Chapter 15 - Organizational Design Flashcards
What is organizational structure?
How job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated.
The degree to which activities are subdivided into separate jobs is called…
Work specialization (or division of labor)
The basis on which jobs will be grouped together to create coordination of common tasks
Departmentalization
Defines to whom individuals and groups report
Chain of command
Defines how many individuals a manager can efficiently direct
Span of control
Concerns where decision-making authority lies
Centralization and decentralization
Concerns the degree to which there will be rules and regulations to direct employees and managers
Formalization
What are the three common organizational designs?
Simple structure, bureaucracy, matrix structure
What characterizes the simple structure? (Organizational design)
Low degrees of departmentalization, wide spans of control, authority centralized in a single person, little formalization, mostly small organizations
What characterizes bureaucracy? (Organizational design)
Highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization
What characterizes the matrix structure? (Organizational design)
Combines two forms of departmentalization: Functional and Product
What is a Virtual Organization?
A small core organization that outsources its major business functions
What characterizes a Boundaryless Organization?
No chains of command, limitless spans of control, team-structure instead of departments, and no geographical barriers.
What is Downsizing?
A systematic effort to make an organization leaner by selling off business units, closing locations, or reducing staff.
What are the two main models or organizational design?
The Mechanistic Model and the Organic Model
