Deck 15: Organizational Design, Effectiveness, and Innovation

Question 1

The organization's official communication network is not visible in the organization chart.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Normally, organizations with a hierarchical culture have narrower spans of control than flatter organizations.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The skill level of employees and the organizational culture are factors that should be considered in determining spans of control.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The organization's chain of command is visible in the organization chart.

Question 5

An organization chart is a graphic representation showing the formal and informal authority in an organization.

Question 6

An open system depends on constant interaction with its environment for survival.

Question 7

Today, the optimal span of control is considered to be 7 to 10 people.

Question 8

Over time, the wage gap between the layers of an organization chart has become smaller.

Question 9

A learning organization proactively creates, acquires, and transfers knowledge.

Question 10

XYZ Corporation reviews customer feedback from its website operations over the past three months, and decides to add more service representatives. This reflects a closed system approach.

Question 11

Division of labor is achieved through the implementation of cross-functional and self-managed teams.

Question 12

Dotted lines on organization charts indicate formal relationships.

Question 13

Information acquisition is about the processes used to share information within the organization.

Question 14

The number of people reporting directly to a given manager is known as the chain of command.

Question 15

Part of the meaning of "conscious coordination" in the definition of an organization is the idea that an organization's goals are aligned by means of a strategic plan that cascades down through the levels of the organization.

Question 16

Narrow spans of control create "taller" organizations.

Question 17

An organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons.

Question 18

A closed system is said to be a self-sufficient entity.

Question 19

An organization's subsystems include its goals and values, technical, psychosocial, structural, and managerial.

Question 20

Staff personnel generally have the authority to make decisions for line units.

Question 21

Members of boundaryless organizations communicate primarily through virtual methods.

Question 22

Matrix structures are preferred by many organizations because of their ease of application.

Question 23

Organization design includes the organization's human resource practices.

Question 24

A modular structure assembles parts, components, or modules provided by external contractors.

Question 25

A functional structure groups people according to similarity of products, services, customers, clients, or geographic regions.

Question 26

The horizontal approach to organizational design tends to focus on work processes.

Question 27

A hollow structure is also known as a network structure.

Question 28

One of the advantages of matrix structures is clear roles and responsibilities.

Question 29

Open structures have arisen to take advantage of industrialization and mass production.

Question 30

Organic organizations are flexible networks of multitalented individuals who perform a variety of tasks.

Question 31

In a vertical structure, workgroups are created to improve collaboration and work on common products.

Question 32

The idea of organization design is that organizations are more effective or successful when their structure supports the execution of corporate strategies.

Question 33

The steps of organizational learning are, in order, information acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, organizational memory, and knowledge integration.

Question 34

Traditional organizational designs rely on vertical hierarchy and clear departmental boundaries and reporting relationships.

Question 35

Horizontal designs attempt to dissolve departmental boundaries and reporting relationships as much as possible.

Question 36

According to the contingency approach to organization design, organizations tend to be more effective when they are structured to fit the demands of the situation.

Question 37

Today, we consider that the three main categories of organizational design are functional, divisional, and matrix.

Question 38

One of the advantages of virtual structures is reduced costs.

Question 39

A matrix structure combines functional and divisional chains of command to form a grid with two command structures.

Question 40

Virtual structures are categorized into two types: horizontal and vertical.

Question 41

The dimension of effectiveness that focuses on "what the organization must excel at" is the strategic constituencies satisfaction approach.

Question 42

Research has shown that innovation is positively related to hierarchical cultures.

Question 43

Which of the following is not one of the common denominators of organizations?

A) Coordination of effort
B) Profit motive
C) Hierarchy of authority
D) Division of labor
E) Aligned goals

Question 44

There is only one way to assess an organization's effectiveness: goal accomplishment.

Question 45

Innovation emerges incrementally, in bits and pieces, forged by multiple people working interactively.

Question 46

The resource acquisition approach to organizational assessment relates to inputs rather than outputs.

Question 47

Innovation is positively related to the level of skill and abilities of the people involved as well as their self-efficacy for innovation.

Question 48

One of the seeds of innovation is hard work in a specific direction.

Question 49

Open boundary structures depend on managers' ability to get results from people through the use of direct authority.

Question 50

A functional structure can save money by grouping together people who need similar materials and equipment.

Question 51

Core innovations are targeted at creating new markets or customers.

Question 52

Research indicates that organic organizations are always superior to mechanistic ones.

Question 53

The four key issues that managers should consider when making decisions about how best to design an organization are: strategy, technology, size, and leadership.

Question 54

Managers should use the internal processes approach when organizational performance is strongly influenced by specific processes.

Question 55

Decentralized decision making occurs when important decisions are made by working-level employees.

Question 56

Revenue per employee and total output produced divided by number of employees are examples of measures of goal accomplishment.

Question 57

A matrix structure violates the unity of command principle.

Question 58

Product innovation is a change in the appearance or the performance of a product or service, or the creation of a new one.

Question 59

The creation of something new that makes money is the definition of creativity.

Question 60

Decentralized organizations are more adaptable than centralized.

Question 61

In the ___________ subprocess, a learning organization shares information among its people, groups, or organizational units.

A) Information acquisition
B) Information interpretation
C) Knowledge integration
D) Organizational memory
E) Information distribution

Question 62

In a learning organization, the _________ subprocess leads to shared understanding among individuals and groups.

A) Information acquisition
B) Information interpretation
C) Knowledge integration
D) Organizational memory
E) Information distribution

Question 63

Which of the following is not an organizational subsystem of an organization?

A) Managerial
B) Technical
C) Structural
D) Environmental
E) Psychosocial

Question 64

Narrow spans of control are most likely in companies with a(n):

A) Clan culture
B) Market culture
C) Hierarchical culture
D) Adhocracy culture
E) Network structure

Question 65

Which of the following is a traditional organizational design?

A) Horizontal
B) Hollow
C) Modular
D) Matrix
E) Virtual

Question 66

___________ occurs when the common goal is pursued by individuals performing separate but related tasks.

A) Division of labor
B) Hierarchy of authority
C) Unity of command
D) Span of control
E) Traditional structure

Question 67

When an organization's strategic goals cascade down through the organization so the employees work together in pursuit of common ends, this is called:

A) Coordination of effort
B) The chain of command
C) The hierarchy of authority
D) Division of labor
E) Aligned goals

Question 68

Which of the following cannot be viewed in an organizational chart?

A) Hierarchy of authority
B) Organizational culture
C) Division of labor
D) Span of control
E) Line and staff positions

Question 69

Pierre is a foreman in a plant. He has 25 line workers who report to him on the night shift. From what you have read about organization charts, what do you know for sure?

A) His subordinates enjoy less autonomy than others.
B) His subordinates take part in the decision-making process.
C) He has a wide span of control.
D) His subordinates are closely supervised.
E) He is encountering high administrative costs.

Question 70

When organizations use the chain of command to make sure the right people do the right things at the right time, this is called:

A) Coordination of effort
B) The span of control
C) The hierarchy of authority
D) Division of labor
E) Aligned goals

Question 71

In a learning organization, the ________ subprocess includes encoding, storing, and retrieving lessons learned from the organization's history.

A) Information acquisition
B) Information interpretation
C) Knowledge integration
D) Organizational memory
E) Information distribution

Question 72

A(n) _________ is said to be a self-sufficient entity.

A) Organic structure
B) Learning organization
C) Closed system
D) Divisional structure
E) Modular structure

Question 73

An organization that proactively creates, acquires, and transfers knowledge and that changes its behavior on the basis of that knowledge is called a(n):

A) Complex organization
B) Closed organization
C) Learning organization
D) Information organization
E) Network organization

Question 74

Adam is a new product development manager for Hello.com, an Internet match-making service. He has only two employees reporting directly to him. From what you have read about organization charts, what do you know for sure?

A) His subordinates enjoy greater autonomy than others.
B) His subordinates take part in the decision-making process.
C) He has a narrow span of control.
D) His subordinates are not closely supervised.
E) He is encountering low administrative costs.

Question 75

Which of the following statements about span of control is true?

A) Larger organizations tend to have wider spans of control
B) Costs tend to be higher in organizations with narrow spans
C) Complex tasks tend to require a narrower span of control
D) Narrow spans of control are mostly found in clan cultures
E) Senior-level executives tend to have wider spans of control

Question 76

___________ is achieved through formulation and enforcement of policies, rules, and regulations.

A) Hierarchy of authority
B) The strategic plan
C) Aligned goals
D) Division of labor
E) Coordination of effort

Question 77

Aligned goals start with the __________.

A) Hierarchy of authority
B) Organizational structure
C) Organizational culture
D) Organizational climate
E) Strategic plan

Question 78

The number of people reporting directly to a given manager is known as:

A) Span of control
B) Span of authority
C) Chain of command
D) Unity of command
E) Unity of control

Question 79

An open system approach to organization:

A) Likens organizations to a human body
B) Characterizes organizations as a well-oiled machine
C) Was supplanted by the closed systems approach in the 1950s
D) Treats an organization's boundaries as impermeable
E) Assumes that rigorous planning and control will eliminate uncertainty

Question 80

When organizations divide the work in pursuing the common goal among groups and individuals performing separate but related tasks, this is called:

A) Coordination of effort
B) The chain of command
C) The hierarchy of authority
D) Division of labor
E) Aligned goals