4: Organizing Product Development I

Question 1

What is formalization?

Answer 1

The degree to which the firm utilizes rules and procedures to structure the behavior of employees.
Can substitute for manegerial oversight, but can also make firm rigid.

Question 2

What is standardization?

Answer 2

The degree to which activities are performed in a uniform manner. Facilitates smooth and reliabvle outcomes, but can stifle innovation.

Question 3

What is a mechanistic structure?

Answer 3

An organizational structure that is designed so that individuals and functions behave in a predictable way and can be held accountable for their actions.

Question 4

What are some advantages and disadvantages to mechanistic structure?

Answer 4

Mechanistic structures have high formalization and standardization, good for operational efficienct and reliability but can stilfy creativity since it minimizes variation.

Question 5

What is an organic structure?

Answer 5

An organizational structure that is designed so that individuals and funcations can behave flexibly and respond quickly to frequently changing and unusual situations. An organic structure has low formalization and standadization.

Question 6

What are some advantages and disadvantages to organic structure?

Answer 6

Encourages creativity and experimentation, may yield low consistency and reliability in manufacturing.

Question 7

What is centralization?

Answer 7

The degree to which decision-making authority is kept at top levels of the firm or the degree to which activities are performed at a central location.

Question 8

What is a centralized authority?

Answer 8

A way to ensure a project matches firm-wide objectives and may be better at making bold changes in an overall direction.

Question 9

What is centralized activities?

Answer 9

Centralized activities avoid redundancy, maximizes economics of scale and facilitates firm-wide deployment of innovations.

Question 10

What are two drawbacks to centralized authority and activities?

Answer 10

1. It might not tap into the diverse skills and resources.
2. Projects may not closely fit needs of divisions or markets.

Question 11

What happens with structure when the size of a firm increases?

Answer 11

Large firms typically make greater use of fomalization and standardization because of the challenges with oversight. Many disadvantages/advantages of firm size are actually due to structural dimensions of formalization, standardizationd and centralization.

Question 12

What is an ambidextrous organization?

Answer 12

Some divisions (R&D, new product lines) may be small and organic.
Other divisions (Manufacturing, mature procut lines) may be larger and more mechanistic.
Can alternate through different structures over time.

Question 13

What is uncertainty?

Answer 13

Uncertainty is the difference between the amount of information required to perform the task and the amount of information already possessed by the organization.

Question 14

What are some organizational mechanisms?

Answer 14

1. Hierarchy of authority
2. Rules, programs and procedures
3. Planning and goal setting
4. Narrowing span of control

Question 15

What is the contingency theory?

Answer 15

1. There is no best way to organize
2. Not all the ways to organize are equally effective

Question 16

What is a horizontal workflow and what is defining for it?

Answer 16

A linear way to develop a product.
1. High degree of division labour
2. Coordination of interdependent roles needed
3. Face-to-face communcation not possible
4. Other mechanisms for integration needed.
(See: https://imgur.com/a/qVWe4XP)

Question 17

What is span of control?

Answer 17

The number of employees who can effectively and efficiently be supervised by a manager. Uncertainty decreases and size increases the span of control.

Question 18

What must be done when organizational mechanisms and span of control is not enough to handle uncertainty?

Answer 18

Either reduce the need for information processing or increase its capacity to process information

Question 19

What is differentiation?

Answer 19

The state of segmentation of the of the organization into subsystems, each which tend to develop particular attributes in relation to the requirements psoed by its relevant external environment.

Question 20

What is integration?

Answer 20

The process of achieving unity among the various subsystems in the accomplishment of the organizations task.

Question 21

What is a functional team?

Answer 21

1. Members report to a functional manager
2. Temporary, members may spend less than 10% of their time on the project.
3. Typically no project manager or dedicated liaison personell.
4. Little opportunity for cross-functional integration.
5. Likely to be appropiate for derivative projects.

Question 21

What is a lightweight team?

Answer 21

1. Members still report to functional manager
2. Temporary, members spend less than 25% of their time on the project
3. Typically has a project manager and dedicated liaison peronell.
4. Manager is typically junior or middle management.
5. Likely to be appropiate for dericate projets

Question 22

What is a heavyweight team?

Answer 22

1. Members are collocated with project manager
2. Manager is typically senior and has significant authotiy to command resources and evaluate members.
3. Often still temporary, but core team members often dedicated full-time to project.
4. Likely to be appropiate for pålatform projects.

Question 23

What is an autonomous team?

Answer 23

1. Memver collocated dedicated full-time (and often permanently) to them.
2. Project manager is typically very senior manager
3. Project manager is given full control over resources contributed from functional departments and has exclusive authority over evaulation and reward of members.
4. Autonomous teams may have own policies, procedures and reward systems that may be different from the rest of the firm.
5. Likely to be appropiate for breakthorugh and major platform objects.
6. Can be difficult to fold back into the organization