Exam 7: Organizing the Business Enterprise

In order to ensure standardization, at McDonald's most lower-level decisions must be approved by upper management. Which of the following terms applies to this strategy?

List five bases of departmentalization.

The process of grouping together jobs into logical units is known as departmentalization.

David has grouped some jobs together in such a way that they can be treated as if they are a separate business which is responsible for its costs, revenues, and profits. David has created a

Describe what responsibility and authority are, and how they are related.

At Roger's company, new products are developed using a team approach. The vice-presidents of production, marketing, finance, and engineering meet weekly to cover topics of common interest and new products are usually on the agenda. Recently, there have been numerous delays in the launching of most of the new products and along with the delays has come much finger-pointing. Which of the following items is lacking in this situation and probably a major cause for the poor performance?

What are the major factors which determine how a firm should be best organized?

In a law firm, which of the following would be line positions?

Organization charts show the formal and informal organization structure of an organization.

Wilson Communication Devices manufactures walkie-talkies for use in a business environment, primarily in the industrial manufacturing industry. The walkie-talkies are small and lightweight and do not interfere with Wi-Fi or radio signals that the companies may use for other purposes. Wilson's walkie-talkies typically are used for communication between workers in high-noise environments, such as automobile manufacturing, welding shops, and construction sites. They can be used to talk or text, depending on the noise level, and also contain a feature that allows the worker to input information and store it for later use. Since Wilson sells its walkie-talkies only to businesses, it needs to take into account factors that affect business buying centres, such as organizational influences and individual factors. Two salespeople for Wilson are arguing over which set of factors is more important to consider when making a sale. Bill argues that organizational influences such as company goals and operating environment are more important. Aubrey argues that individual factors of the buyer are more important. Which of the following statements, if true, would support Bill's stand for organizational influences?

Pickle maker Vlasic has separate departments to transform cucumbers into fresh-packed pickles, pickles cured in brine, and relishes. They have chosen departmentalization by

Organizations in which traditional structures are minimized or eliminated are called ________ organizations.

A pickle maker like Vlasic usually has several departments that transform cucumbers into fresh-packed pickles. Vlasic accomplishes this by using product departmentalization.

In reviewing the organizational structure of your company, you notice that engineering is subdivided into mechanical, electrical, and software. Additionally, the accounting department is subdivided into accounts payable, accounts receivable, and asset management. What type of departmentalization has the company selected?

Tarnopol Learning Services (TLS) offers tutoring to high school students, college students, and adults returning to school. TLS also bids on government-sponsored contracts. TLS's major product offerings include academic tutoring, standardized test preparation, and admissions consulting. Its operations spread over many geographic regions. Currently, the company is deciding whether it should change from its current approach of organizing by geographical area. A senior manager has predicted that if TLS is not profitable this year and fails to develop any new products, the company will switch to either a functional approach or a product approach. Which of the following, if true, would most strongly suggest that TLS should change its organizational structure to a product-based approach?

Susie's Pets and Supplies, a retail shop that sells pets and many related products needed by those pets, has recently reorganized. One area of the store is exclusively for dogs, another exclusively for cats, another exclusively for tropical fish, and so on. The shop is departmentalized by

Departments which are directly linked to the production or sales of revenue-generating products are

A divisional structure relies on functional departmentalization.

Describe a line-and-staff organization. What is the difference between line authority and staff authority, and how are they interrelated?

An organization's structure should ideally be determined by a rational process, but with the busyness that is evident in most organizations, structure may often develop without much planning.