Exam 8: Structuring Organizations for Todays Challenges

Last week at Happy Trails Financial Services Company,all financial advisors who each serve more than 150 clients received a notice from the VP of Operations that every client's investment portfolio should consist of 50% individual stock purchases,25% bonds,and 25% property.Advisors were ordered to review all client portfolios for compliance to this directive.Clearly,Happy Trails is an inverted organization because management directives such as the one described are very common.

One of Javier's coworkers was recently promoted to a middle management position at their company.He seems to have quickly distanced himself from Javier and their other coworker,Carlos.In fact,yesterday Carlos described the situation by saying,"He's gone to the dark side." Javier understands what Carlos means because management keeps themselves removed from other employees,and seldom seriously solicit ideas for improvements or change from those in the trenches.The disadvantage in continuing this type of organizational culture is:

A firm's informal organization refers to the structure that identifies the authority,responsibility,and position of people within the organization.

The Internet makes "real time" availability of data possible.

Clear communication between workers and keeping order in materials and people are included in Fayol's principles.

By structuring the company with cross-functional teams,there is a greater chance that a business is more responsive to social trends affecting customer preferences.

The informal organization appears as dashed lines on a firm's organizational chart.

Rome Corporation is organized into departments such as finance,production,marketing,data processing,and accounting.Rome has chosen to departmentalize by function.

Job specialization is known to:

Greenwave Garden Centers is a national chain of discount gardening stores.The top management at Greenwave realizes that different regions of the United States have very different climates and soil conditions,so they give regional managers a great deal of freedom to decide exactly what types of plants,fertilizers,and other items to stock and how to best market these products.Greenwave is an example of a _______________ organization.

______________ organizations are characteristic of many layers of management and function with well-defined rules and procedures.

Competitive benchmarking compares a company's practices,processes,and products against others in its industry,with the goal of doing it better than the competition.

Line-and-staff organizations work well in organizations with:

A bureaucracy is designed to be customer focused.

Employees who perform functions that advise and assist line personnel are known as:

According to Weber,a bureaucrat is a middle manager whose job is to implement top management's orders.

Line organizations follow Fayol's traditional management rules.

As indicated in the Making Ethical Decisions box titled,"Safety versus Profit",organization decisions that affect profits in a negative way should be avoided at all cost.

Correctly structuring a business organization allows managers to avoid delegating responsibility and authority to employees.

Jason is a self-employed patent attorney.These days he is seldom without work.Large corporations hire him on an as-need basis to review prospective ideas and help with securing patents for a variety of inventions including surgical instruments,medicines,and high tech gadgets.Once he secures a contract,he knows approximately how many weeks or months he will work.Jason works for virtual corporations.