Quiz 21 Basic forms of organizational structure, culture, and strategic control and reward systems

Curve Inc. is a software development firm based in California. It strives to provide highly differentiated software at cheaper prices when compared to its competitors. Which of the following organizational designs should Curve Inc. implement to ensure the maximum success of its business strategies?

Ambidextrous

Organizational culture can help a firm gain and sustain competitive advantage only if the culture makes a positive contribution to the firm's economic value creation and _____.

Complies with the VRIO principles

Which of the following features helps match a cost leadership strategy to a functional structure?

Focus on economies of scale

Which of the following is an advantage offered by a functional structure?

It allows for a higher degree of specialization and deeper domain expertise.

In which of the following ways does Zappos achieve organizational control?

It ensures that each group member's compensation depends in part on the group's overall productivity.

Which of the following statements is true of organizational culture?

It is better for founder CEOs to create a relevant culture, structure, and strategy in the early stages.

Opal, a recent fashion design school graduate, has received praise for her clothing designs from her peers and friends on social networking sites; this has inspired her to set up a store where she can design and sell apparel. After experiencing some success with sales, she recruits two employees to handle customers at the store. However, she handles other day-to-day affairs herself, while continuing to design clothes. Which of the following is likely to be a pitfall of this organizational structure established by Opal?

Once the firm starts growing and attracting more customers she is likely to feel overloaded.

_____ describes the collectively shared values and norms of an organization's members.

Organizational culture

Output controls can sometimes discourage collaboration among different strategic business units. However, more and more work requires creativity and innovation, especially in highly developed economies. One way firms are grappling with this issue is by:

introducing results-only-work-environments to tap intrinsic motivations.

Plow Inc. is a greeting card manufacturing company. Plow's market dominance exists primarily because of the innovative designs of its greeting cards when compared to those of its competitors. In this scenario, Plow Inc.'s managers must ideally rely on a functional structure that resembles a(n) _____.

organic organization