Exam 6: Designing Organizational Structure: Specialization and Coordination

A ________ structure is a cluster of different organizations whose actions are coordinated by contracts and agreements, rather than by a formal hierarchy of authority.

Which of the following types of organizational structures is most likely to use transfer pricing?

A ________ structure is a design that groups people together on the basis of their common expertise and experience or because they use the same resources.

The higher the level of differentiation, the more complex the integrating mechanisms that managers need to use to control organizational activities.

Which of the following statements is most likely to be true regarding a geographic divisional structure?

Functional structure is the foundation of horizontal differentiation.

A food manufacturer is experiencing coordination problems between its frozen food division and its canned food division. The main control problem is that each product requires an entirely separate system for ordering supplies, packaging the product, and storing the product upon completion. Which structure would help solve these coordination problems?

A divisional structure is a design that groups people into separate functions or departments because they share common skills and expertise because they make use of the same resources.

Most Fortune 500 companies use a ________ structure because it allows them to grow and expand their operations while maintaining control over their activities.

In a product division structure, a centralized set of support functions services the needs of a number of different product lines.

Describe the advantages of a network structure.

What are the disadvantages of a matrix structure?

What are the advantages of a functional structure?

Which of the following organizational structures is the most decentralized?

In general, the more complex the value-creation activities necessary to produce and market goods and services, the more problems are associated with using a network structure.

A functional structure has greater vertical and horizontal differentiation than a divisional structure and employs more complex integrating mechanisms.

A ________ structure is commonly used by food processors, furniture makers, and companies that make personal care products, paper products, or other products that are broadly similar and use the same set of support functions.

In which of the following situation, servicing the needs of new kinds of customer groups and tailoring products to suit them are is most likely to be relatively difficult?

A matrix structure involves ________ vertical control from the formal hierarchy and ________ horizontal control from the use of integrating mechanisms.

Under which of the following situations are managers most likely to use functional structure?