Exam 10: Organizational Design

The degree to which decision making is concentrated at a single point in an organization is called __________.

A cross-functional team is a group of individuals who are experts in various specialties and who work together.

__________ is the obligation or expectation to perform an assigned duty.

describe the four contingency variables that should be considered in determining an appropriate structure in organizational design.

Organizations that operate as efficiency machines and rely heavily on rules, regulations, and standardized tasks are described as __________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Restructuring at Digital Arts (Scenario) Victor Lee is the founder and president of Digital Arts, a Vancouver-based company that makes games for popular electronic game consoles. The company has experienced tremendous growth over the years, but now Victor is concerned that the company's structure has become too tall and rigid. He explains, ''Twenty years ago we started with five people and one product. Today we are a global operation with 500 people employed in six countries producing over 200 game titles.'' Digital Arts is currently organized into five specialized departments: product development, production, marketing, accounting, and human resources. To coordinate the workflow, many rules and regulations have been introduced. Victor now worries that the increased bureaucracy is beginning to stifle innovation. He ponders several restructuring options. -Victor begins to wonder if they would not be better off to simply refocus their efforts on what they have always done best: design games. They could shrink the company back to a small core of game designers and contract out the other major business functions. This strategy is most consistent with a __________ organization.

__________ organization is able to change rapidly as needs require.

The degree to which jobs are standardized and guided by rules and procedures is called __________.

In a learning organization, it is important to have managers to control and direct the flow of information.

A functional structure groups the work assignments of an organization by __________.

When cosmetics maker Estée Lauder organized its structure around its major brands, and operated each as a separate company, it was using product departmentalization.

GM Canada produces Chevrolet and Pontiac automobiles on a standardized assembly line in its Oshawa plant. According to research, GM should use a __________ structure.

When decisions tend to be made at lower levels in an organization, the organization is said to be decentralized.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Restructuring at Digital Arts (Scenario) Victor Lee is the founder and president of Digital Arts, a Vancouver-based company that makes games for popular electronic game consoles. The company has experienced tremendous growth over the years, but now Victor is concerned that the company's structure has become too tall and rigid. He explains, ''Twenty years ago we started with five people and one product. Today we are a global operation with 500 people employed in six countries producing over 200 game titles.'' Digital Arts is currently organized into five specialized departments: product development, production, marketing, accounting, and human resources. To coordinate the workflow, many rules and regulations have been introduced. Victor now worries that the increased bureaucracy is beginning to stifle innovation. He ponders several restructuring options. -Today, Digital Arts has a __________ structure.

Given that other things remain unchanged, managers with well-trained and experienced employees can function well with a wider span of control than those with a less talented workforce.

Managers today continue to see work specialization as important because it helps employees be more efficient.

The continuous line of authority that extends from the upper levels of management to the lowest levels of the organization is called the __________.

Formalization refers to the degree to which jobs within the organization are standardized and the extent to which employee behaviour is guided by rules and procedures.

Global competition, accelerated product development by competitors, and increased demands by customers for better service have encouraged organizations to become more __________.

In general, the more routine the technology, the more mechanistic the structure should be.