Exam 8: Structuring Organizations for Todays Challenges

Which of the following is true of cross-functional teams?

Which of the following describes a group of employees from different departments working together on a long-term basis?

Transparency describes the relationship between a firm and its stockholders.

Green Landscapes, a company that installs underground sprinkler systems, serves several commercial customers, as well as residential customers. As the business expands, Green Landscapes' management may want to consider departmentalizing by customer group and then by process.

Sam supervised a group of people in a very large organization. The refrigerator in their lunchroom stopped functioning. He started the paperwork on the day it died, and the refrigerator request went out for bid; two middle managers needed to approve acceptance of the bid and document their decision, and the purchasing director had final approval. The refrigerator arrived six months later. Max Weber would have approved of the decision process and documentation of it at Sam's company to back up such a refrigerator purchase.

Empowerment works only when employees are given the proper training and resources to respond.

Julie is an attorney who works for Worldwide Food Science, Inc., who provides legal advice and assistance to the firm's managers. Julie's job would be classified as a staff position.

Last week at Happy Trails Financial Services Company, all financial advisors who serve more than 150 clients each received a notice from the VP of Operations that every client's investment portfolio should consist of 50% individual stock purchases, 25% bonds, and 25% property. Advisors were ordered to review all client portfolios for compliance to this directive. Clearly, Happy Trails is an inverted organization because management directives such as the one described are very common.

Which of the following describes an environment in which data is instantly available via the Internet to organizational partners?

Cross-functional teams that go beyond company boundaries share production information but seldom market information.

Cross-functional teams defy the trend toward customer-driven organizations.

As a manager of a retail-clothing store, Lance favors detailed job descriptions, formal rules and regulations, detailed records, and standardized procedures. He also believes that staffing and promotion decisions should be based strictly on the qualifications of the people under consideration. Lance's attitudes suggest that he is strongly influenced by the ideas of:

Competitive benchmarking rates an organization's products and operations against the industry average.

According to the Spotlight on Small Business box titled "Cutting Back While Cutting Costs," the growth of small business outsourcing can be attributed to the presence of online job marketplaces.

Matrix organizations give managers flexibility in assigning people to projects.

John recently accepted a job in the marketing department with the Burbank Bagel Boys. After just a few days on the job, John learned that the company has many layers of management, and seems to have a rule to cover almost every situation. These conditions suggest that Burbank Bagel Boys is a(n):

Matrix organizational structures were first developed in:

Mini-Case Angelica Canizales is the CEO of Mucho Dinero Enterprises. Sales have declined for four consecutive years and the firm's accountants have reported net losses in each of the last two years. Employees appear demoralized and frustrated. Recently, Angelica met with managers from marketing, production, and finance to listen to their views regarding the company's problems. The managers unanimously agreed that the main problem was a lack of communication among the several functional areas of the business. Each manager felt that the firm could increase quality and customer satisfaction with better interdepartmental communication. Angelica also met with marketing and production employees to get their respective opinions on the problems of the firm. One employee from the production department observed, "We have so many layers of management that it takes forever to make decisions." An employee from marketing complained, "This place is so bogged down with rules and regulations that there is no opportunity to be creative." Several employees shared their opinions regarding their bosses. Specifically, one employee said, "My boss never pays attention to my ideas. He just issues orders and expects me to obey them." Angelica decided, after listening to many comments from managers and employees and also suppliers and customers, that the only way to end Mucho Dinero's slide was to completely rethink the firm's structure and to make radical changes in its organization. She presented her ideas to the board of directors, promising to voluntarily resign if her efforts to reorganize did not return the firm to profitability. -Angelica's decision to completely redesign Mucho Dinero's organization indicates that she believes the best approach to her firm's problems is:

Networking uses communication technology to link organizations, allowing them to work together on common objectives.

An advantage of decentralized authority is that those individuals closest to the customers and more familiar with local conditions make decisions.