MGMT 4860 - Organizational Design and Change - Midterm Study Guide

Which of the following is considered the classic management view of designing organizations?

Mechanistic Organization Model

When is a decentralized organizational structure be more appropriate?

When the information and decisions of different parts of the organization are not interrelated.

Examples of strategic decisions organizations usually make include all of the following EXCEPT:

Who to hire for an entry-level position.

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of a mechanistic management system?

collective decision making

The discipline Organizational Development and Change focuses on understanding individuals and groups within an organizational context.

False

The discipline Organizational Development and Change studies interpersonal processes such as trust, justice, power/politics, social exchange, and networks.

False

UNT's strategic plan for 2020-2025 explains the reporting relationships of all leadership positions.

False

When developing a strategy, organizations such as UNT, should base the strategy on what their competitors are doing in order to remain in operation.

False

If the goal of the organization is to minimize errors of commission, which of the following decisions will be more suitable?

having a hierarchical organizational structure and centralization

What are the building principles of an organic management system?

interdependency and cooperative effort

In general, which of the following unit of analysis/inquiry is used when we apply the many different systems theories to explain processes within firms?

organizations

All of the following represent organizational functions formal control mechanisms EXCEPT:

practices

What is organizational structure?

(Both B and C are correct.) The official, formal relationships between organizational members and The informal and spontaneous relationships between organizational members.

In the interview with Dan Schwabel, Dave Ulrich emphasizes the importance of making informed decisions at the individual and team level when leading change.

False

Which of the statements below is correct about strategic decisions?

All of these options are correct. (structured, nonroutine and high stakes, and difficult to reverse)

Which of the following represents one of the four management functions?

Controlling

Organizational Behavior focuses on the processes and outcomes of organization change and development at the individual, group, organizational, and institutional levels using multiple methods and perspectives.

False

All of the following are contingency factors of organizational structure EXCEPT:

Economic Climate

According to the HBR article on purpose, the benefits of putting purpose at the core of strategy include helping the organization specialize in already proven areas even more.

False

According to the LinkedIn Learning video on organization design, a best practice on making good decisions includes aiming for consensus.

False

According to the LinkedIn Learning video on organization design, organization design is the same as having a strategy for changing your new business model.

False

Beer, Eisenstat and Spector summarize that many companies are moving from a task-driven organization to a more bureaucratic and hierarchical organizational model.

False

The balanced scorecard uses the following four perspectives: financial, customer, structural, and internal.

False

Which of the following best describes the Balanced Score Card?

It is a management methodology.

Which of the following is true about organizational design?

It represents the conscious molding of the organizational structure so that it attains ends valuable goals such as profit, safety, quality.

What does the idea of cascading down the organization mean?

Linking all departments to the corporate scorecard so that all sections of the organization would be focusing on strategy and contributing toward it.

All of these are dimensions of the Balanced Score Card EXCEPT:

Safety & Security

All of the following represent advantages of organic management systems EXCEPT:

They are better suited for stable environments.

Which of the following is FALSE about larger organizations in the context of size as a contingency factor driving organizational structure?

They are less structurally differentiated than smaller organizations.

Strategic decision making in a centralized organization involves all of the following EXCEPT:

Top management facilitates the emergence of decisions.

According to the LinkedIn Learning video on organization design, alignment in an organization between the strategy, structure, people, metrics/rewards, and processes determines its effectiveness.

True

According to the LinkedIn Learning video on organization design, collaboration creates value when the organization is creating new products.

True

According to the LinkedIn Learning video on organization design, organizations create value through having a strategy, insuring they have people with the right set of leadership and skills, and providing the environment that helps them contribute their unique talents to a shared mission.

True

According to the LinkedIn Learning video on organization design, the most common matrix structure connects functions to business units.

True

As described by Beer, Eisenstat and Spector, task alignment represents the process of aligning employee roles, responsibilities, and relationships to address the organization's most important competitive issue.

True

Beer, Eisenstat and Spector advise that a successful change effort requires competency, commitment, and coordination.

True

Group/team characteristics such as size, diversity, and cohesion, and group/team processes such as development, leadership, decision making, and cooperation and conflict are studied by Organizational Behavior.

True

In the HBR article on change management, Schaffer opined that "Leaders should view change not as an occasional disruptor but as the very essence of the management job."

True

The balanced scorecard can include goals such as having excellent manufacturing and producing new products under the internal perspective.

True

Which of the following metrics is used to assess how well goals under Learning & Growth of the BSC were achieved?

new products to market