Exam 12: Organisational Structure and Design

Sales responsibilities divided into south-east Australia, eastern Australia, north-east Australia, middle Australia and Western Australia would be an example of ________ departmentalisation.

You Can Bank on It Susan's employer, Mutual Insurance, like many others, had recently undergone some downsizing.The Board of Directors felt that their sagging stock price could be improved with some labour cost cutting.Along with other new challenges, a problem now existed with span of control and decision-making authority.In the past, her company's policy was that no manager should supervise more than six subordinates and only managers should make decisions for their individual units.But now, with the cuts in middle management, upper management had increased the span of control but still insisted on managerial-only decision making.The result was that managers spent all of their time putting out fires and subordinates felt they were getting answers too slowly and wanted to start having the authority to make decisions on their own.Clearly, something had to change. -Refer to You Can Bank on It (Scenario).Of the following, which is NOT a reason that would be consistent with Mutual Insurance wanting to maintain a centralised form of decision making?

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

Consultants R Us Beth Ann has been hired as a consultant for XYZ Consulting and her first assignment is to apply the work of Joan Woodward to her client, Custom Leather, Ltd.Custom Leather makes expensive leather furniture. -Refer to Consultants R Us (Scenario).If Custom Leather produces couches for individual orders, this is termed ________ production.

To minimise or eliminate boundaries, managers might use virtual or network structural designs.

Project structures tend to be rigid and inflexible organisational designs.

All of the following factors indicate that a decentralised organisation would be most effective EXCEPT when ________.

Food for Thought Howard owned Caselots, a store that sold food and non-food items in a warehouse environment.He employed 350 people and had them work in specialised areas.Some people only unloaded the pallets from the trucks or drove the pallets onto the floor, and still others unloaded the pallets in their specific area of responsibility.He had managers controlling each specific area.For example, the automotive manager was in charge of all functions (accounting, purchasing, sales, etc.)related to the automotive area.This arrangement had generally worked well, but recently, he noticed that employees seemed bored, and turnover and absenteeism had risen.In addition, he found that attempting to get special projects completed, such as creating their new 'First-Class Customer' card, had turned into a nightmare due to the lack of cooperation and misunderstanding between the groups. -Refer to Food for Thought (Scenario).The type of departmentalisation practiced by Caselots is best described as ________.

Employee empowerment is a crucial aspect of team structure because there is no line of managerial authority from top to bottom.

Appropriate organisational structure is contingent on four variables: the organisation's strategy, size, technology and degree of environmental uncertainty.

The important characteristics of a learning organisation revolve around all of the following EXCEPT ________.

The matrix approach violates what classical principle?

________ is the obligation to perform assigned activities.

Work specialisation is also known as ________.

Woodward demonstrated that organisational structures adapted to their technology.

The trend in recent years has been toward smaller spans of control.

According to Woodward's studies, what type of production works best with a mechanistic structure?

A learning organisation has developed its ________.

Researchers have concluded that the structures and strategies of organisations worldwide are ________ and the behaviour within them is ________.

In a short essay, describe a learning organisation and list and discuss the four elements that the important characteristics of a learning organisation revolve around.