chapter 4 org theory and design

Melissa works in the fashion industry. Her job is to research, by analyzing social media, the growing trends among youth. Her company designs and manufactures clothing based on her analysis. Melissa is a part of the BLANK sector of the task environment.

market

Organizations in rapidly changing environments tend to have BLANK management processes

organic

A complex environment is one in which an:

organization interacts with and is influenced by numerous diverse external elements.

The two ways in which the environment influences organizations are the need for information about changes in the environment and the need for:

resources from the environment

A fast food chain in the United States, Simpson's Kitchen, got its supply of chicken from a local farm. Its business was adversely affected when the country faced an epidemic of bird flu. The epidemic adversely affected Simpson's Kitchen's BLANK environment.

task

Determining an organization's environmental uncertainty generally means focusing on sectors of the BLANK environment.

task

The primary contingency that shapes whether an organization will function best with an organic or mechanistic design is:

the degree of uncertainty in the external environment

The traditional approach to coping with environmental uncertainty was:

to establish buffer departments

Boundary-spanners prevent an organization from stagnating by keeping top managers informed about environmental changes

true

Business intelligence refers to the high-tech analysis of large amounts of internal and external data to spot patterns and relationships that might be significant

true

Business intelligence refers to the high-tech analysis of large amounts of internal and external data to spot patterns and relationships that might be significant:

true

Cooptation occurs when leaders from important sectors in the environment are made part of an organization:

true

Economic conditions are included in the general environment:

true

Environmental complexity refers to heterogeneity, or the number and dissimilarity of external elements that affects an organization's operations:

true

In organizations characterized by very simple, stable environments, almost no managers are assigned to integration roles

true

In rapidly changing environments, the internal organization was much looser, free-flowing, and adaptive, with a loose hierarchy and decentralized decision making:

true

Resource dependence means that organizations depend on the environment but strive to acquire control over resources to minimize their dependence

true

When several sectors change simultaneously, the environment becomes

turbulent.

Lawrence and Lorsh's research shows that different departments within an organization facing a lot of uncertainty tend to evolve and develop specific traits. Which characteristics would best describe the R&D department in a typical pharmaceutical organization?

unknown answer

When you started your custom home building business 20 years ago, your region was largely underdeveloped and land was cheap. Business boomed, and your organization grew to more than 80 employees. But things have changed drastically since then. Large housing developers moved in, bought up all the land, and built thousands of new homes, driving up the cost of land along the way. As a result, the demand for custom homes has declined, and you're down to 35 employees with more layoffs expected. What is the best option for influencing the key sector that is impacting your organization?

Relocate your business to a less developed, yet growing area

Your company, Omnitech Games, produces nothing but game apps for smartphones, so it's a fairly simple organization. However, constantly changing technology, evolving consumer preferences, and a conscientious stream of new competitors create instability, which means your organization is facing high-moderate uncertainty. As one of the co-founders, what should you do to help your organization deal with the uncertainty?

Restructure the organization to be more organic, participative, and decentralized

Artisan Home designs and manufactures furniture and other home decor items, such as bedding and dishware. Approximately every other year, it rolls out a new set of product lines designed by famous artists and designers to capitalize on their well-known names. What is the best way Artisan Home can work with these artists and designers?

Set up license agreements that allow Artisan Home to use a limited number of designs

Which of the following environments has the lowest level of uncertainty?

The simple, stable environment

An organization's BLANK is the chosen environmental field of action.

domain

The greatest uncertainty for an organization occurs in the complex, stable environment:

false

Percy developed a new accounting system which processed data that was previously computed by ten accountants. As a result, the new technology replaced ten employees. Due to Percy's innovation, the technological sector impacted the BLANK environment of the organization.

general

Leo Burton is the CEO of a cigarette manufacturing company. He and his employees suffered a major loss when tobacco products were banned in his country. Leo's organization was affected by changes in the

government sector.

An BLANK occurs when a director of company A and a director of company B are both directors of company C.

indirect interlock

BLANK link and coordinate an organization with key elements in the external environment.

Boundary-spanning roles

BLANK gives top executives a systematic way to collect and analyze public information about rivals and use it to make better decisions.

Competitive intelligence

Which of the following is a characteristic of the complex, stable environment?

External elements do not change rapidly in this environment

As environmental uncertainty increases, organizations tend to become more mechanistic

False

Which of the following is a characteristic of the simple, stable environment?

It has few external elements that change slowly

Which of the following statements is true of environmental complexity?

It refers to the number and dissimilarity of external events

Located in central California's agricultural region, South Coast Fruits processes locally grown fruits of all kinds. Growers transport their crops to South Coast's facilities, and the organization that cleans, prepares, and packages the fruit for sale to grocery stores and other commercial buyers. Into which quadrant of the environmental uncertainty framework does South Coast Fruits fall?

Simple and stable with low uncertainty

Which of the following is one of the dimensions of the framework for assessing environmental uncertainty?

Simple-complex

In the early 2000s, consumers became increasingly aware that in a number of countries possessing diamond mines, some governments and other organizations were mining diamonds under deplorable conditions and selling them to finance their war efforts. Suddenly, the sale of diamonds dropped as consumers became suspicious of the source of all diamonds available on the market and feared being party to the "blood diamond" trade. Organizations involved in the international diamond trade had to work hard to document the sources of diamonds and ensure the buying public that they were not involved in conflict diamonds. Which sector would you say had the greatest impact on international diamond organizations at that time?

Sociocultural sector

Which of the following functions is in the simple, unstable environment?

The music industry

Uber, one of the biggest peer-to-peer ridesharing and delivery organizations, has recognized that self-driving vehicles would eliminate the organization's need for human drivers, which are its biggest operating expense. Thus, the organization set up a new division dedicated to developing self-driving vehicles and sought out investments of $1 billion. Toyota then committed to contributing somewhere between $500 and $800 million to Uber's product development. Why is Toyota a good ally for Uber?

Toyota is able to offer valuable financial and technological resources.

Over the last five years Omnitech Games, an app developer that creates games that can be played on smartphones, has released one new game app each year. Three of them have become huge hits, earning the company more revenues than the co-owners ever imagined. This year, however, it looks like a recentl;y released app from one of the dozens of new competitors that enter the market every year is going to be the big hit of the season. Into which quadrant of the environmental uncertainty framework does Omnitech Games fall?

UNKNOWN ANSWER

Which of the following is a characteristic of the general environment?

UNKNOWN ANSWER

You've just started your new job as the Operations Manager of an organization that manufactures wooden toys and other household items made from wood, and now you're hearing about all kinds of issues. Demand for the organization's products has grown so rapidly that the production plant can barely keep up. Plus, the plant's foreman says he doesn't receive the right raw materials at the right times, and you've discovered that there isn't a good system in place for ordering these supplies. To top it all off, the sales team is worried that the organization won't be able to fill all the orders, now that they've worked so hard to find great customers. What is the first step you should take to cope with the uncertainty?

UNKNOWN ANSWER

Imagine the day when artificial intelligence will enable all of us to drive fully autonomous vehicles that can navigate on their own and respond to the movement of surrounding vehicles. Our cars and trucks will take us wherever we want to go while we talk, read, watch streaming media, or even take naps on the way. Of the following industries, which will be most affected by this dramatic change in the technology sectors?

car insurance providers

Universities function in the BLANK environment.

complex, stable

Environmental BLANK refers to heterogeneity, or the number of dissimilarity of external elements.

complexity

Besides dynamism and abundance, the third dimension that contributes to the changes in an organization's environment is

complexity.

You are one of the top executives for a growing healthcare system. With two medical centers, one hospital, and more than 2,000 employees providing all kinds of medical services, it is a complex organization. Changing technology, regulations, legal requirements, and more add up to an unstable environment with a high degree of uncertainty. What should you and your fellow executives do to help address this uncertainty?

unknown answer