employees empowered to work with suppliers and customers to develop new products and give great service.

A serious disadvantage of the matrix organization is the temporary nature of the teams.

Once a company has restructured a firm to be more competitive in today's market,it alleviates the need to scan the external environment.