Exam 13: Decision Rights: Bundling Tasks Into Jobs and Subunits

Enhanced Computers specializes in rebuilding computers. Recently reorganized into geographic divisions, the southern division headed by Dan Unowsky is outperforming the other divisions in sales and profits. However, corporate executives have noticed that Unowsky no longer sends refurbished computers to other divisions, and he has instituted special warranties and pricing systems unavailable in the rest of the company. Should Unowsky be promoted or fired?

Network organizations depend upon:

When a worker specializes in one task, he focuses on that one function in the production process, ignoring the whole system. This can result in:

Historically, many businesses have preferred specialized task assignment for employees over broad task assignments. Why has this been the case?

What are specialized task assignments and what are their advantages?

Dan Unowsky assigns his computer repairers four tasks: customer service, replacement of broken parts, clean-up of equipment, and sale of used equipment to customers. If the company provides a 10% commission for all sales made by employees, then:

The most famous story about organizing tasks into jobs comes from Adam Smith's tale of the pin factory. In that story, he argues that:

What do we mean by U-form?

Which of the following is not a cost of specialized task assignment?

Dan Unowsky, director of re-manufacturing for the Southern Division of Enhanced Computers, finds that communication with marketing is very difficult. This is a _______ of separating marketing from production.

Defense, construction and management consulting are set up as:

Billy Riggan is in charge of all technical developments at Always Round Tire. He makes all the choices concerning product innovations in the company. He finds that he is overworked and that several of his research scientists seem to be spending work hours playing tennis. What is going on?

Incentives are an important aspect of whether not multiple tasks should be combined into one job. How can monetary incentives help and/or hinder the process of getting a job done, particularly if it is made up of several tasks?

Dan Unowsky manages a production group in a PC repair shop. He has noticed that speed of repair is based on each worker doing one task. But if an employee is out sick, then the entire repair process slows down. Unowsky is seeing:

Alfred Chandler, the noted business historian, indicated that "the administrative load of the senior executives increased to such an extent that they were unable to handle their entrepreneurial responsibilities efficiently." He was speaking of the:

What are the recent trends in organization design?