Exam 8: Structuring Organizations for Todays Challenges

Carlos is the person to see in the welding department if you are a new employee. While he is not a manager, he is the person that most of the others in the department look to for advice and assistance. Carlos is an important member of the firm's:

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

Vaughn Studios organizes its operations by activity, such as production, marketing, accounting, and finance. Vaughn utilizes departmentalization in order to maximize their efficiency:

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 a(n) span of control.

A flat organization is less likely to respond quickly to customer needs.

Inverted organizations empower employees by adding multiple layers of management and long lines of communication.

In an inverted organization, the purpose of management is to assist and support the decisions of employees who work directly with customers.

Fairview Community College is a multi-district college with four campuses. Each campus has one president, two vice presidents, five deans, 12 department chairs, over 100 faculty members, and several persons in support roles. The presidents from each campus report to four vice-chancellors and the vice-chancellors report to the chancellor. It is clear that Fairview has a well-defined .

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.

As organizations grew, the use of Fayol's principles led to rigid organizations that didn't always respond quickly to consumer requests.

believed that managers were trustworthy and companies would do well if employees simply did what they were told.

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:

Jack just learned that several persons in Arizona became ill from the peanut butter they ate that was produced and bottled in his plant. As he walks the back stairs at the plant, he ponders, "It's time to get the informal organization in on this. We've got to stop this in its tracks!" Jack is taking the right approach to solving this serious problem.

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

Bryce is a manager at a car seat manufacturing company. He believes that it is very important and less confusing if each worker has only one boss. Bryce's view is consistent with Fayol's unity of command principle.

A study at the Slumber Inn Corporation identified poor employee morale. Employee respondents indicated frustration with their inability to deal directly with customers' concerns and complaints. These 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.

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

To better serve customers, many firms are restructuring to empower front-line employees.

An advantage of decentralized authority is that those individuals closest to the customers and more familiar with local conditions make decisions.

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