background Flashcards
based on the first lectures literature to give a basic understanding of the course and its content
All firms or organisations face certain problems. What are these?
All organisations…
- Need to monitor and control their structure and form
- Are engaged in employing, training, and leading co-workers who need to be motivated and given the opportunity to develop themselves professionally during the work life
- Use various forms of technologies and machinery in the production of goods and services being sold in the market, and so forth.
Why are organisational structure important?
- It indicates the general lines of authority in the company and gives us some information about the degree of centralisation/ decentralisation.
- It shows the general logic for grouping the company into units on different levels.
- It shows the number of decision- making levels (the hierarchy) in the company.
What are the three different organisational structures?
- Organisations as structures: rules and standards, hierarchic ordering of position, unit grouping, decision-making authority.
- Organisations as behavioural patterns: sharing goals, coordinating behaviour, dealing with stakeholders and coalitions.
- Organisations as cultures: shared understanding, myths, artefacts, ideologies.
What is the most common way in designing the overall structure of companies?
Dividing the company into semi-autonomous units by market or products/ product groups.
In configuration theory Mintzberg comes up with what five configurations?
- Simple structure. Centralised top management
- Machine bureaucracy. Standardisation of work
- Professional bureaucracy.
- Divisionalized form.
- Adhocracy.
Bernard (1938) defines and organisation as… ?
- People that are willing to communicate with each other
- People with a willingness to contribute action
- People with a common sense of purpose
How has the development of theories of organisations looked?
- Ideal types- “one best way”
- Contingency theory-” it all depends”
- Configurational theory- “getting it all together”
- Modern perspective- “boundary-spanning”
What are two challenges any organisation needs to solve?
How to divide tasks of the organisation and how to obtain integration between them.
What is integration?
The quality of the state of collaboration that exists among departments that are required to achieve unity of effort by the demand of the environment.
What are the six primary dimensions of structural factors?
- Specialisation
- Standardisation
- Formalisation
- Centralisation
- Configuration
- Flexibility
What dimensions can uncertainty be divided into?
- Stable - Dynamic: The degree of which important factors in the environment remain the same over time, or change.
- Simple - Complex: The number of important factors that decision-makers take into consideration.
What is the difference between risk and uncertainty?
Risks can be calculated, uncertainty not.
What is the sociotechnical system?
The guiding principle of social technology is a systems perspective which consists of:
* The social system, consisting of people, communication, and knowledge.
* The technical system, consisting of machines, equipment, tools, and other artifacts.
What three groups of production systems that all increase in technical complexity did Woodward (1965) identify?
- Unit and small batch (produced by hand)
- Large batch and mass (eg. conveyor belt)
- Process ( eg. oil refinery)
What is the definition of IT?
Information Technology:
IT has been defined as “those mechanisms used to organise, store, manipulate, present, send, and review information.”
What is deskilling and upskilling?
- Deskilling: job simplification and loss of expertise
- Upskilling: enhancing job complexity and requiring higher levels of cognitive skills.
What are five sources of efficiency gain derived from division of labour?
- Shorter time for learning a skill
- Less wasted materials
- Lower transaction cost
- Less change of tools
- Skills acquired by repitition
What is informal rewards?
Stealing from the company to reward themselves. Management ignores it if workers don’t ask for other rewards
What is TQM?
Total Quality Management. Always aim for a 0% defect rate.
* Fool proof processes
* Continuous improvements
* Involve suppliers
What is BPR?
Business Process Re-engineering.
Based on the idea to restructure the organisation and remove non-value-adding activities.
What are some forms of control?
(Control is specifying, limiting, monitoring or evaluating an individuals actions)
- Direct control: inspection or surveillance
- Technical control: determined by lead time or machinery
- Bureaucratic control: rules or routines
- Socio-ideological control: attempt to control workers beliefs
- Concertive control: peer-pressure
What are 7 sources of opportunity for innovation?
- Unexpected Occurrences
- Incongruities
- Process Needs
- Industry and
Market Changes - Demographic Changes
- Changes in Perception
- New Knowledge
Read: Drucker_Discipline_of_Innovation for more info.
What is skunk work?
things that people do at work, that they’re not supposed to do but they do anyways. Own initiatives, don’t follow the structures.
What are the characteristics of bureaucracy?
- Division of labour
- Rules and regulations
- Hierarchy of authority
- Technical qualifications
- Impersonality
