Exam 9: Organisational Structure and Design

All other things being equal, as the span of control grows wider or larger, organizational design becomes more ________.

A ________ organization consists of a small core of full-time employees and temporarily hires outside specialists to work on emergent opportunities.

A matrix structure mixes characteristics of functional departmentalization and ________.

When effective implementation of company strategies depends on managers having involvement and flexibility to make decisions, the company is probably more decentralized.

________ departmentalization is based on the product or customer flow through the organization.

In a short essay, list and discuss the five common forms of departmentalization.

Large organizations, such as Aramco, tend to have more specialization and centralization compared to small organizations.

Many organizational design concepts are not applicable to twenty-first century companies.

Traditional organizational designs tend to be more mechanistic, and include ________.

________ departmentalization is used more in recent years to better monitor the needs of customers and to respond to changes in those needs.

________ is the formal arrangement of jobs within an organization.

As the number of employees in an organization grows, structure tends to become more ________.

Black Gold (Scenario) Jamal Oil Corporation (JOC) began as a relatively small oil company. However, through the years it has grown to become an international corporation. -Twenty years after founding JOC, Jamal decides he is approaching retirement. He wants JOC to develop the capacity to adapt itself and change because each member will take an active role in identifying and resolving work-related issues. Jamal wants the firm to become a ________.

The line of authority that extends from the upper levels of management to the lowest levels of the organization is called the ________.

Some organizational theorists go so far as to say that an organization's ability to ________ may be the only sustainable source of competitive advantage.

You Can Take That to the Bank (Scenario) Changes in banking regulations, a series of loan defaults by customers, and a decline in the real estate market have forced Eastern Bank, a large regional Gulf bank, to downsize in an effort to improve profitability and bolster its sagging stock price. Sawsan, a regional branch supervisor, has been tasked with preparing a management report concerning how these cuts are affecting bank operations and customer service. Sawsan believes that the most important problem that has emerged concerns the span of control and decision-making authority within the bank. In the past, bank policy was that no manager should supervise more than six subordinates and only managers could make decisions for their individual units. However, with many of the cuts coming in middle management, upper management has increased its span of control while still insisting on managerial-only decision making at the unit level. The result is that upper managers spend all of their time putting out fires and subordinates feel they are getting answers too slowly. As a result, lower level employees are requesting greater authority to make decisions on their own. However, they are not as experienced at making decisions as upper-level managers. Sawsan believes that structural changes must be made that reflect Eastern Bank's new situation. -Based upon the description of Eastern Bank's situation, which aspect of the current situation is inconsistent with Eastern Bank's decision to maintain a centralized form of decision making?

What is a weakness of a simple structure?

Structures of organizations in the Arab world differ remarkably from those in other countries.

Since Custom Leather produces individually customized couches, this could best be referred to as what kind of production?

Structure is related to the size of the organization, such that larger organizations are more ________.