Deck 15: Organization Design

Question 1

Environmental,strategic,and personnel are the three primary factors that affect organization design.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Selecting a structure for tasks,responsibilities,and authority relationships within organizations is referred to as environmental factors.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

In contrast to franchise,the term division typically is used to identify a broader,often autonomous part of an organization that performs many,if not all,the functions of the parent organization with respect to a product or large geographic area.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

An organization chart is a representation of an organization's internal structure,indicating how various tasks or functions are interrelated.

Question 5

The term division often identifies a specialized function within an organization,such as human resources,production,accounting,and purchasing.

Question 6

In Learning from Experience: "Lowe's Companies,Inc. ," the organization generates revenues of more than $48 billion.

Question 7

How things really get done in an organization and who really has the political clout to make things happen cannot be represented in an organization chart.

Question 8

The design for a successful organization is for people to work together and understand how their behaviors support the organizations strategy.

Question 9

Technological and focused strategies are the underlying strategies that appear to be essential to building competitive advantage.

Question 10

Decisions about task delegating often involve the diagnosis of an organization's culture,power and political behaviors,and jobs design.

Question 11

Competitors do not often influence the design of an organization.

Question 12

According to Michael Porter of Harvard University,organizations need to distinguish and position themselves differently from their competitors in order to build and sustain competitive advantage.

Question 13

In Learning from Experience: "Lowe's Companies,Inc. ," the organization plans to open many stores in both rural and urban markets.

Question 14

An organization's design should ease communication among employees and departments to accomplish the goals of the organization.

Question 15

Product consistency and cost stability are two of the most important factors when choosing a supplier.

Question 16

The various organizations that help another organization deliver and sell its products are known as suppliers.

Question 17

An task delegation scheme provides insight on how departments fit together.

Question 18

Leaders need to assess characteristics of both the present and possible future environments in terms of their potential impact on the organization's ability to function and compete effectively.

Question 19

Competitors are the only major external group that needs to be taken into account in making organization design decisions.

Question 20

To maintain the product consistency customers have come to expect from McDonald's,the organization has entered into a single long-term contract with J.R.Simplot to supply it with potatoes.

Question 21

Hierarchy is a pyramid showing relationships among levels.

Question 22

Both the low-cost and differentiation strategies are designed to target industry wide markets.

Question 23

The two basic fundamentals of organizing are differentiation and integration.

Question 24

Delegation is the process of giving someone authority to make decisions and act in certain situations.

Question 25

The differentiation strategy is based on locating and taking advantage of opportunities for an organization to seek cost-based advantages in all of its activities (e.g. ,purchasing,manufacturing,distribution).

Question 26

The functional design tends to be chosen by organizations using the low-cost strategy.

Question 27

A risk of the focused strategy is getting "locked in" to a technology and organization design that is expensive to change.

Question 28

Differentiation means that the organization is composed of units that work on specialized tasks requiring employees with unique competencies.

Question 29

Organic systems tend to be interdependent and are often adjusted and redefined.

Question 30

Hierarchy refers to the number of employees directly reporting to a person.

Question 31

Organic management systems encourage working together of leaders and subordinates while encouraging open communication.

Question 32

A focused strategy is designed to help an organization target a specific niche in its industry.

Question 33

A differentiation strategy is based on providing customers with something that is unique and makes the organization's product or service distinctive from its competition.

Question 34

A mechanistic system is characterized by a heavy reliance on formal rules and regulations along with a rigid hierarchy of authority.

Question 35

Mechanistic systems tend to be highly specialized and are rigidly defined.

Question 36

Focus is created through a division of labor and job specialization.

Question 37

Hierarchy,span of control,delegation are methods used to achieve vertical organization.

Question 38

The low-cost strategy is based on a companies' ability to provide a product or service at a lower cost than it's rival.

Question 39

The greatest disadvantage of using a differentiation strategy is the risk that the organization's underlying market niche may gradually shift toward a broader market.

Question 40

The low-cost strategy is based on locating and taking advantage of opportunities for an organization to seek cost-based advantages in all of its activities.

Question 41

In a organic organization,rules are an integral part of the organization,unlike in a mechanistic organization.

Question 42

Span of control refers to the number of people directly reporting to a person.

Question 43

Hierarchical arrangement means that all functions contribute to a product are organized under one leader.

Question 44

Accountability is an employees duty to perform assigned tasks.

Question 45

Delegation should occur in conjunction with the assignment of responsibilities

Question 46

In an mechanistic organization communication is to emphasize direction and decisions issued by superiors.

Question 47

Organic organizations network structure of control,authority,and communication.

Question 48

Distribution of work indicates who reports to whom.

Question 49

Authority is the right to make decisions.

Question 50

Division of labor means that the work of the organization is divided into smaller tasks.

Question 51

Mechanistic management is most effective if the needs of the customer are well known and unchanging.

Question 52

Decentralization is delegating authority to a lower level departments and employees of an organization.

Question 53

Accountability is the managers expectation that the employee will accept credit or blame for their work.

Question 54

Top management typically makes decisions that determine the extent to which an organization will operate mechanistically or organically.

Question 55

Span of control refers to the various ways of dividing up tasks and labor to achieve goals.

Question 56

In the Change Competency "KFC in China," franchising was extremely popular in Chinese businesses.

Question 57

The mechanistic organization tends to reduce the cost of high turnover by delegating decision making to lower levels.

Question 58

Integration means that the various units coordinate their work to achieve common goals.

Question 59

An mechanistic organization typically has a high division of labor.

Question 60

Clear rules and operating procedures reduce the need for improvisation and positively influence span of control.

Question 61

Geographic design organizes activities around a region.

Question 62

Geographic design involves the creation of positions,teams,and departments on the basis of specialized activities.

Question 63

By connecting people in different locations network design enhances fast communication so people can act together.

Question 64

Geographic design has the advantage of being able to minimize transport costs by specifying a local region to provide services to.

Question 65

The number of employees reporting directly to one manager is referred to as authority.

Question 66

Network designs are effective for situations which require coordination and linking of people from many organizations at many locations.

Question 67

The network design involves the establishment of self-contained units,each capable of developing,producing,marketing,and distributing its own goods and services.

Question 68

The product organization design decreases the information overload that managers face compared with a purely functional design.

Question 69

Organizations using network design have the advantages of gaining an understanding of the customer's problem quickly and minimizing bureaucracy.

Question 70

Functional,product,geographic and network are the three most commonly used types of horizontal design.

Question 71

When the organization has a narrow product line and does not have to respond to the pressures of serving different geographic areas or types of customers the functional design may be effective.

Question 72

An adverse affect of using geographic design is duplication of functions at each individual regional location.

Question 73

Functional design fosters a point of view that focuses on a broad set of tasks.

Question 74

In the geographic design,positions and departments may be created on the basis of either specialized activities,such as marketing and finance,or on the basis of the process used,such as receiving,assembly,and inspection.

Question 75

Product design allows employees to become specialized in a particular product type.

Question 76

Network designs hold down administrative costs because everyone in a department shares the training,experiences,and resources needed to perform that function.

Question 77

According to Ethics Competency "Enron," the company did billions of dollars worth of bad deals.

Question 78

When the span of control is narrow,relatively few levels exist between the top and bottom of the organization.

Question 79

As the organization decreases the numbers of geographic areas served and the range of goods or services provided,coordination across functional departments often becomes difficult.

Question 80

In Ethics Competency "Enron" Ethics Competency top management is convicted for making poor deals look profitable.