Question 1

Which term most closely refers to assigning direct authority and responsibility to a subordinate to fulfill tasks for which the manager is normally responsible?

Accepted Answer

A)   a job description
B)   staff functionality
C)   delegation of decision making
D)   decentralization C

Question 2

Organizational structure is the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments,authority,and jobs within a company.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False  True

Question 3

Why do about 70 percent of all re-engineering projects fail?

Accepted Answer

A)   because of how the process affects people in the workplace
B)   because the process requires a change in the organization's vision
C)   because staff personnel must be given line authority to implement re-engineering
D)   because satisfactory benchmarks cannot be located A

Question 4

A general manager of a manufacturing firm wishes to increase efficiency by reducing duplication throughout the organization.Which form of departmentalization should he adopt?

Accepted Answer

A)   functional
B)   matrix
C)   product
D)   geographic

Question 5

In one job design approach,the number of different tasks that a worker performs within one job is increased,and workers are given the authority and control to make meaningful decisions about their work.Which of the following is associated with this approach?

Accepted Answer

A)   job rotation and job enlargement
B)   job specialization and job enrichment
C)   job specialization and job rotation
D)   job enlargement and job enrichment

Question 6

Identify an organization that you know of and explain how and why its approach to organizational design tends to fit better with either the traditional (structure)or contemporary (process)approaches to organizational design.Be sure to state whether your organizational example more closely fits the model of mechanistic or organic organizational design.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Identify an organization that you know of...

Question 7

In certain organizations,the normal procedure for dealing with any matter lying outside the boundaries of one individual's functional responsibility is handled one of two ways.One is to refer it to the point in the system where such responsibility is known to reside.Failing that,the matter is brought before one's superior.What type of organization is described?

Accepted Answer

A)   centralized
B)   mechanistic
C)   departmentalized
D)   organic

Question 8

Which of the following actions is appropriate where standardization is important?

Accepted Answer

A)   centralize authority
B)   decentralize authority
C)   emphasize line authority
D)   ensure a flat organizational structure

Question 9

An organic organization is an organization characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility,loosely defined,frequently changing roles,decentralized authority,and horizontal communication based on task knowledge.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 10

Admitting a need for better communication,higher management tethers subordinates to their jobs and appoints newly hired employees who specialize in establishing liaison relationships.Which type of organization does this scenario describe?

Accepted Answer

A)   centralized
B)   mechanistic
C)   departmentalized
D)   organic

Question 11

What is the term for the degree to which a job is perceived to have a substantial impact on others inside or outside the organization?

Accepted Answer

A)   task significance
B)   skill feedback
C)   skill variety
D)   autonomy

Question 12

What type of departmentalization organizes work and workers into distinct units responsible for certain business roles or areas of expertise?

Accepted Answer

A)   functional
B)   customer
C)   matrix
D)   product

Question 13

Which of the following is characterized by simple,easy-to-learn steps,little variety,and much repetition?

Accepted Answer

A)   job consistency
B)   job specialization
C)   task re-engineering
D)   standardization

Question 14

Narrative 9-1
A $100 million loss, plummeting advertising sales, a stock price that has fallen from an all-time high of $237 to less than $10 per share, and layoffs that cost 800 people their jobs, including the previous CEO. Welcome to Yahoo! At this once phenomenally successful company, so many basic things have gone wrong that the question is, where do you start to fix it?
One key problem is the organizational structure. With just 3,200 employees, Yahoo has 44 different business units. General Electric, with 300,000 employees, has only 13. Yahoo doesn't have a direct sales unit-no one, it turns out, is responsible for cultivating customers because customer advertising dollars were being thrown at the company. Consequently, most orders took place via e-mail. Yahoo didn't have to establish relationships with customers because customers came to it. Unfortunately, this led to arrogance. A potential customer said the message was, "Buy our stuff [meaning Yahoo's advertising], and shut up." Jeff Mallett, Yahoo's former president, said, "We ran Yahoo to optimize market share. I make no apologies for that. If there was a company that didn't get it [Internet advertising], we moved on very quickly."
Another problem was the overly creative, freewheeling, spontaneous company culture in which everyone, including the CEO, worked in cubicles, representing an overly informal culture with no controls. At Yahoo, employees played soccer in a large open space outside the company boardroom, even while the board was meeting. Furthermore, no one had an overall perspective of what was best for the entire company. Consequently, unit managers would beg, borrow, and steal from the network (the overall company) to help their own properties. Beyond that, ideas were pursued without having to get anyone's feedback or approval. Yahoo's chief operating officer said, "Yahoo's original mission was to grow as fast as you can and put things out there and see what works." The more serious problem, he said, was that "nobody knew what would work."
Yahoo was so informal, so unfocused, and so freewheeling that no one really worried about whether the company could charge for the services it provided and make a profit. "There was a fear," said one manager, "that if all of our efforts were put into profit making, we'd starve research and development and lose our innovation."
-Refer to the Narrative 9-1.Which of the following is an advantage of Yahoo's organizational structure?

Accepted Answer

A)   the elimination of the constraints associated with the chain of command
B)   a flatter structure better able to respond to a static environment
C)   the elimination of resource duplication
D)   the ease with which top managers can specialize within one area

Question 15

Matrix departmentalization is a hybrid structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization are used together,such as the product and functional forms.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 16

Honeywell Inc.reorganized its European operations along customer lines to prepare for a unified European Union.In doing so,it abandoned matrix departmentalization.What was the best reason for Honeywell to have engaged in such restructuring?

Accepted Answer

A)   to create pools of resources
B)   to empower its employees
C)   to better adhere to the management philosophy of staff authority
D)   to end conflict between product managers in different parts of its matrix

Question 17

In a decentralized organization,workers closest to problems are authorized to make the decisions necessary to solve the problems on their own.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 18

Delmar works in the sales department of a toy manufacturer.Delmar has several very large retail customers that he spends the majority of time making sure they are well taken care of.What type of function would Delmar's activities be associated with?

Accepted Answer

A)   staff
B)   line
C)   mechanistic
D)   organic

Question 19

An organization is characterized by specialized jobs and responsibilities; precisely defined,unchanging roles; and a rigid chain of command based on centralized authority and vertical communication.Which of the following describes the organization?

Accepted Answer

A)   modular
B)   departmentalized
C)   standardized
D)   mechanistic

Question 20

An Indian cardinal's call for more power for local church leaders and for papal authority to be distributed to lower levels within the Roman Catholic hierarchy has elicited agreement from other church leaders in India.In a published interview,the cardinal stated that the Indian church has been forced "to depend on the Roman curia for too many matters." He also asserted that bishops should not have "to run to Rome for everything" and that canon law should be modified to allow the pope to share his authority.What is the cardinal calling for?

Accepted Answer

A)   centralization
B)   standardization
C)   top management empowerment
D)   decentralization

Exam 9: Designing Adaptive Organizations

Which term most closely refers to assigning direct authority and responsibility to a subordinate to fulfill tasks for which the manager is normally responsible?

Organizational structure is the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments,authority,and jobs within a company.

Why do about 70 percent of all re-engineering projects fail?

A general manager of a manufacturing firm wishes to increase efficiency by reducing duplication throughout the organization.Which form of departmentalization should he adopt?

In one job design approach,the number of different tasks that a worker performs within one job is increased,and workers are given the authority and control to make meaningful decisions about their work.Which of the following is associated with this approach?

Which of the following actions is appropriate where standardization is important?

An organic organization is an organization characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility,loosely defined,frequently changing roles,decentralized authority,and horizontal communication based on task knowledge.

Admitting a need for better communication,higher management tethers subordinates to their jobs and appoints newly hired employees who specialize in establishing liaison relationships.Which type of organization does this scenario describe?

What is the term for the degree to which a job is perceived to have a substantial impact on others inside or outside the organization?

What type of departmentalization organizes work and workers into distinct units responsible for certain business roles or areas of expertise?

Which of the following is characterized by simple,easy-to-learn steps,little variety,and much repetition?

Matrix departmentalization is a hybrid structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization are used together,such as the product and functional forms.

Honeywell Inc.reorganized its European operations along customer lines to prepare for a unified European Union.In doing so,it abandoned matrix departmentalization.What was the best reason for Honeywell to have engaged in such restructuring?

In a decentralized organization,workers closest to problems are authorized to make the decisions necessary to solve the problems on their own.

Delmar works in the sales department of a toy manufacturer.Delmar has several very large retail customers that he spends the majority of time making sure they are well taken care of.What type of function would Delmar's activities be associated with?

An organization is characterized by specialized jobs and responsibilities; precisely defined,unchanging roles; and a rigid chain of command based on centralized authority and vertical communication.Which of the following describes the organization?