Exam 12: Organisational Structure and Design

Organisational Structure Michelle is a registered nurse in charge of a new unit in her hospital.She would like to have a more laid-back approach to dealing with her new staff, but the hospital demands that there be strict hierarchical levels and that all decisions must be signed off by Michelle.Sometimes this drives Michelle nuts; the constant filling out of forms, etc.She also feels that the numerous levels of hierarchy are unnecessary and place barriers between her and her staff.She is not sure why things have to be so 'organised' and is thinking about speaking with her boss to attempt changing her unit to have more flexibility and fewer rules. -Refer to Organisational Structure (Scenario).Michelle is required to sign off on all decisions, suggesting that they have a ________ form of decision-making authority.

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).Caselots currently operates under the classical view of the division of labour.This is characterised by which of the following?

Most current strategy-structure contingency frameworks tend to focus on three strategy dimensions.These dimensions are ________.

Which of the following would likely be found in mechanistic organisations?

If lower-level employees provide input or are actually given the discretion to make decisions, the organisation is more ________.

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

An organic organisation would likely be very flexible.

Grouping sporting equipment in one area, men's clothing in another area and cosmetics in a third area is an example of what kind of departmentalisation?

The degree to which tasks in an organisation are divided into separate jobs is division of labour.

Authority is synonymous with responsibility.

Innovators need the efficiency, stability and tight controls of the mechanistic structure.

Internal boundaries are boundaries that separate the organisation from its customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.

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).As PAOC continues to grow, a highly trained group of managers and analysts has developed at corporate headquarters.This group is highly adaptive in its structure.Members of this group do not have standardised jobs, but are empowered to handle diverse job activities and problems.This group of employees is said to have a(n)________ structure.

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic that would suggest unit production would be a best 'fit'?

Which of the following is NOT an example of the classical view of work specialisation?

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

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).To deal with the workload in an effective manner, PAOC's executive management group assigns specialists from the different functional departments to work on one or more work groups that are led by project managers.This popular contemporary design is called a ________ structure.

What type of organisational form follows classical principles such as clear chain of command?

Which of the following factors would NOT influence an organisation to have a higher degree of centralisation?

A manager's span of control refers to the number of subordinates who can be effectively and efficiently supervised.