8 - culture, structure and design Flashcards
Strength perspective #cultures for enhancing economic performance
Assumes that strength of a corporate culture is related to a firm’s long-term financial performance
Adaption perspective
Assumes that the most effective cultures help organisations anticipate and adapt to environmental changes
Fit perspective
Assumes that an organisation’s culture must align, or fit, with its business or strategic context
Organisation chart
A box and lines illustration showing the formal lines of authority and the organisation’s official positions or work specialisations
Common purpose
Unifies employees or members and gives everyone an understanding of the organisation’s reason for being
Co-ordinated effort
The co-ordination of individual efforts into a group or organisation-wide effort
Division of labour
Having discrete parts of a task done by different people
Hierarchy of authority
(Chain of command) A control mechanism for making sure the right people do the right things at the right time
Span of control (span of management)
Refers to the number of people reporting directly to a given manager. Span of control can be narrow (tall) or wide (flat). Wider Spandau for with trend allowing workers greater autonomy in decision-making.
Authority
The rights inherent in a managerial position to make decisions, give orders and utilise resources
Accountability
Managers must report and justify work results to the managers above them
Responsibility
The obligation that you must have to perform the tasks assigned to you
Delegation
The process of assigning managerial authority and responsibility to managers and employees lower in the hierarchy
Organisational design
Concerned with designing the optimal structures of accountability and responsibility that an organisation uses to execute its strategies
Simple structure
Has authority centralised in a single person, a flat hierarchy, few rules and low work specialisation
Functional structure
People with similar occupational specialties are put together in formal groups
Divisional structure
People with diverse occupational specialties are put together in formal groups by similar products, customers or geographic regions
Matrix structure
Where an organisation combines functional and divisional chained of command in a grid so that there are two command structures - vertical and horizontal
HORIZONTAL designs
Where teams or workgroups, either temporary or permanent, are used to improve collaboration and work on shared tasks by breaking down internal boundaries
Boundaryless design
A fluid, highly adaptive organisation whose members, linked by information technology, come together to collaborate on common tasks; the collaborators may include not only co-workers but also suppliers, customers and even competitors
Boundaryless organisation
A fluid, highly adaptive organisation whose members, linked by information technology, come together to collaborate on common tasks; the collaborators may include not only co-workers but also suppliers, customers and even competitors
Hollow structure (network)
An organisation with a central core of key functions, which outsources other functions to vendors who can do them cheaper or faster
Modular structure
Where a firm assembles product chunks, or modules, provided by outside contractors
Virtual structure
A company outside a company that is created ‘specifically to respond to an exceptional market opportunity that is often temporary’
Mechanistic organisation
Where authority is centralised, tasks and rules are clearly specified and employees are closely supervised
Organic organisation
Authority is decentralised, there are fewer rules and procedures and networks of employees are encouraged to co-operate and respond quickly to unexpected tasks
Differentiation
The tendency of the parts of an organisation to disperse and fragment
Integration
Tendency of parts of an organisation to draw together to achieve a common purpose
Four stage organisational life-cycle
A natural sequence of stages: birth, youth, mid-life and maturity
Birth stage
The non-bureaucratic stage, the stage in which the organisation was created
Youth stage
The organisation is in a pre-bureaucratic stage, a stage of growth and expansion
Mid-life stage
Organisation becomes bureaucratic, a period of growth evolving into stability
Maturity stage
The organisation becomes very bureaucratic, large and mechanistic
