Chapter 1: Organizations and Organization Theory

Question 1

An organization is:

Answer 1

a social entity, that is (1) goal-directed, (2) designed as deliberately structured, (3) coordinated activity systems, and (4) linked to the external environment

Question 2

Historical Perspectives

Answer 2

• Scientific management
• administrative principals
• bureaucratic organization
• Hawthorne studies
• contingency

Question 3

Scientific management

Answer 3

a classical approach that claims decisions about organization and job design should be based on precise, scientific procedures.

Question 4

Administrative principles

Answer 4

a closed system’s management perspective that focuses on the total organization and grows from the insights of practitioners

Question 5

Bureaucratic organization

Answer 5

an organization design that emphasizes management on an impersonal, rational basis through elements such as clearly defined authority and responsibility, formal record keepings, and uniform application of standard rules.

Question 6

Hawthorne Studies

Answer 6

a series of experiments on worker productivity begun in 1924 at the Hawthore plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois; attributed employee’s increased output to managers better treatment of them during the study

Question 7

Contingency

Answer 7

a theory meaning one thing depends on other things; the organization’s situation dictates the correct management approach

Question 8

Challenges that Organizations face

Answer 8

• Globalization, intense competition, sustianability of ethics, speed of responsivness, digital workplace, diversity, digital organizations and big data analystics (tech, skills, and processes for searching and examining massive sets of data to uncover hidden patterns and correlations)

Question 9

Globalization

Answer 9

• with rapid advances in technology and communications, markets, technologies, and organizations are increasingly interconnected

Question 10

Organizational Dimensions

Answer 10

• contextual dimensions
• structural dimensions

Question 11

Contextual Dimensions

Answer 11

• goals and strategy
• enviornment
• culture
• size
• technology

Question 12

Strucutrual Dimensions

Answer 12

• formalization
• specialization
• hirearchy of authority
• centralization
• professionalism
• personnel ratios

Question 13

Goals and strategy:

Answer 13

define the purpose and competitive techniques that set it apart from other organizations

Question 14

Environment

Answer 14

all elements outside the boundary of the organization (industry, govt, customers)

Question 15

Culture

Answer 15

the underlying set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms

Question 16

Size

Answer 16

: organizations magnitude as reflected in the number of people in the organization

Question 17

Technology

Answer 17

tools, techniques, and actions used to transform inputs into outputs

Question 18

Formalization

Answer 18

amount of written documentation in the organization

Question 19

Specialization

Answer 19

degree to which organizational tasks are subdivided into separate jobs

Question 20

Hierarchy of authority:

Answer 20

describes who reports to whom and the span of control for each manager

Question 21

Centralization

Answer 21

refers to the hierarchical level that has authority to make a decision

Question 22

Professionalism

Answer 22

the level of formal education and training of employees

Question 23

Personnel ratios

Answer 23

refer to the deployment of people to various functions and departments

Question 24

Open Systems

Answer 24

a system that must interact with the environment to survive; it both consumes resources and exports resources to the environment.
- must continuosly adapt to the environment

Question 25

Open Systems - Issue

Answer 25

internal efficiency, the organization has to find and obtain needed resources, interpret and act on environmental changes, dispose of outputs, and control and coordinate internal activities in the face of environmental disturbances and uncertainty

Question 26

system

Answer 26

• view the org as a system
• a set of interacting elements that acquires inputs from the environment, transforms them, and discharges outputs to the external environment

Question 27

subsystems

Answer 27

• a system is comprised of several subsystems
• divisions of an organization that perform specific functions for the organization’s survival; organizational subsystems perform the essential functions of boundary spanning, production, maintenance, adaptation, and management

Question 28

Mechanistic

Answer 28

• centralized structure
• specialized task
• formalized
• vertical communication
• hierarchy authority

Question 29

Organic

Answer 29

• decentralized structure
• empowered role
• informal
• horizontal communication
• collaborative teamework

Question 30

Centralized structure -

Answer 30

the level of hierarchy with authority to make decisions (located near the top)

Question 31

Specialized task

Answer 31

a narrowly defined piece of work assigned to a person

Question 32

Formalized

Answer 32

rules, regulations, and standard procedures

Question 33

Vertical communication

Answer 33

up and down the hierarchy

Question 34

Hierarchy authority

Answer 34

formal chain of command, little collaboration across functional departments

Question 35

Decentralized structure

Answer 35

the decision making and communication are spread across the company

Question 36

Empowered role

Answer 36

a part in a dynamic social system that allows an employee to use their own discretion and ability to achieve outcomes and meet goals

Question 37

Informal

Answer 37

few rules or formal control systems

Question 38

Horizontal communication

Answer 38

information flowing in all directions within and across departments and hierarchical levels

Question 39

Collaborative teamwork

Answer 39

emphasizes collaborative teamwork, intrapreneurship (people across org coming up with new ideas)

Question 40

Organizational Configuraton
Mintzberg’s 5 org Parts

Answer 40

• Technical support staff
• top managment
• middle managment
• administrative support
• technical core

Question 41

Technical Support Staff

Answer 41

Responsible for adaptions and innovation

Question 42

Top Management

Answer 42

Provides goals, strategy, policies, and direction

Question 43

Middle Management

Answer 43

Responsible for implementing strategy and coordination at department level

Question 44

Administrative Support

Answer 44

Responsible for smooth operation of the org, HR, accounting, finance, IT

Question 45

Technical Core

Answer 45

Responsible for producing the product or service

Question 46

Efficiency

Answer 46

• the amount of resources used to produce a unit of output

Question 47

Effectiveness

Answer 47

• the degree to which an organization achieves its goals
• Clear and focused goals with appropriate strategies

Question 48

Stakeholder approach

Answer 48

• also called the constituency approach, this perspective assess the satisfaction of stakeholders as an indicator of the organization’s performance

Question 49

Stakeholder

Answer 49

any group within or outside an organization that has a stake in the organization’s performance

• Owners and SH, employees, customers, suppliers, community, union, govt, etc.

Question 50

Chaos theory

Answer 50

a scientific theory that suggests that relationships in complex, adaptive systems are made up of numerous interconnections that create unintended effects and render the environment unpredictable

Question 51

Learning organization

Answer 51

an organization in which everyone is engaged in identifying and solving problems, enabling the organization to continuously experiment, improve, and increase its capability