MGT 101, Chapter 06: Organization Structure and Design
68. Which of the following is a characteristic of the ideal bureaucracy?
A hierarchy of positions
48. Which of the following is an advantage of the matrix design?
A matrix design functions well when large amounts of information need to be processed.
10. Which of the following is a characteristic of the ideal bureaucracy as put forth by Weber?
Appropriate social distance maintained
69. Mechanistic and organizational design are both aspects of what basic situational factor?
environment
15. Job _____ attempts to increase both the number of tasks a worker does and the control the worker has over the job.
enrichment
34. _____ is the process of systematically retaining power and authority in the hands of higher-level management.
Centralization
41. _____ is a clear and distinct line of authority among the positions in an organization.
Chain of command
1. The conglomerate design used by an organization made up of a set of unrelated businesses is also called the _____ design.
H-form
45. When Lawrence opened his accounting firm with his wife Laura, it was just both of them. Over the years, Lawrence gained expertise and a reputation in the area of auditing, while Laura handled administrative tasks for him. Lawrence's firm is now the largest of its kind in the state of Nebraska, but unmanaged growth has led to massive inefficiencies and disorganization. Lawrence plans to institute a legitimate and formal system of authority to address these issues. With the new organizational design, which of the following steps is the best way for Lawrence to improve the efficiency of his firm?
He should seek one best way of doing things.
33. Which of the following is a characteristic of organic organizations?Specialized jobs Stable environments Centralized authority High fluidity
High fluidity
42. A university is a bureaucracy for all the following reasons EXCEPT:
Human and social processes are considered important.
47. Assistant editors at Lenmark Publishing are automatically promoted to associate editors after one year of service and editors at the two-year mark. This suggests that
Lenmark is not a true bureaucracy since employees are promoted based on time served.
26. The divisional design, which is based on multiple businesses in related areas operating within a larger organizational framework, is also called the _____ design.
M-form
51. James is the human resource manager at a large bottle manufacturing company. Ten years ago, when the business moved to its current location, the company structured operations around the different functions performed throughout the company. To enhance the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, James is now restructuring company activities around its three major product lines. James is designing a(n) _____ organizational structure.
M-form
59. When Lawrence opened his accounting firm, he faced a great deal of uncertainty. Over the years, Lawrence developed a specialization in auditing and his business environment stabilized. Lawrence's firm is now the largest of its kind in the state of Nebraska. At what stage in the organizational life cycle is Lawrence's accounting firm?
Maturity
62. When Lawrence opened his accounting firm with his wife Laura, it was just both of them. Over the years, Lawrence gained expertise and a reputation in the area of auditing, while Laura handled administrative tasks for him. Lawrence's firm is now the largest of its kind in the state of Nebraska, but unmanaged growth has led to massive inefficiencies and disorganization. Lawrence has decided he needs a legitimate and formal system of authority at his firm. Which of the following is an advantage of adopting a bureaucratic organizational approach?
Prevention of favoritism
30. The functional design, which is based on the functional approach to departmentalization, is also called the _____ design.
U-form
44. James is the human resource manager at a large bottle manufacturing company. Ten years ago, when the business moved to its current location, the company structured operations around the different functions performed throughout the company. This is a(n) _____ of organizational design.
U-form
74. A bureaucracy is a model of organizational design based on
a legitimate and formal system of authority.
5. The matrix design results from a strategy of _____.
a multiple command structure
12. TLG Research Inc. consists of an in-house project management staff and an online network of industry professionals. TLG is an example of _____.
a virtual organization
71. Which dimension of the job characteristics approach deals with the degree of control the worker has over how the work is performed?
autonomy
63. When Lawrence opened his accounting firm with his wife Laura, it was just both of them. Over the years, Lawrence gained expertise and a reputation in the area of auditing, while Laura handled administrative tasks for him. Lawrence's firm is now the largest of its kind in the state of Nebraska, but unmanaged growth has led to massive inefficiencies and disorganization. Lawrence has decided he needs a legitimate and formal system of authority at his firm. The type of organizational model Lawrence needs to establish for his firm is a(n) _____.
bureaucracy
52. The second stage of the organizational life cycle is:
characterized by the growth of a firm's resources.
56. What type of design is essentially a holding company that results from unrelated diversification?
conglomerate
72. AgriCorp takes corn and transforms it into corn syrup, corn oil, and ethanol. This company uses _____ technology.
continuous-process
20. Sandra is the warehouse manager at a bottling company. She tries to assign her employees new and challenging tasks as often as practical to enhance their opportunities for growth and enhancement. Sandra is using the job _____ approach to job design.
enrichment
61. Bay Bottle Company is a large bottle manufacturer located at a coastal village in New Brunswick. For years, the company's product line has been manufactured and perfected using a precision glass edge grinding system. This is the most important conversion process and is Bay Bottle Company's _____ technology.
core
67. Because matrix designs give top management a vehicle for _____, it is easier for them to delegate day-to-day operations and focus on issues such as long-range planning.
decentralization
32. James is the human resource manager at a large bottle manufacturing company. Ten years ago, when the business moved to its current location, the company structured operations around the different functions performed throughout the company. To enhance the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, James is now restructuring company activities around its three major product lines. James is undertaking the process of grouping jobs known as _____.
departmentalization
36. E-mail, a tool that makes it easier for people to communicate with each other, is a type of _____ coordination.
electronic
60. Job _____ is an alternative to job specialization that increases the total number of tasks workers perform without increasing worker control over the job in an attempt to reduce the level of job dissatisfaction.
enlargement
75. Acme Corp. implemented an alternative approach to job design. While they saw some advantages to the new strategy, they also faced disadvantages as training costs increased and the unions asked for pay increases since the workers were doing more tasks. In addition, the work remained boring and routine for most workers. it is most likely that the strategy implemented by Acme was job _____.
enlargement
13. James is the human resource manager at a large bottle manufacturing company. Ten years ago, when the business moved to its current location, the company structured operations around the different functions performed throughout the company. To enhance the speed and effectiveness of decision-making, James is now restructuring company activities around its three major product lines. These new groups will operate with pooled interdependence. This means that James will need to _____.
establish very few linkages between the divisions
40. A virtual organization: exists only in response to its needs. requires a large staff. has a rigid, unchanging structure. has a highly hierarchical, formal structure.
exists only in response to its needs.
29. James is the human resource manager at a large bottle manufacturing company. Ten years ago, when the business moved to its current location, the company structured operations by grouping together jobs that involved the same or similar activities. What type of departmentalization structure is this?
functional
55. The best examples of bureaucracies today include:
government agencies
66. Conglomerate organizational design:
has each business operated by a general manager in charge of its profits or losses.
7. One of the features that makes DengSystems a virtual organization is that it
has no formal structure.
25. Consider an organization that has three related divisions and one unrelated division. This is a _____ design that is a cross between an M-form and an H-form.
hybrid
9. What approach to job design takes into account the work system and employee preferences by considering the core dimensions of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback?
job characteristics
17. In _____ technology, a product is manufactured in assembly-line fashion by combining component parts into another part or finished product.
large-batch
38. Delta Destinations is an international business operating in over 20 countries. It began as a regional hotel chain and then expanded into travel and vacation planning services. Delta Destinations' functional employees are continually transforming the way they work within their departments to respond to evolving customer expectations. The company evaluates employees on their demonstrated ability for continuously improved performance. Delta Destinations uses a _____ organization to maximize the company's ability to adapt to its changing environment.
learning
22. According to Weber, the bureaucratic form of organization is
logical, rational, and efficient
28. A furniture company assembles parts to make dining room sets in five standard models. This company uses _____ technology.
mass-production
16. Two advantages of a _____ design are that it enhances flexibility and gives employees considerable opportunities to learn new skills.
matrix
58. In the _____ organizational design, team members are likely to be highly motivated and committed to the organization since they assume a major role in decision making.
matrix
73. Delta Destinations is an international business operating in over 20 countries. It began as a regional hotel chain and then expanded into travel and vacation planning services. To be able to process large amounts of information and respond to diverse consumer expectations in different cultures, Delta Destinations has a decentralized, multiple-command structure. Delta Destinations has a _____ organizational design.
matrix
54. When Lawrence opened his accounting firm, he faced a great deal of uncertainty. Over the years, Lawrence developed a specialization in auditing and his business environment stabilized. Lawrence's firm is now the largest of its kind in the state of Nebraska. Even though he has over 40 associates, Lawrence retains the majority of power and authority as the founding manager. Lawrence's accounting firm is a(n) _____ organization.
mechanistic
64. What type of organization uses rules, specialized jobs, and centralized authority to structure activities in predictable ways?
mechanistic
24. In the organizational life cycle, _____ is a period of gradual growth evolving eventually into stability.
midlife
18. The bureaucratic model of organization has its roots in Weber's studies of:
organizational design.
6. In a team organization: people float from project to project. the focus is on continuously upgrading employee skill. there is underlying functional hierarchy. all business is conducted online.
people float from project to project.
31. Span of management is the number of
people who report to a particular manager.
65. At a car rental agency, reservations has to provide greeters with information about how many cars are being rented and returned each day and at what time. The maintenance staff responsible for cleaning and fueling the cars, as well as performing other routine maintenance, need to know which cars to prepare and when. If any of these groups does not do its jobs properly, the others will be affected. This is an example of _____ interdependence.
reciprocal
49. The divisional design results from a strategy of _____.
related diversification
37. Sandra is the warehouse manager at a bottling company. Employees are on a four-week schedule during which each employee spends one week loading trucks, unloading trucks, verifying invoices, and pulling inventory from storage. Sandra is using the job _____ approach to job design.
rotation
2. Ben's Beef Barn takes one order at a time and custom grills burgers or steaks to the customer's specifications. Ben's Beef Barn uses _____ technology.
small-batch
14. Because speed is of the essence at Acme Manufacturing, the plant manager wants to use a job design approach that allows workers to become very proficient at each task, that reduces transfer time between tasks, and that makes it easy for someone else to step in when a worker is absent or resigns. Job _____ would provide these benefits to Acme.
specialization
21. James is the human resource manager at a large bottle manufacturing company. There are multiple departments in the plant. The shipping department reviews, packages, labels and dispatches products. The shipping department structures job tasks into small, simple activities. Each employee has become very proficient at his or her assigned tasks, and transfer time between tasks is an average of only 15 seconds. James employs a job_____ approach in the shipping department of his company.
specialization
43. A mechanistic organization operates in a(n) ________ environment.
stable
4. Which dimension of the job characteristics approach deals with the perceived importance of the task?
task significance
27. What organization design is characterized by units splitting into smaller units if they become too large?
team
35. In what type of organization might there be a lot of employees but little or no underlying functional hierarchy?
team
70. Delta Destinations is an international business operating in over 20 countries. It began as a regional hotel chain and then expanded into travel and vacation planning services. Much of the company's success originates from its ability to identify new opportunities in the markets it serves. Delta Destinations' almost exclusive use of fluid groups of employees to tackle emerging issues in lieu of a functional hierarchy has helped the organization achieve a very high level of adaptability. Delta Destinations uses a _____ organization to maximize the company's responsiveness to changes in the external environment.
team
50. T.J. Rodgers of Cypress Semiconductor refuses to allow the organization to grow so large that people cannot float from project to project and the company has no functional hierarchy. This is an example of a _____.
team organization
19. The conversion processes that are used to transform flour, eggs, water, and sugar (the materials), into a cake (the product) is called _____.
technology
11. Differentiation is the degree to which
the organization is broken down into subunits.
3. A learning organization is concerned with
the personal development of all its employees.
39. What is delegation? the process by which a manager assigns a portion of his or her total workload to others the process of systematically retaining power and authority in the hands of higher-level managers the process of systematically delegating power and authority throughout the organization to middle and lower-level managers power that has been legitimized by the organization
the process by which a manager assigns a portion of his or her total workload to others
53. According to the five basic characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy, why should the organization develop a consistent set of rules?
to ensure that task performance is uniform
57. Organic organizations are
very informal.
23. Delta Destinations is an international business operating in over 20 countries. It began as a regional hotel chain and then expanded into travel and vacation planning services. Delta Destinations is a highly adaptable organization, with little or no formal structure. The company is able to respond to continually evolving customer expectations by using temporary workers, outsourcing, and leasing facilities when needed. Delta Destinations uses a _____ organization to maximize the company's ability to adapt to its changing environment.
virtual
46. What organization design is characterized by a very small staff and administrative headquarters facility?
virtual
8. What organization design is characterized by a temporary workforce with people entering and leaving as needed?
virtual
