Introduction to Business

Lecture notes/study guide

Chapter 7 Designing Organizational Structures

7.1 Building Organizational Structures

Organizing, what does it involve?

Three organizing or structuring processes.

Which organizing process determines work activities and divides up tasks?

Which organizing process focuses on grouping jobs and employees?

What does delegation do?

What is an organization?

Division of Labor

What is it called when tasks are subdivided into smaller jobs?

Traditional organizational structures

What is departmentalization?

What does it facilitate?

Organizational chart, what is it?

What is its purpose?

Five basic types of departmentalization.

Which form of departmentalization is based on the primary functions performed within an organizational unit?

What type of organization might use functional departmentalization?

What is product departmentalization based on?

What types of organizations would this work well for?

Organizing by production process is called?

What types of organizations would benefit from process departmentalization?

Customer departmentalization's focus is on what?

What types of consumer services might use customer departmentalization?

What form of organizing focuses on geographic segmentation?

Why would an organization utilize geographic departmentalization?

Line-and-staff organization.

How is line organization designed?

Who has direct control over all activities?

What do line organizations does as they grow and become more complex?

What do staff positions provide in line-and-staff organizations?

Which position is involved in processes?

Where would you find these in an organization?

How does the staff position help the line position achieve the organization's goals?

What areas are staff positions found in?

7.3 Using Teams to Enhance Motivation and Performance

Team-based organizational structures

Why are businesses today using teams to achieve organizational goals?

Define group ___________________________________________________

Groups can be _____________ or ______________ in nature?

What is a formal group?

What are informal groups based on?

What is group cohesiveness?

How are cohesive groups beneficial to an organization?

Work groups versus work teams

What is a work group?

What is required for a work group to become a work team?

What is a result of work teams collaboration?

What is synergy and why is it beneficial to an organization?

Three basic types of work teams.

Who are problem-solving teams made up of?

Why do they meet on a regular basis?

What do they generate?

What do they not do?

How are self-managed teams different then problem-solving teams?

What type of team allows members to pool their resources, develop new ideas, solve problems and coordinate complex projects?

Can problem-solving and self-managed teams also be part of a cross-functional team?

High-performance teams, what should be taken into consideration when building them?

7.4 Authority-Establishing Organizational Relationships

How does a company establish the relationships within the structure?

Define managerial hierarchy _____________________________________________

What is the managerial hierarchy also known as?

How many levels are there in the management pyramid?

How is authority determined in the hierarchy?

Who has the most power in the hierarchy?

Chain of command, what is it and why is it important?

What principle believes everyone should report to and get instructions from one boss?

Which organizational structure violates the unity of command principle?

What is authority?

What is it called when managers delegate authority?

What does delegation of authority make employees be?

Define accountability _________________________________________

Number of employees a manager directly supervises is known as _________________.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of narrow and wide spans of control?

7.5 Degree of Centralization

How is the optimal span of control determined?

Why is knowing what level decisions will be made in the organization important?

What are the two types of authority influenced by the span of control?

Define centralization _____________________________________________

How are key decisions made in a highly centralized structure?

Why might this be beneficial?

Why might it not be beneficial?

Define decentralization?

Why can decentralization be considered risky?

When is decentralization considered desirable?

How does an organization determine how much decision-making authority to delegate?

7.7 The Informal Organization

Define informal organization _______________________________________

Where do you find informal relationships?

Important functions of an informal organization.

What is the informal channel of communication used by informal organizations?

Why is it important for managers to pay attention to the grapevines?

What is the benefit of the informal organization to the formal organization?

How can the formal organization incorporate the informal organization?

7.8 Trends in Organizational Structure

Describe reengineering.

What is the purpose of reengineering?

How is reengineering beneficial?

What is a virtual corporation?

Key attributes of virtual corporations?

What is the benefit of virtual teams?

What two main reasons do companies outsource?

What is the gig economy?

Why are companies hiring gig workers?

What does it take to be successful when outsourcing?

Considerations when structuring for global mergers.

What are the most difficult challenges?

What strategies must be developed for structuring global mergers?