Management Ch. 7

five characteristics that determine how motivating the job is

1) Skill variety 2) Task identity 3) Task significance 4) Autonomy 5) Feedback

three forms of divisional structure

1) When managers organize divisions according to the type of good or service they provide, they adopt a product structure. 2) When managers organize divisions according to the area of the country or world they operate in, they adopt a geographic structure. 3) When managers organize divisions according to the type of customer they focus on, they adopt a market structure.

advantages to divisional structure

1) a product structure allows functional managers to specialize in only one product area, so they are able to build expertise and fine-tune their skills in this particular area. 2) each division's managers can become experts in their industry; this expertise helps them choose and develop a business-level strategy to differentiate their products or lower their costs while meeting the needs of customers. 3) a product structure frees corporate managers from the need to supervise directly each division's day-to-day operations; this latitude allows corporate managers to create the best corporate-level strategy to maximize the organization's future growth and ability to create value.

disadvantages to functional structure

1) managers in different functions may find it more difficult to communicate and coordinate with one another when they are responsible for several different kinds of products, especially as the organization grows both domestically and internationally. 2) functional managers may become so preoccupied with supervising their own specific departments and achieving their departmental goals that they lose sight of organizational goals.

important determinants of the type of organizational structure

1) the nature of the organizational environment 2) the type of strategy the organization pursues 3) the technology (and particularly information technology) the organization uses 4) the characteristics of the organization's human resources

advantages to functional structure

1) when people who perform similar jobs are grouped together, they can learn from observing one another and thus become more specialized and can perform at a higher level 2) when people who perform similar jobs are grouped together, it is easier for managers to monitor and evaluate their performance 3) managers appreciate functional structure because it allows them to create the set of functions they need to scan and monitor the competitive environment and obtain information about the way it is changing

task force

One manager from each relevant function or division is assigned to this that meets to solve a specific, mutual problem; members are responsible for reporting to their departments on the issues addressed and the solutions recommended. often called ad hoc committees because they are temporary; they may meet on a regular basis or only a few times. When the problem or issue is solved, this is no longer needed; members return to their normal roles in their departments or are assigned to other task forces. Typically members also perform many of their normal duties while serving on this

autonomy

The degree to which a job gives an employee the freedom and discretion needed to schedule different tasks and decide how to carry them out.

task significance

The degree to which a worker feels his or her job is meaningful because of its effect on people inside the organization, such as coworkers, or on people outside the organization, such as customers.

task identity

The extent to which a job requires that a worker perform all the tasks necessary to complete the job, from the beginning to the end of the production process.

skill variety

The extent to which a job requires that an employee use a wide range of different skills, abilities, or knowledge.

feedback

The extent to which actually doing a job provides a worker with clear and direct information about how well he or she has performed the job.

three critical psychological states

The more employees feel that their work is 1) meaningful and that they are 2) responsible for work outcomes and 3) responsible for knowing how those outcomes affect others, the more motivating work becomes and the more likely employees are to be satisfied and to perform at a high level.

strategic alliance

a formal agreement that commits two or more companies to exchange or share their resources in order to produce and market a product. typically formed because companies share similar interests and believe they can benefit from cooperating with each other.

B2B network structure

a formal series of global strategic alliances that one or several organizations create with suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors to product and market a product. allow an organization to manage its global value chain and to find new ways to reduce costs while increasing the quality of products—without incurring the high costs of operating a complex organizational structure (such as the costs of employing many managers)

cross-functional team

a group of managers brought together from different departments to perform organizational tasks. When managers are grouped, the artificial boundaries between departments disappear, and a narrow focus on departmental goals is replaced with a general interest in working together to achieve organizational goals.

most flexible kinds of organizational structure

a matrix structure or a product team structure

divisional structure

a series of business units to produce a specific kind of product for a specific kind of customer. Each division is a collection of functions or departments that work together to produce the product. The goal behind the change to a divisional structure is to create smaller, more manageable units within the organization.

integrating mechanisms

a way to increase communication and coordination among functions or between divisions and to prevent problems from emerging

product team structure

differs from a matrix structure in two ways: 1) It does away with dual reporting relationships and two-boss employees 2) functional employees are permanently assigned to a cross-functional team that is empowered to bring a new or redesigned product to market.

decentralizing authority

giving lower-level managers and nonmanagerial employees the right to make important decisions about how to use organizational resources

market structure

groups divisions according to the particular kinds of customers they serve

flat organization

has fewer levels relative to company size

tall organization

has many levels of authority relative to company size

geographic structure

in which divisions are broken down by geographic location

hierarchy of authority

is an organization's chain of command—the relative authority that each manager has—extending from the CEO at the top, down through the middle managers and first-line managers, to the nonmanagerial employees who actually make goods or provide services. Every manager, at every level of the hierarchy, supervises one or more subordinates.

functional structure

is an organizational structure composed of all the departments that an organization requires to produce its goods or services

Job enrichment

is increasing the degree of responsibility a worker has over a job by: 1) empowering workers to experiment to find new or better ways of doing the job 2) encouraging workers to develop new skills 3) allowing workers to decide how to do the work and giving them the responsibility for deciding how to respond to unexpected situations 4) allowing workers to monitor and measure their own performance. increasing workers' responsibility increases their involvement in their jobs and thus increases their interest in the quality of the goods they make or the services they provide.

Job enlargement

is increasing the number of different tasks in a given job by changing the division of labor

Organizational structure

is the formal system of task and job reporting relationships that determines how employees use resources to achieve organizational goals

Authority

is the power vested in a manager to make decisions and use resources to achieve organizational goals by virtue of his or her position in an organization

Organizational design

is the process by which managers create a specific type of organizational structure and culture so a company can operate in the most efficient and effective way

matrix structure

managers group people and resources in two ways simultaneously: by function and by product. Employees are grouped by functions to allow them to learn from one another and become more skilled and productive. In addition, employees are grouped into product teams in which members of different functions work together to develop a specific product. The result is a complex network of reporting relationships among product teams and functions that makes it very flexible. Each person in a product team reports to two managers 1) a functional boss, who assigns individuals to a team and evaluates their performance from a functional perspective 2) the boss of the product team, who evaluates their performance on the team. Thus team members are known as two-boss employees.

product structure

managers place each distinct product line or business in its own self-contained division and give divisional managers the responsibility for devising an appropriate business-level strategy to allow the division to compete effectively in its industry or market

span of control

refers to the number of subordinates who report directly to a manager.

job design

the process by which managers decide how to divide into specific jobs the tasks that have to be performed to provide customers with goods and services.

job simplification

the process of reducing the number of tasks that each worker performs, too far. Too much may reduce efficiency rather than increase it if workers find their simplified jobs boring and monotonous, become demotivated and unhappy, and, as a result, perform at a low level.