Deck 16: Organizational Structure and Design

Question 1

In general, the greater the inherent ambiguity in an individual's job, the greater the need for supervision to avoid conflict and stress.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

A divisional structure has a notable advantage over other structures in its efficiency.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

A fully-developed matrix organization has product management departments along with the usual functional departments.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

All jobs contain some degree of the right to exact obedience from others.

Question 5

High delegation of authority creates the need for checks on its use.

Question 6

The cost of formal management training programs is always offset by the benefits.

Question 7

"Flattening" an organization decreases the average span of control of each manager.

Question 8

Delegation of authority refers specifically to doing work.

Question 9

The sales department in an aircraft company, selling a single customizable airplane, with specialties such as airline, military and executive, is an example of product departmentalization.

Question 10

A relatively high delegation of authority discourages the development of management.

Question 11

The individual who can clearly and concisely communicate with subordinates is able to manage more people than one who can't.

Question 12

Some organizations have eliminated the hierarchy through which authority flows from the highest-level manager to the lowest-level manager.

Question 13

Advancement of managers on the basis of demonstrated performance can eliminate favoritism and minimize personality in the promotion process.

Question 14

A major disadvantage of the departmental basis is that organizational goals may be sacrificed in favor of departmental goals.

Question 15

Functional departments are made up of jobs with great differences.

Question 16

As the number of employees with specialized jobs increases within an organization, it becomes easier for a single manager to coordinate their efforts.

Question 17

The number of jobs to be included in a specific group is an issue of span of control.

Question 18

The critical issue in determining a manager's span of control is the number of potential relationships in the unit.

Question 19

In laymen's terms, bureaucracy refers to the negative consequences of large organizations, such as excessive red tape and procedural delays.

Question 20

Clients or customers should never be a basis for grouping jobs.

Question 21

All of the following are structural characteristics of the mechanistic model except:

A) It's highly complex
B) It's highly centralized
C) It's highly geographic
D) It's highly formalized

Question 22

Specialization of labor contributes primarily to horizontal differentiation.

Question 23

Subaru's Indiana manufacturing plant was the first auto assembly plant in the world to:

A) Use biodegradable bumpers
B) Use eco-friendly paint
C) Use all American-made parts
D) Send nothing to the a landfill

Question 24

Fayol stated that _______________ is the best means for making use of individuals and groups of individuals.

A) departmentalization
B) specialization
C) coordination
D) communication

Question 25

Wide spans of control encourage one-on-one supervision.

Question 26

According to Weber, the bureaucratic structure is superior to any other form in all of the following except:

A) Precision
B) Stability
C) Profitability
D) Reliability

Question 27

_______________ is the right to make decisions without approval by a higher manager and to extract obedience from other people.

A) Specialization
B) Authority
C) Span of control
D) Division of labor

Question 28

Which of the following structures tends to be toward the right of an organizational structure continuum?

A) Classical
B) Bureaucratic
C) Mechanistic
D) Organic

Question 29

Delegation of authority contributes to vertical differentiation.

Question 30

The _______________ model of organizational design is relatively simple, decentralized, and informal.

A) mechanistic
B) geographic
C) organic
D) bureaucratic

Question 31

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans transformed its organization from a mechanistic to an organic structure to take advantage of the _______________ concept.

A) specialization
B) increased job range
C) delegation of authority
D) self-managed team

Question 32

Rules and procedures that are not enforced will not affect behavior.

Question 33

One of the more successful practitioners of the mechanistic model has been ____________.

A) UPS
B) Gore
C) the USPS
D) Taco Bell

Question 34

The ______ organization is flexible to changing environmental demands because its design encourages greater utilization of human potential.

A) organoleptic
B) organic
C) optimized
D) eco

Question 35

Manufacturing plants often divide work into fabricating and assembly, with individuals assigned to one of these two activities. This division of work is called _______________.

A) personal specialty division
B) horizontal specialization
C) natural sequence of work
D) vertical specialization

Question 36

The mechanistic model achieves high levels of production and efficiency due to all of the following structural characteristics except:

A) Highly complex
B) Highly centralized
C) Highly formalized
D) Highly leveraged

Question 37

The _______ chain is the route for all vertical communications in an organization.

A) secular
B) scalar
C) sanctioned
D) "S"

Question 38

According to the principle of ________, jobs should be grouped by specialty.

A) specialization
B) unity of direction
C) efficiency
D) totality

Question 39

Middle managers in Japanese firms are expected to initiate opportunities for workers to be involved.

Question 40

With the _______________ model of organizational design, decision making, control, and goal setting are decentralized and shared at all levels of the organization.

A) mechanistic
B) geographic
C) organic
D) bureaucratic

Question 41

At present, all of the following dimensions are used in research and practice to describe organizational structure except:

A) Formalization
B) Centralization
C) Complexity
D) Authority

Question 42

Which of the following is not one of the conditions that made may lead to organizational benefit through the application of a matrix structure?

A) Organizations that have strong competitors
B) Organizations that require responses to rapid change in two or more environments, such as technology and markets
C) Organizations that face uncertainties that generate high information-processing requirement
D) Organizations that must deal with financial and human resources constraints

Question 43

High delegation of authority creates the need for _______________.

A) corresponding higher salaries
B) updated management titles
C) checks on its use
D) larger spans of control

Question 44

All of the following were presented as suggestions for enhancing individual success within a matrix organization except:

A) Communicate clearly, but as seldom as possible
B) Get to know others in the organization before you need their assistance
C) Be aware of deadlines and manage your time been projects appropriately
D) Keep management abreast of your activities

Question 45

In a matrix organization, top management is _______________ with day-to-day operations.

A) less involved
B) never involved
C) always involved
D) more involved

Question 46

Once a task force achieves its objective, the task force _______________, and members return to their primary assignment.

A) dissolves
B) stabilizes
C) becomes permanent
D) splits into smaller groups

Question 47

Generally, the issue of span of control comes down to how many _______________ a manager can oversee.

A) products
B) customers
C) facilities
D) people

Question 48

Managers need to consider how the four design decisions influence the structure of their organizations. In a similar vein, there are three dimensions of organizational structure that interact with these design decisions. , namely ______________.

A) formalization, centralization, and complexity
B) division of labor, delegation of authority, departmentalization, and span of control
C) centralization, complexity and span of control
D) formalization, centralization and delegation of authority

Question 49

The potential conflict between allegiance to one's functional manager and one's project manager must be recognized and dealt with in _______________ organizations.

A) organic
B) matrix
C) mechanistic
D) lateral

Question 50

The principal advantage of the functional basis is its _______________.

A) efficiency
B) responsiveness
C) manageability
D) flexibility

Question 51

A dual authority system is a distinguishing characteristic of a (n) _______________ organization.

A) organic
B) matrix
C) mechanistic
D) Both A and B

Question 52

Ordinarily, the process of moving to matrix organization is:

A) evolutionary
B) revolutionary
C) immediate
D) motivational

Question 53

In practical terms, the matrix design combines functional and ________________ departmental bases.

A) geographical
B) customer
C) product
D) retail

Question 54

Matrix organizations achieve the desired balance by superimposing a horizontal structure of _______________ on the vertical structure.

A) authority
B) influence
C) communication
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 55

In practical terms, the __________design combines functional and product departmental bases.

A) Manix®
B) mixed
C) matrix
D) multiple channel

Question 56

Organizations that decentralize (delegate) authority enable managers to:

A) Make significant decisions
B) Gain skills
C) Advance in the company
D) All of the choices are correct

Question 57

Management can combine ________specialized and similar jobs into relatively _______departments because the employees may not need close supervision.

A) highly, large
B) minimally, small
C) highly, small
D) minimally, large

Question 58

Managers need to consider how the four design decisions influence the structure of their organizations. Which of the following is not one of these decisions?

A) Required contact
B) Delegation of authority
C) Departmentalization
D) Span of control

Question 59

Loan officers are often associated with industrial, commercial, or agricultural loans. This is an example of a _______ form of departmentalization.

A) process
B) customer
D) impact
D) segmented

Question 60

A (n) _______________ structure encourages constant interaction among project unit and functional department members.

A) organic
B) matrix
C) mechanistic
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 61

Work in e-commerce, consulting, marketing, and job searching seems best suited for _______________ organizations.

A) virtual
B) mechanistic
C) geographic
D) organic

Question 62

What is the principal historical reason for the creation of organizations?

Question 63

The dimension of _______________ refers to the extent to which expectations regarding the means and ends of work are specified, written, and enforced.

A) formalization
B) centralization
C) complexity
D) Both A and C

Question 64

It has become standard practice to use the term _________differentiation to refer to the number of different units at the same level and _______ differentiation to refer to the number of levels in the organization.

A) horizontal, vertical
B) vertical, horizontal
C) horizontal, status
D) job, rank

Question 65

The concept of organizational complexity refers to:

A) The number of distinctly different job titles
B) Occupational groupings
C) The number of distinctly different units or departments
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 66

Which of the following statements about boundaryless organizations is false?

A) Chains of command are eliminated
B) Spans of control are unlimited
C) Rigid departments are replaced with empowered teams
D) Participative decision making is eliminated

Question 67

Why does decentralization mean duplication of effort?

Question 68

The typical Japanese manufacturing job has _______________ the typical Western manufacturing job.

A) more range than
B) less range than
C) the same range as
D) There is no range in manufacturing jobs.

Question 69

The concept of virtual organizations originated in:

A) NASA
B) Major universities
C) Microsoft
D) Japan

Question 70

The _______ the specialization of labor, the _________ the complexity.

A) greater, greater
B) greater, less
C) less, greater
D) None of the above, the two constructs are not related.

Question 71

Why may a manager believe that delegating authority will lead to lower levels of effectiveness?

Question 72

What are the most distinct differences between the organic and the mechanistic organizational models?

Question 73

Departments in Japanese firms are most often based on _______________.

A) products
B) customers
C) function
D) location

Question 74

Wide spans of control ___________ one-on-one supervision

A) necessitate
B) discourage
C) promote
D) None of the above, there is no established relation between the two.

Question 75

With _____________, the same organizational structure and operating policies and procedures that exist in the existing domestic organization are used when setting up a foreign subsidiary

A) replication
B) projection
C) duplication
D) nationalizing

Question 76

Thrivent Financial implemented a form of employee compensation termed _______________ to encourage employees to adopt a new work system.

A) pay for knowledge
B) pay for productivity
C) incentive pay
D) gainsharing

Question 77

The Federal Express structure, with regional presidents and their "armies," is modeled after a system made popular by the:

A) Romans
B) Greeks
C) Roman Catholic Church
D) United States Postal Service

Question 78

What aspect of a job distinguishes managerial jobs from non-managerial jobs?

Question 79

The greater the use of the _______________ basis, the greater the complexity.

A) geographic
B) customer
C) product
D) All of the choices are correct.

Question 80

The greater the use of ________ departments the _________ the centralization.

A) customer, greater
B) functional, greater
C) functional, less
D) geographic, greater