MGT Chapter 10

Amy runs a boutique that caters to high-end customers who prefer to have unique clothing designs. She also works as a personal wardrobe stylist for several of her clients. Amy has now opened a manufacturing firm that focuses on designing and producing fabric that is used to make the unique designs. To which type of production technology does the manufacturing firm belong?

small batch production

Which of the following statements does not reflect position-based leadership?

Leaders should discuss options with subordinates

As an organization becomes more mechanistic, its communication flow becomes ___________

vertical

Judy works at the headquarters of an online shoe store. She is a member of the advertising team, which is a team within the marketing department. Which type of department is this?

a staff department

Al's Autos has a __________ structure.

functional

The figure below shows an organization chart. Source: Daft, R. L. (2016). Management, 12e (p. 332). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. What type of structure does this organization have?

Functional

What problem might the CEO expect if the company switches to a functional structure?

Decisions will be made at the top of the organization, create delays.

All the employees in a unit work on citrus drinks, like orange juice and lemonade, so they know a lot about the customers for that product line.

Divisional Structure

Because each unit, such as the unit serving New England, is relatively small, it can respond quickly to changes in the business environment.

Divisional Structure

In a ___________ effort, Hallmark reimagined and redesigned the way in which it brought new cards to market, cutting the time from three years to less than one year.

Reengineering

What type of structure does this organization have?

Divisional

An organization may make a cross-functional team a _________ that operates over the long term as if it were a formal department.

permanent team

"Where would it make sense for managers to have wide spans of control?"

-In shipping, where most employees are very experienced and highly trained -In manufacturing, where most employees perform similar tasks that don't change much over time

"Which of the following are often used by organizations to promote relational coordination?"

-Training in how to resolve conflicts by focusing on shared goals -Open office plans with few walls and small spaces where people can hold impromptu meetings -Relaxation of work rules so employees have the freedom to contribute however they can

Layla is applying for a ________________ position, in which she will coordinate the activities of the engineering and manufacturing departments to achieve a 5% reduction in defect rate.

Project Manager

Gretchen does not take her employees' opinions into consideration when making departmental decisions. Rather, Gretchen makes it clear to her employees that she makes decisions and employees could be consistently written up if performance and goals are not met. Which of the following answers best describe Gretchen's experience with her role models, also known as parental authority?

Authoritarian

If it used to take each man 4 hours to monitor one fifth of the sheep, it now takes Brian less than 20 hours to monitor all the sheep.

Benefit

Which of the following describes a differentiation strategy?

Developing products unique to the market

Employees doing different kinds of work, such as research and development, manufacturing, and sales, tend to communicate with one another more and coordinate their activities.

Divisional Structure

Five years go by, and now you've hired 30 additional employees. Recently, you've noticed that some of your employees seem less happy than they were earlier. You hear complaints that people are bored and tired of doing the same thing all the time. Which approach would you chose to solve problems most commonly associated with highly specialized work?

I would decentralize my company.

Marcia is the top leader of the matrix structure for an international company manufacturing environmental compliance equipment. Which action could she take to resolve conflicts between people in charge of product line goals and country goals?

Meeting with matrix bosses and two-boss employees to work out differences

The CEO of a company has decided to increase collaboration among employees to increase efficiency and quality. Besides removing physical barriers between employees, which of the following will help the CEO in promoting employee coordination?

Providing training to develop interaction and conflict resolution skills

By selling the five pieces of equipment each man used to perform all five steps, each worker can buy more advanced equipment necessary for his unique task.

Benefit

Complete the diagram with the missing labels.

Strategic Goals A. : Cost leadership, efficiency, stability Strategic Goals B. Differentiation, innovation, flexibility

Which of the following is an example of a line department in an organization?

the production team

A functional structure can be thought of as departmentalization by organizational resources.

true

As an organization becomes more organic, its chain of command becomes ___________

shorter

Federated Investors has a ___________, with each mutual fund being managed by several portfolio managers who together take responsibility for the fund's performance.

team based structure

Nonhierarchical beliefs are most effective in all of the following work configurations except

a traditional hierarchy

Human resources is done separately in each of the seven units serving different geographic areas, and having seven smaller HR departments is less efficient than having one.

Divisional Structure

Jake becomes extremely bored with hauling blankets to market over and over, and he misses getting to herd and shear the sheep.

Drawback

The managers and employees in the manufacturing unit share a common outlook and find it easier to communicate with each other because they have similar training and experience.

Functional Structure

Rosa was promoted to a management position from her specialist role. During her previous role, she gained firsthand experience of the pros and cons of division of labor. Which action could Rosa take as a manager to overcome the biggest disadvantage of specialization for those reporting to her?

Implement teams to provide greater challenges for employees

According to Joan Woodward, ____________ is classified as a small-batch production company

design 3

Which of the following behaviors or traits were most likely influenced by the flexible parental authority?

A manager takes his employees feelings and opinions into consideration when making organizational decisions.

In your new job, which of the following should you be prepared for?

A relatively high level of conflict, meaning a lot of time spent in meetings to resolve differences The ability to bring up issues with the people who can help resolve them

The accounting department in the Carribbean unit consists of three people, so they do not have the budget for much training and don't interact with a range of colleagues with accounting expertise.

Divisional Structure

When the unit focusing on business-to-business (B2B) customers develops a new, highly effective customer-tracking system, this system is not shared with the unit focusing on individual retail customers.

Divisional Structure

Which of the following characteristics would you expect Al's Autos to have?

Employee specialization leads to increased efficiency. Decision making in this company is centralized, with the CEO ultimately responsible for problem-solving. Employees receive extensive training in specific areas, leading to the development of in-depth expertise. Lines of control are very clear, with little ambiguity about priorities or accountability. Employee specialization leads to increased efficiency and development of competencies.

Taylor takes her employees' opinions into consideration via reasoning and discussion when making departmental decisions. Which of the following answers best describe Taylor's experience with her role models, also known as parental authority?

Flexible

Employees in each unit tend to be focused on their work specialty rather than on the customer, so the organization can be slow to respond to changes in the business environment.

Functional Structure

When a decision requires coordination between two or more units, such as between sales and logistics, it needs to go to the top of the organization and decision making can be slow.

Functional Structure

The trend recently has been for organizations to adopt ______ structures, in which employees lower in the hierarchy have more decision-making authority.

More Decentralized

During your orientation on your first day at work, you are introduced to your matrix bosses and your top leader. What are these managers' responsibilities?

One matrix boss is in charge of the Small Business Accounts division. Your top leader coordinates the activities of functional departments, like the Marketing and Sales department, and customer groups, like Small Business Accounts division.

When managers meet to discuss _________, topics on the agenda include how tasks will be assigned, reporting relationships, and how to coordinate effort across departments.

Organization Structure

Your company is now 20 years old, and you are solidly in the maturity phase of your life cycle. You want to move away from the standard forms of organizational structure (functional, divisional, matrix) and create an organizational structure that will give you better insights into your customer's needs and help you react more flexibly to their wishes. Which of the following actions would best help to accomplish your goals?

Put employees from different departments into cross-functional teams and have each team identify a customer problem and work together to create a solution for it.

Which of the following statements does not reflect nonhierarchical leadership?

The leader's job is to make decisions and communicate them effectively to subordinates.

What problem might the CEO expect if the company switches to a functional structure?

The new structure will be slower to respond to changes in the environment.

a ___________ is composed of workers who belong to different departments in an organization but meet together in an attempt to resolve important organizational problems.

cross functional team

Alfredo's Sausage has a __________ structure.

permanent team

Scott, the sales and marketing manager, says that Modern-Shed is insulated from what's going on in the general marketplace. Part of the reason for this is Modern-Shed's structure. By using a _______________ structure, Modern-Shed is able to:

virtual network Easily expand and contract the company without assuming increased financial risk

A small start-up in California that sells products online has contracted with a Web designer in the United Kingdom, a manufacturing company in China, a customer-service provider in India, and a legal team in New York to perform its various functions. Which of the following organizational structures is prominent in this scenario?

virtual network structure

Two years ago, you created GoForLess, a new app that shows people the cheapest way to travel by bus, train, or air between two cities. Turns out that your app was a big success, and now you've made enough money to hire some additional employees. You're trying to figure out what your new employees should do. What kinds of jobs should they have? How should they work together? How should they work with you? How can you give your employees enough freedom to be innovative, while maintaining enough control over their work to be sure that GoForLess will stay true to its overall goals? You start by thinking about specialization. To what extent do your new employees need to have broad job responsibilities versus narrow job responsibilities? You know that to build a good app, you need to have people who have infrastructure automation, community building, programming, copywriting, data visualization, user experience, business, innovation, analysis, design, testing, and domain knowledge skills. Look at the following two organizational designs and indicate which one you would choose.

I want my employees to have very narrow job responsibilities. I'll hire more people with specific experience next year, and each person will form the basis for future departments in my company.

Source: Daft, R. L. (2016). Management, 12e (p. 332). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. What type of structure does this organization have?

Matrix

Which of the following characteristics would you expect QRT Software to have?

The company is highly flexible. This company uses outsourcing extensively to achieve organizational goals. This structure allows an organization to focus on a core competency.

Which concept of good organization does the dual authority structure of a matrix violate?

The unity-of-command concept

The CEO of Alfredo's Sausage is considering moving to a functional structure. What would be the best reason to make such a move?

To gain more control over how the organization operates and centralize decision making

QRT Software has a _____________ structure.

VIRTUAL NETWORK

Dollar General uses a cost leadership strategy. The Dollar General slogan is "Save time. Save money. Every day!®" Dollar General will be more effective if it has __________ structure. Which of the following reasons explain this? Check all that apply.

a mechanistic -Narrow spans of management ensure that employees operate efficiently. -Centralized decision making allows the organization to place tighter controls on the way work is done and, in the process, achieve economies of scale.

Sequoia Hospital uses a differentiation strategy. Its doctors provide extremely high levels of care, and it was awarded a Distinguished Hospital Award for Clinical Excellence™ in 2011. Sequoia Hospital will be more effective if it has __________ structure. Which of the following reasons explain this? Check all that apply.

an organic Because doctors and medical staff are already highly trained, they need less supervision and therefore operate more effectively with broad spans of management. Team-based structures are particularly useful for developing innovative patient care plans.

When Ominto, an online shopping technology company, promoted Ari Hunsaker to the position of executive product manager, CEO Ivan Braiker praised Hunsaker's experience leading __________, in which employees from different departments work together to solve mutual problems.

cross-functional teams

When a company's output is consumed immediately and employees and customers interact directly, the firm uses _______________ and will tend to be flexible, informal, and decentralized.

service technology

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service groups taxpayers into four divisions: wage and investment, small businesses, large businesses, and non-profit and government agencies. What type of organizational structure does this represent?

A customer-based division

According to the information in the table, which of the following conclusions is most likely to be true?

A mass production design is likely to be effective if your bakery is operating in a stable environment without a lot of competition.

Which of the following characteristics would you expect Alfredo's Sausage to have?

The emphasis in this company is on horizontal communication, which facilitates rapid decision making. Decision making in this company is decentralized, with responsibility pushed to lower levels. This organizational structure is particularly effective when operating in an environment that demands flexibility.

The CEO of Al's Autos is considering moving to a virtual network structure. What would be the best reason to make such a move?

To focus on the core competencies of the organization and outsource tasks that are less critical to the mission

Sheree oversees the creation of books at a publishing company. She has to coordinate the efforts of designers, editors, typesetters, proofreaders, the marketing department, and several members of other departments. Sheree is a:

project manager

What problem might the CEO expect if the company switches to a virtual network structure?

Employees may feel less loyalty to the reorganized company.

What are the disadvantages of Modern-Shed's current organizational structure?

External companies have access to proprietary information about Modern-Shed products. Ryan may find it difficult to maintain control over how his sheds are sold and installed. The employees who are putting up the structures may not feel a sense of loyalty to Modern-Shed.

Employees who do a particular type of work, such as sales or accounting, have more opportunity to develop in-depth expertise.

Functional Structure

People in manufacturing communicate mostly with other manufacturing employees and relatively little with people in engineering and sales.

Functional Structure

The organization achieves economies of scale because units like customer service, shipping, and legal that serve the entire organization are relatively large.

Functional Structure

The CEO of QRT Software is considering moving to a functional structure. What would be the best reason to make such a move?

To protect proprietary information

A permanent team consists of employees from various functional departments who resolve mutual problems.

false

A visual representation of the formal reporting relationships within a firm is called a(n) _________

organizational chart

Law firms can be found in several places within a city. What is a distinct feature of this type of service provider?

the output is intangible