Exam 10: Organizational Design

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Metro General Hospital (Scenario) Joyce is the chief administrator in charge of a department at Metro General Hospital. When she worked as a registered nurse at a smaller community hospital, Joyce enjoyed the flexible structure, minimal rules, and team approach to decision making by nurses, administrators, and doctors. However, the situation at Metro is different. Metro has a tall, rigid structure with many rules and procedures designed to standardize jobs and guide employee behaviour. One such rule requires that all decisions in Joyce's department must be signed off by her alone) As a result, Joyce seems to spend most of her time filling out forms and signing documents. She also feels that the numerous levels of hierarchy are unnecessary and place barriers between herself and her staff. Joyce is not exactly sure why things have to be so "organized" and is planning to talk to her boss about making some changes to increase flexibility and reduce the number of rules and procedures. -Which of the following best describes the type of organizational design at the small community hospital where Joyce previously worked as a nurse?

A __________ organization is a small core organization that outsources major business functions, such as manufacturing, so that it can concentrate on its core competencies.

Organizational structure is defined as __________.

Customer departmentalization groups jobs on the basis of product or customer flow.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Metro General Hospital (Scenario) Joyce is the chief administrator in charge of a department at Metro General Hospital. When she worked as a registered nurse at a smaller community hospital, Joyce enjoyed the flexible structure, minimal rules, and team approach to decision making by nurses, administrators, and doctors. However, the situation at Metro is different. Metro has a tall, rigid structure with many rules and procedures designed to standardize jobs and guide employee behaviour. One such rule requires that all decisions in Joyce's department must be signed off by her alone) As a result, Joyce seems to spend most of her time filling out forms and signing documents. She also feels that the numerous levels of hierarchy are unnecessary and place barriers between herself and her staff. Joyce is not exactly sure why things have to be so "organized" and is planning to talk to her boss about making some changes to increase flexibility and reduce the number of rules and procedures. -The many rules and policies designed to standardize jobs relates most closely to which of the following elements of structure?

Matrix structure is an organizational structure that assigns specialists from different functional departments to work on one or more projects led by project managers.

Universal Office Supply has organized its sales department under its three main account types: wholesale, retail, and government. Universal is using __________ departmentalization.

Which of the following is a strength of the functional structure?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Organizational Design at Custom Leather (Scenario) Lacey has been hired as a consultant for XYZ Consulting. Her first assignment is to work with one of XYZ's newest clients, Custom Leather, Ltd., a manufacturer of high-end leather furniture. Custom Leather was founded more than a decade ago with the idea that great-looking, comfortable leather furniture could be custom made and delivered to customers in 30 days. Traditionally, retailers stocked leather sofas to satisfy customers' desire to receive new furniture fast, which resulted in limited colour choices and styles. Traditional sofa manufacturers produced their products in large batches on standardized assembly lines. In contrast, Custom Leather offers 13 different styles in more than 70 different colours through a select group of retail outlets. Each sofa is built to the customer's individual requirements and is shipped within two to three weeks. However, the emergence of a new manufacturing technology has enabled some of the traditional competitors to offer greater customization, thereby reducing some of Custom Leather's competitive advantage. As a result, Custom Leather's president, Miles Standish, is considering several changes to their current work processes and organizational structure. -Standish is planning to double the size of his workforce to accompany an expansion in the number of retail outlets that carry Custom Leather products. Lacey tells him that he should expect the organizational design to become more __________ as a result of this change.

A learning organization is one that has developed __________.

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. -Twenty years ago, Digital Arts had a __________ structure.

A disadvantage of ________ departmentalization is poor communication across the different groups.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Metro General Hospital (Scenario) Joyce is the chief administrator in charge of a department at Metro General Hospital. When she worked as a registered nurse at a smaller community hospital, Joyce enjoyed the flexible structure, minimal rules, and team approach to decision making by nurses, administrators, and doctors. However, the situation at Metro is different. Metro has a tall, rigid structure with many rules and procedures designed to standardize jobs and guide employee behaviour. One such rule requires that all decisions in Joyce's department must be signed off by her alone) As a result, Joyce seems to spend most of her time filling out forms and signing documents. She also feels that the numerous levels of hierarchy are unnecessary and place barriers between herself and her staff. Joyce is not exactly sure why things have to be so "organized" and is planning to talk to her boss about making some changes to increase flexibility and reduce the number of rules and procedures. -Which of the following best describes the type of organizational design at Metro General Hospital?

Project structures tend to be rigid and inflexible organizational designs.

In 1996, WestJet Airlines began operations with only three aircraft and 220 employees. Today, it has a large fleet and employs over 4,800 employees. Based on the known relationship between size and structure, we would expect WestJet's structure today to be fairly __________.

__________ organization is rigidly controlled and efficient.

All other things being equal, as the span of control grows wider, the organization becomes __________.

Procter & Gamble organizes its 300 brands into five main categories: family care, fabric care, beauty care, health care, and food and beverage. They use __________ departmentalization.

A __________ organization consists of a small core of full-time employees and temporarily hires outside specialists to work on opportunities that arise.

Grouping activities on the basis of production flow is called __________ departmentalization.