Chapter 10

In which of the following situations would a smaller span of control be more appropriate?

A great deal of time is required in nonsupervisory activities

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the team approach?

A large amount of time is devoted to meetings, thus increasing coordination time

Greer manages a company that has functioned effectively with a vertical functional structure because the environment has always been stable, but changes in that environment and the accompanying rapid changes have made the functional structure inadequate. Which of the following courses of action should Greer take to make the company more responsive to the rapidly changing demands in the environment?

All answers are correct

Kai works for a company whose main strategic goal is one of differentiation. The organization atmosphere values innovation and flexibility. Which of the following best fits with the description of Kai's company?

An organic system with horizontal teams

Departmental employees are expected to acknowledge their manager Skylar's authority. Which of the following characteristics would NOT be found among those expectations?

Authority is the duty to perform the task or activity as assigned

_____ is the formal and legitimate right of a manager to make decisions, whereas _____ is the duty to perform the task or activity as assigned, and _____ involves reporting and justifying task outcomes to those higher in the chain of command.

Authority; responsibility; accountability

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the divisional structure?

Efficiency and economies of scale are often compromised when each division has its own functional departments

Which of the following statements about relational coordination is true?

In an organization with a high level of relational coordination, people share information freely across departmental boundaries, and people interact on a continuous basis to share knowledge and solve problems.

Which of the following is an advantage of the virtual network structural approach?

It can draw on expertise worldwide

Which of the following is a unique feature of the matrix structure?

It has dual lines of authority

Kell would like to build relational coordination into the fabric of the organization. Which of the following statements best expresses what relational coordination looks like?

Managers resolve cross-departmental conflicts based on shared goals rather than emphasizing goals of their separate departments.

Which of the following statements about centralization versus decentralization is true?

Managers should diagnose the organizational situation and select the decision-making level that will best meet the organization's needs

Which of the following statements is NOT part of the definition of organizational structure?

Organizational structure is the creation of a shared culture and values that communicates goals and infuses employees with the desire to perform at a high level.

Which of the following is a disadvantage of the functional structure?

Separating people into distinct departments shrinks communication and coordination across functions, deterring response to environmental changes.

Which of the following is NOT considered to be a traditional approach to departmentalization?

Team structure

Which of the following is NOT included among Woodward's three basic types of production technology?

Technically complex production

_____ combines aspects of both functional and divisional structures simultaneously, in the same part of the organization

The matrix approach

Darian reports to a manager who oversees all the company's divisions in India. She also reports to the matrix boss who oversees the insurance products division. Which of the following statements would NOT apply to Darian's situation?

The matrix boss oversees both the product and functional chains of command to maintain a power balance between the two sides of the matrix and resolve any disputes that arise.

Which of the following statements best explains why vertical hierarchies continue to thrive among organizations?

They provide important benefits for organizations.

Within Nature Nurture Baby Food Company, people and resources representing a common function are grouped into a single department, such as accounting, HR, marketing, and research and development. Nature Nurture uses a(n) _____ structure.

U-form

Decentralizing decision making, breaking down the barriers between functions, and linking employees directly with customers through a team-based approach enables companies to respond extremely quickly to changing consumer demands and market needs. This trend moves companies toward a:

bossless workplace.

Dale, who manages the marketing department, and Jess, who manages the sales department, work together, along with people from their departments, to produce effective marketing campaigns and related sales strategies to achieve sales goals for the company. Their joint efforts are known as:

collaboration

Teagan manages a production department. Operators within the department simply read dials, fix machines that break down, and manage the production process that has no starting and stopping. Teagan manages a:

continuous process production

Effective managers are adept at adjusting and synchronizing the diverse activities among different individuals and departments. This task is known as:

coordination

A _____ is similar to a task force except that it works with continuing rather than temporary problems and might exist for several years.

cross-functional team

Kelson is a communications expert who works for a manufacturing company. He meets regularly with coworkers from various other functions in the company to address issues and problems as they arise. Kelson is a member of a:

cross-functional team

In order to provide maximum flexibility to meet customer needs and adapt to shifts in the environment, most organizations today encourage managers to:

delegate authority to the lowest possible level.

When managers make choices about how to use the chain of command to group people together to perform their work, this aspect of organization structure is known as:

departmentalization

Harper manages the department that bottles the various kinds of beer at Northwoods Brewery. Employees have a specific task: loading the bottles, supervising the fill function, supervising the capping function, filling the label machine, and boxing the filled and capped bottles. Each of the individuals is part of the bottling line's:

division of labor

In the dual chain of command within the matrix structure, two-boss employees typically:

encounter more confusion and frustration.

Forces that come from the outside and affect organization structure include:

environmental conditions

The virtual network approach to departmentalization:

extends the idea of horizontal coordination and collaboration beyond the boundaries of the organization.

At Aran's company, the organization structure groups positions into departments based on similar skills, expertise, work activities, and resource use. This type of structure is known as:

functional structure

Dechen's company has three divisions, one for North America, one for Europe, and one for east Asia. The company uses a:

geographic-based structure

If Jordan wants to avoid duplication of activities among various business divisions, she would choose:

greater centralization

Kelsey spends time working with both a functional and a divisional senior manager to reach joint decisions. Kelsey depends on excellent human relations skills with which to confront these managers and resolve conflicts. These managers are:

matrix bosses.

With regard to structural responses to strategy and the environment, goals of efficiency and a stable environment are associated with a _____ system, whereas goals that include innovation in a rapidly changing environment are more appropriate in a(n) _____ system.

mechanistic; organic

When faced with whether to design a structure that emphasizes the formal, vertical hierarchy or one with an emphasis on horizontal communication and collaboration, a manager would consider all of the following factors EXCEPT:

organization debt

The deployment of resources is reflected in the organization's division of labor into specific departments and jobs, formal lines of authority, and mechanisms for coordinating diverse organization tasks. Deployment of resources is the task of the _____ function of management.

organizing

A group of employees who are organized in a way similar to a formal department and brought together from all functional areas to focus on a specific task or project are considered to be a:

permanent team

A corn processing plant is adding a new building for starch conversion processes. Coordinating the construction of the building and its integration into the functioning of the company has been assigned to Mason. His position is located outside the departments and is responsible for coordinating several departments to achieve desired project outcomes. Mason's job title is:

project manager.

Leigh is working to flatten out the structure of the organization by introducing horizontal teams. The goal of the teams is to help the organization achieve dramatic improvements in the company's costs and product quality. Leigh is engaged in:

re-engineering

Because the focus of re-engineering is on horizontal workflows rather than functions:

re-engineering generally leads to a shift away from a strong vertical structure to one emphasizing stronger horizontal coordination

A top leader's function in a matrix structure would include all of the following EXCEPT:

report to two supervisors simultaneously.

Brett manages a group of couriers in a large city. About 100 couriers deliver as many as 900 packages or documents each day. Brett's package delivery and courier business is based on:

service technology

Shawn manages a number of employees in a marketing consulting firm. She works closely with each of these employees in providing superior service and meeting clients' needs. To be effective, Shawn's span of management should be:

small

Which is not a key role within a matrix structure

span manager

Adrian manages the payroll function for his company. He advises other managers about ranges for pay raises for employees and changes in various benefits offered by the company. In this role, Adrian exercises:

staff authority

Two of the most important factors managers consider when designing an organization's structure are the organization's:

strategic goals and the nature of its workflow technology.

Peyton works in a company that has many levels of hierarchy. His span of control is fairly narrow. He works in a:

tall structure

A large fire broke out in the main warehouse at Jules's company. No one was hurt, but the fire did a lot of damage. To deal with the questions from suppliers, customers, and employees, Jules set up a _____ with members from various departments across the company to address important issues and make immediate plans for moving forward.

task force

Manufacturing technologies differ in terms of _____, which refers to the degree to which complicated machinery is involved in the production process to the exclusion of people; therefore, a continuous process would be _____ in this category.

technical complexity; high

As a strategic manager in a manufacturing company, Nicanor knows that making structural decisions must take into consideration pressures from the bottom up. These pressures would include:

technology and work processes.

The primary difference between divisional and functional structures is that in a divisional structure:

the chain of command from each function converges lower in the hierarchy.

With a team-based structure:

the entire organization is made up of horizontal teams that coordinate their work and work directly with customers to accomplish the organization's goals.

In the matrix structure, _____ provide(s) traditional control within functional departments, and _____ provides coordination across departments.

the vertical structure; the horizontal structure

As a member of a permanent team at a cement manufacturing company, Shelby is constantly wary of allowing teams to cause too much decentralization. If teams and team members do not see the big picture of the corporation:

they may make decisions that are good for their group but bad for the organization as a whole.

As manager of a research department, Kris reports to the manager of the household products division and to the vice president of new products research and development. Kris is a:

two-boss employee

What are the two underlying principles associated with chain of command?

unity of command and scalar principle

The framework of the set of formal tasks and formal reporting relationships portrayed in the organization chart indicates the organization's:

vertical structure

In the evolution of organization structures, _____ are considered to be the traditional form.

vertical structures

Coby's company has an exceptional research and development department with several of the industry's preeminent researchers. Coby would rather focus efforts on facilitating the work of these researchers rather than to manufacture and distribute the products. She outsourced those functions, along with the accounting and human resource functions to companies that do those functions well and at a lower cost than her company could. Coby's company is an example of a:

virtual network

Though the _____, a firm subcontracts most of its major functions to separate companies and coordinates their activities from a small organization at headquarters.

virtual network structure

Technology refers to "production activities" and can be thought of as:

what is needed to transform organizational inputs into outputs.

When considering the relationship between manufacturing technology and organizational structure, it is important to note that small-batch production generally has _____ centralization, _____ technical complexity, and a(n) _____ overall structure.

low; low; organic

Which of the following two characteristics define service technology?

Intangible output and direct contact with customers

Nicky owns a large high-tech company. Because of the complex, rapidly changing environment in which the organization finds itself, it needs to be flexible, innovative, and adaptable. Which of the following approaches to structure would offer the greatest flexibility and adaptability?

Matrix

Terry has strong feelings about the unity of command principle within an organization's structure. Which of the following structures is least likely to follow this principle?

Matrix

Which of the following statements about the divisional structure is true?

Sometimes called a product structure or program structure, with this structure diverse departments are brought together to produce a single organizational output, whether product or service.

Which of the following statements is NOT descriptive of a network structure?

Stronger boundaries reduce uncertainty and ease the demands on managers for defining shared goals and managing relationships so that everything functions as intended.

Which of the following statements about responsibility and authority is true?

When managers have responsibility for task outcomes but little authority, the job is possible but difficult. In this situation, managers rely on persuasion and luck.

Which of the following statements about coordination is correct?

Without coordination, a company's left hand will not act in concert with the right, causing problems and conflicts.

When the structure focuses company activities on local market conditions and adapts the production or sale of a product to a given group of customers, it is considered a:

customer-based structure

With a _____ strategy, the organization attempts to develop innovative products unique to the market.

differentiation

The term self-contained unit structure—bringing diverse departments together to produce a single organizational output—is sometimes used to describe the:

divisional structure