Exam 15: Foundations of Organization Structure

What is a virtual organization? What elements of organizational structure are important to create and sustain a successful virtual organization? Explain your answer.

A boundaryless organization tries to flatten the hierarchy and minimizes status and rank.

The simple structure is most widely practiced in small businesses in which ________.

AgriProducers has customers all over the United States that need their soil and crops tested in their labs. The crops and soil are different in the various large areas of the nation, such as the West Coast and the Midwest. Which type of departmentalization would be best for AgriProducers?

Organizations following a(n)________ strategy try to both minimize risk and maximize opportunity for profit, moving into new products or new markets only after innovators have proven their viability.

A plant manager organizes a plant by separating engineering, accounting, manufacturing, personnel, and purchasing into departments. The plant is departmentalized on the basis of ________.

The functional structure groups employees by their similar specialties, roles, or tasks.

Which of the following is a characteristic of a simple structure?

Institutions are cultural factors that act as guidelines for appropriate behavior for organizational structure.

Describe the various characteristics of bureaucracy.

You have recently started your business with a small capital investment. Your business needs a very high degree of flexibility so that you can quickly respond to environmental changes and you are also interested in minimizing costs. Which of the following types of organizations is best suitable for your business?

The more scarce, dynamic, and complex the environment, the more organic a structure should be.

You extol the virtues and benefits of standardization. You are most likely to be promoting the ________.

According to a 2011 survey, many workers in Qtopia Inc. are dissatisfied with their jobs. The survey revealed that most of the dissatisfied workers believe that they have very little control over their job assignments. Therefore, to increase workers' job satisfaction, Boris, a production manager, feels they need to only concentrate on changing the dissatisfied workers' beliefs regarding the degree of control they have over their job assignments. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the conclusion made by Boris?

Managers must take individual differences, such as experience, personality, culture, and the work task, into account to maximize employee performance and satisfaction.

The divisional structure has the opposite benefits and disadvantages of the functional structure.

Why is span of control important within an organization, and which common organizational design would most likely have the widest span of control? Explain your answer.

What are the three dimensions that characterize the environment of an organization?

Describe the various ways in which the negative impact of downsizing can be minimized.

The organization's structure will determine what relationships form, the formality of those relationships, and many work outcomes.