Management 3200 Test 2

What are the four rules in brainstorming?

-Criticism is prohibited -"freewheeling" (free association—the more off the wall the idea, the better) is welcomed -quantity is warranted (not quality—usually get 50-150 ideas, most of which are garbage) -combination and improvement are sought. In brainstorming, the group process if used to make us more creative.

What is the functional organizational design? How are activities grouped?

A functionally designed organization groups its activities into separate units or departments in which each undertakes a distinctive function.

What is a heuristic? What are the advantages and disadvantages of heuristics?

A heuristic is a labor saving device, a mental short cut, a rule of thumb in making decisions. Managers use these because of their limited information processing capabilities. They help us cope with complex environments by simplifying them and reducing the cost of thinking. Heuristics' advantages are time savings and they may produce more good decisions than bad ones. They make us more efficient and effective on average. However, we often develop heuristics without being aware and over rely on them; in this, they can lead to faulty conclusions—when this happens, they are called biases.

What employee factors should be taken into consideration when designing jobs?

Ability and motivation.

When does an organization need to decentralize?

As the environment becomes more dynamic, the more decentralized the company needs to be in order to make decisions quickly.

What is an assembly effect? Process loss?

Assembly effects are positive consequences of bringing a group together such as synergy, more information, diverse viewpoints, checking errors, better implementation, more ideas, and substantive conflict. Process losses are the negative consequences of bringing a group together such as destructive, too much compromise, too much time, interpersonal conflict, free-riding or social loafing, domination by a few, and more time and expenses.

What is the availability of heuristics? What factors cause you to overestimate the frequency of an event? Underestimate the frequency of an event?

Availability heuristic is used when managers assess the frequency of an event by the degree to which those instances of that event are easily recalled in memory. Events that evoke emotion, are vivid, are recent, are easily imagined, and are specific will be more available in memory than events that are unemotional in nature, are bland, are in the distant past, are difficult to imagine, or are vague. More times than not, when you use this, you will be right—you will make proper judgments. If you base it on emotions, though, you can overestimate the frequency of an event.

What is a matrix design? How are activities grouped?

Born out of necessity by TRW, this design is a functional design overlaid with a product design. The functional group is permanent, whereas the product group is temporary. One the product is complete, the group is disbanded. This design is used when products are required a great deal of technical expertise and limited time and budget.

What is bounded rationality? What three things bound one's rationality?

Bounded (limited) rationality is the inability to grasp the full complexity of managerial decisions. Manager's rationality is bounded by limited mental capacity (7 plus or minus 2 is the maximum amount of information), emotions, and unforseeability of future events.

What is the basic purpose of a brainstorming session?

Brainstorming helps with the generation of alternatives; DO NOT evaluate solutions

What do the terms "centralized" and "decentralized" mean as they pertain to delegation of authority?

Centralized is the extent to which authority is NOT delegated, but concentrated at higher levels of authority. Decentralized is the extent to which authority IS delegated.

What is scalar chain or chain of command? What functions does it serve? What structural mechanism does one use to bypass the strict chain of command in organization?

Chain of command exists whenever one individual reports to or is made subordinate to another—refers to vertical authority—the higher the level, the high the formal authority. It accomplishes two things: defines level of authority, and it routes directives and information up and down the organization, which provide an information/decision network. A gangplank is used to bypass the strict chain of command—quicker coordination.

What step in the redesign process is job enlargement?

Combining tasks is like job enlargement.

What job design is least prevalent today? Most prevalent today?

Craft jobs are least prevalent today; specialized jobs are most prevalent today

Is decision-making a function of management?

Decision-making is not a function of management. It is part of every function of management—it is not a separate function. It is most closely to planning.

Under what decision-making condition do decisions get made in the traditional economic model?

Decisions are made under the conditions of certainty. This is a prescriptive model—what you should do, not what you actually do.

What is the decision-making under conditions of risk?

Decisions under risk are the most common. There is a lack of complete certainty regarding outcomes of various alternatives, but there is an awareness of the probabilities associated with their occurrence; probabilities are between 0 and 1. The job is to accurately determine the probabilities, assessing them based on outcomes of past experience, research, and other data.

What is delegation of authority? Why do managers delegate authority?

Delegation of authority is the process by which authority is passed on to different levels. This enables a manager to utilize and identify employee talents. This is done because the top manager cannot handle it all. By giving authority to employees, they are given a chance to grow and develop and freedom to succeed.

What does the traditional economic model assume about decision-makers?

First assumption is that managers seek to maximize benefits (or minimize costs)—Economic Man. Second assumption is that managers are completely rational. You know all the alternatives, you know all the outcomes, and there is nothing left to chance—everything is known. You go through the alternatives and pick the best one—maximizing decision.

What is group decision making a function of?

GDM is function of individual efforts/contributions + assembly effects - process losses.

Which leads to greater acceptance of the decision and better implementation of the decisions: individual or group decision making?

Group decision making leads to greater acceptance of the decision and better implementation of the decision because they feel they are a part of it

What is job enrichment? How is different from job enlargement?

In job enrichment, a worker is given more meaningful work and they are also given more freedom and self-direction. Therefore, job enrichment always involves job enlargement, but job enlargement does not always involve job enrichment. Job enrichment adds not only breadth, but depth.

Which is more efficient: group or individual decision making?

In the short term, individual decision making is more efficient because it takes less time in the beginning and less expense. In the long run, group decision making is more efficient because it leads to better implementation; it is slower in the beginning but faster in the end.

In making decisions, people often violate the law of large numbers. What does that mean? Why does it occur?

Individuals tend to ignore the implications of sample size and tend to attribute greater stability to results obtained from small samples than is warranted. People often ignore the judgment advice of others because they substitute their own initial impression as the sole basis for choice. People will tend to rely on their own brief and superficial experience.

What type of motivation is best suited to specialized jobs? Enriched jobs?

Instrumental motivation is best for specialized jobs. Expressive motivation is best for enriched jobs.

What is instrumental motivation? Expressive motivation?

Instrumental motivation sees work a means to the end, such as a paycheck. Expressive motivation sees work as an end in itself such as wants to grow through his/her work or wants personal fulfillment and satisfaction from the work itself.

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

It can lead to substantial payroll savings by eliminating managerial jobs—downsizing; it can improve overall communication from top to bottom in the organization. However, it can decrease supervisor-subordinate communication; it can increase career gridlock (cannot be promoted because there are less managerial levels to be promoted to); workload is increased which could be stressful.

How is NGT different from brainstorming and synectics?

It does not rely on free association of ideas, and it purposely restricts verbal interaction. There is also a very structured interaction process in NGT—round robin procedure.

Why do we make decisions as managers?

It is a means to an end—accomplish our goals efficiently

What's the problem with synectics?

It is costly and time-consuming, and it does not separate evaluation from generation of ideas—impairs alternative generation.

In which organizational design type is it most difficult to replace the CEO from within the organization? Why is this the case?

It is hardest to replace the CEO in the functional design because it develops only functional managers which are experts in one area instead of many.

What is more difficult to coordinate: within departments or between departments? Why?

It is more difficult to coordinate between departments because each department has their own set of goals that they wish to attain.

What is job breadth and job depth?

Job breadth (horizontal loadings) refers to the number of tasks that a jobholder performs. Job depth (vertical loadings) refers to the amount of discretion that an individual has to decide job activities and outcomes.

What task characteristic(s) is job breadth similar to?

Job breath is similar to skill variety.

What task characteristic(s) is job depth similar to?

Job depth is similar to autonomy.

What two task characteristics does job enlargement increase?

Job enlargement increases skill variety—job breadth/scope.

What is the purpose of job enlargement?

Job enlargement is the allocation of a wider variety of similar tasks to an employee in order to make the job more of a challenge. It is to keep one from getting bored so quickly.

How do economic factors affect redesigning jobs?

Job redesign is limited by the amount of money resources available.

What is job rotation?

Job rotation is shifting workers through a set of jobs in planned sequence.

Do managers make more programmed or non-programmed decisions, in general?

Managers make more programmed decisions, but all programmed decisions start off as a non-programmed decision. Top management is going to make the most non-programmed decisions. As we decentralize, lower level managers make more non-programmed decisions because they have more autonomy and freedom. Craft jobs make the most non-programmed decisions; specialized jobs make the most programmed decisions.

Heuristic

Mental shortcut

Which decision-making conditions is most common? Least common? Most difficult?

Most common is risk. Least common is certainty. Most difficult is uncertainty.

What is meant by the term "confirmatory bias" in decision-making?

Most people demonstrate the tendency to look for only confirming evidence rather than disconfirming evidence. Stereotypes of groups persist because of this bias. No test of a theory is complete without an attempt to disprove it. Disconfirming evidence provides the most useful insight. Disconfirming evidence does not support a person's ego or confidence so they avoid it.

What research is Nominal Group Technique based on?

NGT is inspired by research that discovered more and better ideas are discovered by several persons working alone/separately than by the same persons working in an interacting group. The group process may actually hurt creativity.

What is the paradox of managerial control as it related to span of control?

Narrow spans of control allow managers tighter control over their subordinates, but this loosens managerial control from top to bottom in the organization because there are now more managerial levels. Top management has less control over lower levels of management.

Can inhibitions be totally eliminated in brainstorming sessions?

No they cannot, especially when ideas are first presented. It is very difficult to totally eliminate the evaluation of ideas when they are generated.

non-programmed

Non-programmed decisions are specific to management problems that are novel and unique; they are complex and unstructured, with no established procedure. Non-programmed decisions are novel, unique, complex, and unstructured—they require thinking to make a decision. Every program decision was at one time a non-programmed decision

What are operations research technique? What are they designed to do? What kind of data do they usually require? Are they an aid or substitute for managerial decision-making? What do managers need to think critically about when they use these techniques? Are they applicable to all decisions that managers make?

OR techniques are a systematic way of evaluating alternatives; for example, a probability analysis. They usually require quantitative data (numbers). The probabilities need to be correct in order for the technique to work—think critically about the numbers going in because if garbage goes in, then garbage comes out. They are an aid, not a supplement, for managerial decision-making. You do not really need OR to make you successful in a decision—for example, it is not important in uncertain decisions. They are most useful in risky decisions. They are not applicable to all decisions; as you go up the pyramid, these techniques become less important. They are the least important in top management (uncertain decisions).

What is the optimal size for a decision making group?

Optimal size of a group for making the best decisions is 5 OR 7 people. Preferably there should be an odd-numbered amount of people so as to break a tie if one occurs. Small groups have better teamwork, assembly affects, and fewer process losses.

What function of management is concerned with job design and organizational design?

Organization is the function of management concerned with job design.

How does strategy influence job design?

Overall strategy should drive how jobs are designed.

What is the superhero technique?

People fantasize about their favorite superhero to come up with great ideas—limitless thinking. You act like a child because children have no boundaries in there thinking.

How does the framing of a decision affect decisions-making? Positive framing? Negative framing?

People find the pain associated with losing X is generally greater than the pleasure associated with winning X. A positive frame is when decision is framed in terms of what is gained—they are settled, concessionary, and stable. A negative frame is when decision is framed in terms of what is lost—take more risks to recoup their losses. The positive frame seller has more customers.

In making decisions, do people pay more attention to descriptive, qualitative information or statistical, quantitative information?

People usually pay more attention to descriptive, qualitative information more than statistical quantitative information.

What is a profit center and what are its benefits?

Profit centers identify cash flows consisting of expenses and revenues from each product line. This helps pinpoint problems quicker because you get measures of performance in shorter times. They also establish responsibility for task completion.

How do programmed/non-programmed decisions and the different decision-making conditions relate?

Programmed decisions are made under the certainty condition. The risk condition can be either programmed or non-programmed decisions—you can program how much risk you want to take into a decision. Non-programmed decisions are made under the uncertainty condition

programmed

Programmed decisions are specific procedures that have been developed for repetitive and routine problems You do not have to think about programmed decisions—it is done for you—the decision has already been made. Programming decisions make you more efficient.

What is task significance?

Refers to the extent to which the job and its performance exert a considerable impact on the lives of others.

What is the representative heuristic? What's the problem with this heuristic?

Representative heuristic reflects the tendency of managers to assess the likelihood of an occurrence by matching it with a preexisting category (stereotype). These can lead to behavior that is irrational and morally reprehensible, and they can lead to prejudice and discrimination. They cause you to miss possible opportunities.

What is satisficing? How does it differ from maximizing? Is it irrational?

Satisficing is when managers select the first alternative that meets a minimally acceptable standard—aspiration level. This standard is subjectively defined, rather than managers going through and evaluating the alternatives and selecting the best one. Satisficing is a heuristic (mental shortcut) because if makes you more efficient. This is different from maximizing because in maximizing you must consider ALL alternatives and pick the best one; maximizing takes a lot more time and is more confusing/stressful. You can satisfice and maximize, but you must be very lucky and you wouldn't even know it. Satisficing is not irrational.

When someone is hyper-sensitive to their environment, what type of job design should they be given? Why?

Someone who is hyper-sensitive needs a specialized job because they need a lot of stimulation from the environment to get them to their activation level.

When someone is hypo-sensitive to their environment, what type of job design should they be given? Why?

Someone who is hypo-sensitive needs an enriched job because they need a lot of stimulation from the environment to get them to their activation level

What does span of control mean?

Span of control refers to the number of subordinates/people who report directly to a supervisor. It can be wide or narrow.

What is a specialized job and how does it load on the five task characteristics?

Specialized jobs began because of the Industrial Revolution and they are the diversion of an activity into smaller and smaller task elements—leads to specialists who have a limited area of expertise. Loads are low on all of the job characteristics except for feedback (medium to high).

What two creativity techniques does synectics use in helping the group to generate better ideas?

Synectics utilizes fantasy and analogy. Analogies are examples possible found in nature, your own life, etc. For example, Pringles used the analogy of wet leaves to stack the chips. Velcro was created from the fantasy of walking through the jungle in flannel pajamas.

What is the reasoning behind the Delphi technique?

The Delphi technique tries to eliminate the group processes in creative problem solving as much as possible—power struggles, undue persuasion, unwillingness to abandon a publicly expressed idea/alternative, and the bandwagoning effect.

What are the defining characteristics of the Delphi technique?

The Delphi technique uses a structured approach to creative problem solving like NGT, but there is no face-to-face interaction between members so as ideas will not be influenced by social pressures and other psychological aspects of group behavior. Also, the experts remain anonymous to one another. The Delphi technique is fancy NGT—there are two differences—members never meet, and members remain anonymous. Members can be anywhere in the country—use the internet.

What does the irrational/implicit model of decision-making say about decision-making?

The decision-maker selects a favorite early on in the evaluation alternatives—you keep the favorite to yourself (implicit). The rest of the alternatives are evaluated against it—you bias it to make your favorite decision look better. The decision-maker distorts information and selects decision rules in order to favor their implicit favorite. This is also known as "Kerry's Love Model" (his first car).

What is a skill variety?

The degree to which a job requires the employees to perform a wide range of operations in their work and/or the degree to which employees must use a variety of equipment and procedures in their work.

What is feedback?

The degree to which employees, as they are working, receive information that reveals how well they are performing on the hob. This can come from co-workers, supervisors, subordinates, clients, or even the job itself, and also appraisal, awards/promotions, and personal evaluation.

What are some problems that can be encountered when using the Delphi technique?

The design of the questionnaire can limit the results obtained, it can be extremely time-consuming even more so than the other techniques, and member interest and motivation may decline if too much time passes between steps

What is task identity?

The extent to which employees do an entire or whole piece of work and clearly identify with the results of their efforts.

What is autonomy?

The extent to which employees have a major say in scheduling their work, selecting the equipment and methods they will use, checking their own work (quality control), and deciding the procedures to be followed—job depth.

In synectics, what is the job of the facilitator? Technical expert?

The facilitator structures the problem and helps lead the discussion away from the traditional ways of thinking through analogy and fantasy. The technical expert is present to aid the group is the evaluation of the feasibility of ideas. Facilitator—generates; technical—evaluate. This is not good because generation and evaluation of ideas should be kept separated because people are reluctant to offer their ideas.

Which type of manager has no formal authority in a matrix design?

The functional manager has the ultimate authority because they decide who goes where.

What is the job of a functional manager in a matrix design?

The functional manager's job is to keep the employees in his department technologically up to date with regard to the area of expertise or function. Functional managers are responsible for developing and deploying skilled personnel and project managers that are responsible for project completion. They have vertical authority.

What types of decisions are made irrationally?

The irrational model is most applicable to non-programmed decisions—you do not have a lot of information—uncertainty or risk.

What is the key to making good decisions under risk?

The key is to accurately determine the probabilities associated with each alternative.

What is the leveling effect?

The leveling effect is another word for compromise—leads to less than optimal decisions being made. This can lower the quality, but at the same time increase the acceptance of the decision. The leveling affect can be a process loss and assembly affect at the same time.

What is the decision-making under conditions of uncertainty?

The manager does not know any alternatives, their outcomes, or the probabilities associated with each outcome. They do not even have a way of finding out this information. These are the most difficult decisions to make.

What is the decision-making under conditions of certainty?

The manager knows all the available alternatives and the outcomes associated with each. There is no element of chance and each alternative is known with 100% probability. This is the ideal situation for managers because all they have to do is pick the alternative with the best outcome.

How does technology affect job redesign efforts?

The more the design of the job is influenced by technological factors, the less job design flexibility that exists. Therefore, it is easier to redesign a craft job than an assembly line because there is only one person to deal with.

What is the relationship between specialization and coordination according to the specialization-coordination dilemma?

The more you specialize, the more difficult it is to coordinate different work units.

The motivational benefits of job enlargement are short-lived or long-lived?

The motivational benefits of job enlargement are short-lived because two boring jobs do not present much a challenge and the person becomes bored anyway.

What is the relationship between span of control and organizational height?

The narrower the span of control, the taller the organization, meaning there are more management levels. The wider the span of control, the flatter the organization, meaning there are fewer management levels.

Which organizational design accommodates growth readily?

The product design accommodates growth regularly; all that is needed is to slap on a new product line.

What is the job of a project manager in a matrix design?

The project manager is responsible for the project—its completion on time, within budget, and according to specifications. They are responsible for confronting and removing obstacles to success of projects or product. They have horizontal authority.

What is the Yerkes-Dodson law? (Arousal and performance are related in what manner?)

There is a curvilinear relationship between arousal and performance.

What is the optimal span of control?

There is no optimal span of control. There are three broad classes of factors that influence how many people a manager can effectively supervise: person, job, and environmental factors.

Under what decision-making conditions do decisions get made in the behavioral model?

These decisions are made under conditions of incomplete information such as risk and uncertainty. This is a descriptive model—how we actually make decisions

What in NGT does one try to eliminate to improve the decision-making process?

They try to eliminate the group process.

What does the behavioral model assume about decision-making?

This assumes that managers try to be rational in making decisions, but their rationality is bounded. They satisfice. Your rationality has limits.

What is the primitive/agency organizational design? What are its advantages/disadvantages?

This design has one boss and a few employees. Each employee is an agent/extension of the boss and must report directly to the boss. It is the simplest and most flexible type of design, but it breaks under conditions of complexity because the boss can only handle so much intellectually.

What is the gambler's fallacy?

This is the belief that an event that has not occurred for some time is likely to occur in the near future. This is not true.

What is unity of command? Why does one try not to violate this principle of organizing?

This refers to the fact that subordinates should report to one and only one boss. One tries not to violate this principle so as to avoid confusion of who to report to. If it is violated, role conflict and stress may occur.

How do unions feel about any attempt from management to redesign jobs?

Unions resist job redesign because they see it as a scheme to get more work out of fewer employees.

Where is unity of command violated? In what organizational design type is unity of command violated to the greatest extent?

Unity of command is violated in all organizational designs, but it is violated most in the matrix design because employees can report to up to 10 or more bosses.

What step in the redesign process is most important?

Vertical loading is most important because it increases autonomy—you become your own boss.

What is the product design? How are activities grouped?

With product design, each major product line is administered through a separate and semi-autonomous division. Specialists are grouped together to perform all the duties necessary to produce an individual good or service. Each unit is a replica of an individual, functionally designed organization.

What cannot be delegated when a manager delegates authority?

You can delegate authority, but not responsibility and accountability. You are still responsible for the outcomes.

Where do you have greater creativity: five individuals generating ideas alone or those same five individuals generating ideas as a group?

You get greater creativity from five individuals generating ideas alone.

Rank the following terms of decision making accuracy: group, average individual in the group, and best member in the group?

a. Best member in the group b. Group c. Average individual in the group

What are the disadvantages of product design?

a. Coordination between product areas is difficult. b. Duplicates specialists under each product line—inefficient. c. Less expertise is developed because of less division of labor. d. Loses economies of scale. e. Change in product line can be disastrous—may not have technical skills necessary to produce an entirely new product.

What are the disadvantages of a functional design?

a. Coordination is only achieved at higher levels—coordination process takes longer. The larger the number of departments, the harder coordination is. b. No common concern for the overall mission of the organization—people identify with specialty. c. Interdepartmental coordination is difficult due to different values/goals. d. Cost of coordination can be high—many meetings. e. Change is difficult—employees identify with specialty. f. Preparation of broadly trained managers is limited. g. Client satisfaction can be lower because of coordination problems. h. Slow to respond to environmental change. i. Slow to innovate.

What are the advantages of the matrix design?

a. Extremely flexible and responsive. b. High rate of new product innovation. c. Allows you to achieve specialization without suffering great losses in coordination. d. Establishes responsibility for all matters relating to a project through the project manager. e. Minimizes duplication of specialists. f. Integration of project completion needs at lower levels where people have the right information and expertise to complete the project—achieves coordination. g. Sets up a career paths for both experts (functional managers) and broadly trained managers (project managers)—achieves specialization.

What are the five steps in redesigning a job so it will be enriched? What happens at each step and what task characteristics are increased?

a. Form natural work units—given continuing responsibility for a body of related work or a "whole" piece of work. It should increase task identity and task significance because of increased feeling of "ownership" of job. b. Combining tasks—combine several tasks in to a larger job requiring a broader range of skills. This increase skill variety and task identity. c. Establishing client relationships—put into contact with people who use their product or service. This increase skill variety, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. d. Vertical loading—given more responsibility for their jobs by setting their schedules, establishing work pace, choosing methods, and problem-solving. This increases mostly autonomy. e. Opening feedback channels—opens communication channels. This increases performance feedback—most important feedback is the feedback from yourself.

What are the advantages of group decision making?

a. Greater pooled resources (more information available to solve the problem). b. Evaluation is superior because of a wide range of viewpoints (clearer view of strengths and weaknesses of alternatives). c. Individuals who participate are more satisfied with the decision and more likely to support it. This acceptance leads to more commitment and better implementation. d. Better understanding of the decisions so they can communicate to their subordinates. e. Fulfills need for personal growth on the job—greater autonomy. f. Helps learn new skills, especially conceptual and human skills. g. Perceived as being fairer than one individual making the decision. h. Reduces stress by lowering role ambiguity (being unclear on what one is supposed to do on their job) and role underutilization (not all of an individual's skills are being used on the job).

When does one use the matrix design?

a. Have technologically sophisticated products or services with temporary multiple products. b. Dynamic, uncertain environment that exerts pressure for technical quality and different and new products. c. Creativity and innovation needs to be balanced against completion deadlines.

What are the advantages of job enrichment?

a. High employee motivation. b. High job satisfaction. c. High quality job performance. d. Low absenteeism. e. Low turnover (quitting).

When does one use the product design?

a. Highly uncertain environment that requires rapid adaptation. b. Organization is large in size. c. Multiple product lines. d. Goals of the organization are external effectiveness and adaptation, multiple products, and client satisfaction.

What are the different aspects of the job characteristics model?

a. Job core dimensions. b. Critical psychological states. c. Personal and work outcomes.

What are the three aspects of job design?

a. Job's content. b. The work methods or procedures to be used in its performance. c. How it is related to other jobs in the organization.

What are the three moderators that influence the effectiveness of job enrichment? How do they influence it?

a. Knowledge and skill—ability level is typically high. b. Growth needs strength—motivational variable. Your need to grow for your job can be high or low. Expressive motivational people have a high need to grow for their job (craft jobs), while instrumental motivational people have a low need to grow for their jobs (specialized jobs). a. "Context" satisfactions—things surrounding your job (ex: pay, benefits, coworkers, supervision, company policy, working conditions, etc). If you are not satisfied, performance will go down.

What are the advantages of specialized jobs?

a. Less skilled employees can be hired because of simplicity of assignments—pay them less. b. Jobs can be learned in less time—reduced training costs. c. Constant repetition leads to limited expertise—increases productivity. d. More opportunities for utilizing the primary talents of the employee. e. Work is performed quicker—no lost time switching activities. f. Dependence on particular employee skills is minimized.

What are the disadvantages of the matrix design?

a. Lose command of control at top management. b. Multiple authority roles—no unity of command principle. c. Personal stress and strain due to ambiguity and reporting to two supervisors. d. Places a premium on teamwork—need good interpersonal skills. e. Powers struggles between functional and project managers. f. Employee allegiance is difficult to obtain—role conflict because of mixed identities. g. Very expensive. h. Line-staff separation is blurred.

What are the advantages of a functional design?

a. Lots of specialization provides the best development of expertise—emphasis on functional interests within specialized departments. b. Efficient use of resources because of no duplication of specialists—achieve economies of scale and overhead. c. Simple communication network. d. Simplifies training of functional specialists. e. Status to major functional areas. f. Preserves strategic control at top management. g. Provides career path for specialists.

What are the disadvantages of specialized jobs?

a. Low employee motivation. b. Low job satisfaction. c. Low quality job performance. d. High absenteeism. e. High turnover (quitting). f. Sabotage and strikes. g. Alcohol and drug abuse.

Why do managers resist delegating authority?

a. Manager feels like he/she lacks trained subordinates. b. Manager feels like he/she is the only one capable of doing the task—ego. c. Manager fears that the subordinate will make costly mistakes. If no risk is taken, no reward will be gained. d. Manager fears that the subordinate may become a competitor. He suffers from injellitance. e. Manager feels like it's easier to do it herself—this is because they are a poor communicator. f. Manager fears that delegating makes them look lazy or they fear losing control.

What are the signs that one's organization is become decentralized?

a. More decisions are made by lower levels of management. b. More important decisions are made by lower levels of management. c. More flexibility is allowed lower level managers in interpreting policies. d. More autonomy is provided lower level managers in decision-making.

What are the benefits of decentralized organizations?

a. Motivation of lower level manager may be boosted due to job enrichment. b. Skill level of lower levels managers is enhanced. c. Managers can deal with problems on the spot. d. The organization's workload is spread out—this gives top management more time to strategically plan

What are the advantages of product design?

a. Profit centers are set up to identify cash flows—allows for pinpointing problems quicker—establish responsibility for task completion. b. Develops broadly trained managers. c. Focuses on client needs and provides greater service and satisfaction because of focus on product—better/more rapid coordination. d. Facilitates coordination between functions for rapid responses to the environment—employees identify with product instead of specialty. e. Shared concern for the task of the organization.

What are the disadvantages of job enrichment?

a. Some workers may not want enriched jobs because it adds more demands and stress. b. Individual may not have the skills necessary to do an enriched job—training costs are high and some skills cannot be taught, such as social. c. Employees may want greater intrinsic rewards for higher responsibility. d. Unions do not support enriched jobs because they see it as a way for management to get more for less. e. Supervisors of employees of enriched jobs get reduced enrichment of their own jobs because they are no longer needed as much. f. Enriched jobs may not offset technological costs. g. Poor employee performance is only one problem in productivity. There may be many others that need to be fixed.

When does one use the functional design?

a. Stable environment. b. One or few product lines. c. Efficiency and quality are the goals of the organization. d. Organization is small to medium in size.

What are the steps in NGT?

a. Step 1: 7 to 9 members of varying backgrounds and training are brought together as a group and are familiarized with a problem. b. Step 2: Working silently and alone, each member is asked to generate a list of ideas to respond to the problem. c. Step 3: After about 10-15 minutes, each member presents their ideas one by one in a round robin manner. d. Step 4: Structured interaction follows in which members openly discuss and evaluate recorded ideas; they are reworded, combined, or deleted. e. Step 5: Each member votes privately by ranking the ideas, and the one that receives the highest votes, wins.

What are the disadvantages of group decision making?

a. Takes longer and is in turn costlier—inhibits management's ability to make quick and decisive decisions. b. Indecisiveness—natural disagreements occur especially with power play and office politics. c. Domination by a few powerful members or by a leader negates the efforts of a group process. d. Leveling effect—compromise leads to less than optimal decisions. e. Free-riders—the larger the group, the less effort each person puts forth. These are getters who want to give little in return—social loafing. f. Disagreements lead to ill will, bad feelings, and destructive conflict. g. Escalation of demands—individuals want to be part of all decisions from there on out. h. Social motives might prevail over hard-headed task orientation.

When does a manager (under what conditions) use individual decision making rather than group decision making?

a. Time is limited/short. b. Decision maker has all the relevant information and expertise. c. Subordinate acceptance is not an issue—relatively sure that employees will accept the decision if made alone. d. Subordinates that would make up the group do not get along. e. Subordinates do not share the organization's goals—sense of distrust between management and labor

Widen span of control?

i. Personal 1. -High need for power. 2. -High fatigue tolerance. ii. Job 1. -Supervising trained and experienced subordinates. 2. -Supervising subordinates who perform similar and simple work. 3. -A supervisor who is well-trained and experienced. 4. -A supervisory job that has very few non-supervisory activities (paperwork, meetings). 5. -A supervisory job that has an administrative assistant position associated with it. iii. Environmental 1. -Stable environment. 2. -Supervising subordinates who are separated by small distances.

What are the factors that narrow span of control?

i. Personal 1. -Low need for power. 2. -Low fatigue tolerance. ii. Job 1. -Supervising untrained and inexperienced subordinates. 2. -Supervising subordinates who perform dissimilar and complex work. 3. -A supervisor who is inexperienced and untrained. 4. -A supervisory job that has many supervisory activities (paperwork, meetings). 5. -A supervisory job that does not have an administrative assistant position associated with it. iii. Environmental 1. -Dynamic, changing environment. 2. -Supervising subordinates who are separated by large distances.