Exam 8: Structuring Organizations for Todays Challenges

As the head of the engineering department for her company,Jody works with her team on complex and challenging projects.The level of detail in this work requires Jody to spend a significant amount of time with each team member,providing advice and support.Due to the complexity and time involvement of each project,Jody has an)________ span of control.

Departmentalization is the dividing of organizational functions into separate units.

The very best organizations have cultures that emphasize service to others,especially customers.

Which of the following statements most closely identifies the problem with adopting Fayol's principles of organization design for contemporary businesses?

To better organize his landscaping business,Frank divides each job into several parts.One part is excavation and removal of old landscaping,the next part is design,followed by purchasing,and the last part is installation of new plants.If he assigns a different employee to each part,this action would be an example of departmentalization.

Including customers and suppliers on cross-functional teams violates the interests of stockholders.

Zach recently got his Ph.D.in analytical chemistry and was fortunate to be asked to join the Weilman Lab at a prestigious eastern university.After a month on the job,he remarked to another graduate student at his former university that the spirit of help and cooperation at the Weilman lab was remarkable.He enjoyed going to work each day and sometimes exchanged calls with other lab partners in the evening with ideas to improve each other's experiments.Zach remarked,"Now I know why this lab is considered one of the best in the nation!" Zach is referring to:

Today's preference to flat vs.tall organization structures is mainly due to a flat organization's ability to:

The success of the firm often depends on assigning the right tasks to the right person.

Line organizations clearly define the lines of authority and responsibility.

The informal organization is created by the decisions of top management.

A virtual corporation is a networked organization made up of replaceable firms that join the network and leave it as needed.

Max Weber favored which of the following?

Soprano Industries follows a chain of command with authority moving from the top of the hierarchy down to lower-level managers.The company is organized by department with established rules and regulations that everyone is expected to follow.All of these characteristics suggest that Soprano is an example of a bureaucratic organization.

Young people today are often called __________ because they have never known life without the Internet.

Andrew's company is a bureaucratic organization.Andrew is likely to encounter which of the following conditions?

The ____________ of a business firm is the system that details lines of authority,responsibility,and position,similar to the structure on organization charts.

Which of the following describes a temporary networked organization made up of replaceable firms that join and leave as needed?

Joe,a production engineer at Freestone Tires recently joined a team of specialists from other areas,such as marketing and finance.His long-term assignment to this team has produced several new products.Joe enjoys this work environment,in part because Freestone's management has given the team the freedom and flexibility to make decisions.A recent development is the inclusion of "outsiders" from Freestone's major distributors and suppliers on the team.It appears that Joe's team is an):

In order to improve services to customers,Northwest Electric,a regional monopoly recently rated their company's processes and products against the results achieved by the world's best at similar processes and products.Northwest Electric has adopted a policy of international standardization.