Exam 8: Organization Structure

Mason Engineering is run in a very traditional way, with experienced top managers making all the decisions and passing them down to lower levels for implementation. Mason can be described as a(n) ________ organization.

The operational level of the organization includes

To cope with high uncertainty and heavy information demands, managers can act to reduce the need for information.

The optimal span of control should be wide when which one of the following factors is present?

Creating slack resources means that

Which of the following statements about matrix organizations is true?

The board of directors selects and assesses the CEO.

When there are many subunits and many kinds of specialists who think differently in an organization, differentiation is high.

The first step in effective delegation is selecting the person to whom you will delegate.

Angela is one of three managers at Sensible Cleaning, and she supervises 32 full- and part-time employees who perform cleaning services. She reports to the owner. Sensible Cleaning would be considered a flat organization.

Pendant Insurance has strictly defined job responsibilities and lines of communication. In this formal atmosphere, approval for any changes to standing procedures must be obtained by upper management. Here the insurance firm has

Which of the following statements about a matrix organization is true?

Delegation occurs at all hierarchical levels.

Macy's Group has different divisions for its operations serving particular states or areas of the United States. Macy's therefore uses a customer division.

The number of subordinates who report directly to an executive or supervisor is called the

Investing in information systems and creating horizontal relationships most likely results in which of the following?

The presence of rules and regulations governing how people in the organization interact is called

An organization in which lower-level managers make important decisions is a(n) __________ organization.

Clarissa, VP of operations, was looking for a new direction and asked Jack to manage the reorganization of the call center, even though he was less experienced than many of the managers in that department. Jack found that the other managers were not cooperative in giving him access to their current procedures or ideas about new ones, and he felt powerless to compel them. Clarissa most likely made the mistake of

Employees who function poorly in ambiguous, and sometimes conflict-ridden, circumstances may not thrive in a matrix organization.