Exam 8: Structuring Organizations for Todays Challenges

After a report identified low employee morale, managers for Night and Day Inn, Inc. were concerned. Employee responses showed frustration with their inability to deal directly with customers' concerns and complaints. Employees feel that if they were empowered with the authority to make decisions, customer satisfaction would dramatically increase. This illustrates one of the disadvantages of decentralized authority.

Some firms use a combination of departmentalization techniques.

During an afternoon coffee break, Evangeline, a production-line employee at Lilypad Linens, was told by a friend that one of the managers in finance is about to be fired. She is eager to learn if other friends at Lilypad know any more about the situation. This flow of information is an example of Lilypad's grapevine.

The driving force behind the change in business organizations is the change in consumer expectations.

Organizations that require consistent production standards to help create a high-quality public image would tend to favor

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

An informal organization can be a valuable asset to managers attempting to create an environment of harmony among workers and establish the corporate culture.

Cruz works in the marketing department of a large firm. This is an example of Fayol's division of labor concept.

In the Rock Solid manufacturing plant of the Stone Works Granite Company, a foreman closely supervises her workers. She reports to the shift supervisor who reports to the head of the production department, who then reports to the assistant plant manager, who reports to the plant manager. The plant manager, in turn, reports to a district manager, who then reports to a product group manager, who reports to an assistant vice president of operations, who keeps in close touch with an executive vice president. The layers of management indicate that Stone Works Granite Company is a tall organization.

What is a cross-functional, self-managed team? Who would serve on such teams? Why do cross-functional, self-managed teams often lead to networking?

________ is using communications technology and other means to link organizations and allow them to work together on common objectives.

The ________ an organization's structure, the ________ the span of control.

Clean Sweep Corporation has seen rapid growth during its first five years. While still relatively small, Clean Sweep is now big enough that Sawyer, the firm's CEO, has decided to organize the firm into functional departments. Sawyer can likely expect which of the following to occur?

The process of creating individual departments to do specialized tasks is called departmentalization.

The team experts in a matrix organization remain part of the traditional line-and-staff structure.

Fayol believed that managers should treat employees and peers with respect and justice.

Angelo, a middle manager at a nonprofit, spends much of his time developing ways to implement the ideas from top management. Max Weber would have considered Angelo a bureaucrat.

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

What is a matrix organization? What advantages and disadvantages are associated with this type of organization?

The widely shared values within an organization that provide unity and cooperation to achieve common goals are together known as the