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BE101 - Management > Chapter 3 - Structural In-depth > Flashcards

Chapter 3 - Structural In-depth Flashcards

1
Q

What 3 of Mintzberg’s situational dependencies can be analysed further by in-depth models?

A
  • Size & Age -> Greiner.
  • Core technology/process complexity -> Thompson
  • (Uncertainty in) Environment -> PESTEL
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2
Q

What is the main takeaway from Greiner?

A

Organizations can be in five unique growth phases (4-8 years), that are all followed by a short crisis. In the crisis, leadership is to find new structural solutions and ways to lead.

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3
Q

What are the phases and crises in Greiner called?

A
  • Phase 1: Creativity
  • Crisis 1: Leadership
  • Phase 2: Direction
  • Crisis 2: Autonomy
  • Phase 3: Delegation
  • Crisis 3: Control
  • Phase 4: Coordination
  • Crisis 4: Red tape
  • Phase 5: Collaboration
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4
Q

What are the factors that characterise where an organization should be in Greiner?

A
  • Size of organization (small-large)

- Age of organization (young-mature)

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5
Q

What Mintzberg configuration is the creativity phase similar to?

A

Adhocracy. Founders are focusing on developing product, interaction is informal and the organization is flexible.

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6
Q

Describe the Leadership crisis and how it is solved.

A

The adhocratic business gets messy when the size of the company increases, resulting in lack of leadership. Solve by recruiting a strong, accepted managers with business expertise.

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7
Q

What describes the Direction growth phase in Greiner? Similarities to Mintzberg?

A

Necessary processes are formalised and middle managers are recruited. Develops towards an internally efficient machine bureaucracy.

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8
Q

Describe the Autonomy crisis in Greiner, and how to solve it.

A

When the business grows and becomes more complex, strong vertical leadership is less efficient. The operational core/lower managers know more about the business than the top management, and many leave the company because managers don’t want to change. Solve by decentralising under ordeal forms; business units are responsible and leadership is limited to reading reports and solving major issues.

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9
Q

What Mintzberg configuration is Greiner’s Delegation phase similar to?

A

Responsibility is delegated to business units and focus is on acquisition and growth. It is similar to Mintzberg’s divisionalised form.

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10
Q

Describe the Control crisis in Greiner and how to solve it.

A

Leaders of different units pull in different directions, and top management have a harder time to allocate resources and strategic direction. The solution is increased coordination, by formalising more sophisticated processes.

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11
Q

Describe the Coordination growth phase in Greiner.

A

Business units are grouped according to product/market, group training and promotion programs are introduced. Measurements consider the group as a whole.

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12
Q

Describe the Red tape crisis in Greiner, and how to solve it.

A

The formalised processes lead to distance/lack of trust between managers and technostructure staff. The group is too large to manage by formal programs and systems. More collaboration is needed to solve this.

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13
Q

Describe the Collaboration growth phase in Greiner.

A

Leadership is more spontaneous and action-oriented. Quick problem solving in teams. Horizontal coordination, part of organization more responsive to each other. Could maybe lead to burnout -> support for reflection/recovery

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14
Q

Which of Mintzberg’s situational dependencies does Thompson’s model apply for?

A

Process complexity/core technology

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15
Q

What three types of dependencies does Thompsons model bring up?

A
  • Pooled (parallel) dependencies.
  • Sequential dependencies.
  • Mutual dependencies.
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16
Q

What characterises Pooled dependencies in Thompson’s model?

A

What one unit does has no direct influence on what is done in another. Components should be produced as predictably and standardised as possible -> these organisations should have hierarchical structures and formalized/standardized requirements for results of units.

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17
Q

What characterises Sequential dependencies in Thompson?

A

One unit can’t continue without the completion of what another unit produces. Output->input. Vertical control by formalised plans or developed technostructures is needed for planning, to avoid slowing down production.

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18
Q

What characterises Mutual dependencies in Thompson?

A

A units activity must be continuously adapted based on what another unit does. Often found in complex operations -> adhocracy is appropriate with more horizontal coordination.

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19
Q

Which one of Mintzberg’s situational dependencies does PESTEL apply for?

A

Uncertainty in the environment

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20
Q

What does the letters in PESTEL stand for?

A
  • Political (landscape).
  • Economic (macro)
  • Social (culture, social attitude)
  • Technological (development, competition).
  • Environmental (natural environment)
  • Legal. (laws/regulations)
21
Q

What is the basic principle of Lean production?

A

A contemporary structural model developed in Toyota factories in Japan. Continuous improvement is the aim, rather than a singular attempt to optimise. Improvement work takes place in the operational core, and the speed of the assembly line is increased to find where and why problems arise. When a bottleneck is identified, it is stopped to develop a solution on site.

22
Q

What is the relationship between Lean production and Flow efficiency?

A

The main focus of the improvement work is to shorten the time it takes to satisfy customer demands. All work stages should be about creating/adding customer value; focus on time minimisation rather than cost minimisation.

23
Q

What is flow efficiency?

A

Value adding time (actively working towards completion) / Lead time (from order placed to delivered)

24
Q

What does Modig & Åhlström’s model show?

A

Organizations must consider how much they should strive to be good at resource efficiency (internal production) and how much of flow efficiency.

25
Q

What four states are there in Modig & Åhlström’s model?

A
  • Efficient ocean
  • The perfect state
  • Desert
  • Efficient islands
26
Q

What Mintzberg configuration is Modig/Åhlström’s Efficient islands similar to?

A

Machine bureaucracy. Internally efficient and produce at low prices, must not be the products that customers demand.

27
Q

What Mintzberg configuration is Modig/Åhlström’s Efficient ocean similar to?

A

Mainly simple structure. Can scale up systematically designed processes into a synchronised/optimized flow. If products are specialized/custom made, adhocracy may be more appropriate.

28
Q

Desribe Modig/Åhlström’s Perfect state.

A

Both resource and flow efficiency are maximised. Difficult in practice, ZARA is the best example.

29
Q

Describe Modig/Åhlström’s Desert state.

A

Should be avoided. Bad at both using resources and adapting production to changing demands.

30
Q

What does Williamson’s Transaction cost approach explain?

A

Why some exchanges take place in perfect markets while some occur within the framework of pure hierarchies. The most effective on is the one with the lowest transaction cost (related to the exchange itself).

31
Q

What is the decisive factor to whether human exchanges are most efficient in market transactions or in hierarchical control according to Williamson?

A

How many market actors can offer the product to be exchanged, and how unevenly distributed information about the product and actors is.

32
Q

When is a market transaction the most efficient according to Williamson?

A

When there is a large number of actors and information is spread evenly among actors. Makes it easy to switch business partners if unsatisfied.

33
Q

When is hierarchical exchanges within organisations most efficient according to Williamson?

A

When there are few actors and someone has informational disadvantage. We are more dependent on one actor, and can’t as easily switch. Large resources will need to be put into information gathering.

34
Q

What products should be outsourced according to Williamson’s transactional cost approach?

A

Everything that is characterised by low uncertainty; offered by many external players and does not require extensive information gathering. IT has made this easier to find.

35
Q

What are the basic characteristics of the industrial network approach (Hägg, Johansson, Mattson)?

A

Networks are defined as the industrial relationship between organisations, as well as between resources/units within organisations. It is based on an assumption of heterogeneous resources, so there are in principle no substitutes. Exchanges should take place in a relatively permanent and dynamic relationship between resources (does not matter if they are within org or external). By investing time in this process, coordination takes place by gradual adjustments between resources. This creates dependencies/bond between resources, and the more they are adjusted to each other, the lower the transaction cost.

36
Q

What kinds if bonds can be made between heterogeneous resources in networks?

A
  • Technological
  • Administrative
  • Knowledge
  • Social
  • Legal
37
Q

What is the downside of adjusted bonds with external organisations (network), and how can they be minimised?

A

The lock-in effect, not easy to replace/break off a relationship.

  • Create market-like exchanges with minimum investments to the relationship
  • Invest in long-term network relationship.
  • Create resources internally to have a greater opportunity to exercise control.
38
Q

What is the similarities between the network approach/Williamson and Mintzberg?

A

The network model (and uncertain environments) recommend a horizontal/adhocratic relationship with the surrounding environment. The transaction cost perspective (low uncertainty in environment) recommend a vertical/hierarchical relationship (Machine).

39
Q

What is the basic assumption of structural leadership?

A

The formal, systematic and technical aspects are in focus. Leaders can be identified based on their position in the formal hierarchy, because the meritocracy means that you have legitimate knowledge/skills if you are higher up. Measurability and evidence is important to avoid subjective/emotional decisions

40
Q

How does a rational leader take decisions?

A
  • Identify problems (goals)
  • Generate alternative solutions
  • Evaluate solutions objectively
  • Choose best alternative
41
Q

What can be said about structural leaders’ traits?

A

It is hard to separate good from bad leadership. Most traits can be found in top-performing people, rather than only in successful leaders. (High energy, verbal, dominant, self-confident, persistent).

42
Q

What are the two factors for structuring teamwork according to the structural framework?

A
  • Division of work in teams quickly. Should be based on knowledge/skill. Complexity, uncertainty and dependencies should be taken into account to determine how much work should be divided.
  • Coordination of work in teams. Many fail, by not appointing a leader or having none of vertical/horizontal coordination. Crucial because of time limitation, transfer knowledge from start to end-workers. Formal leader controls overall work and ensure meetings are structured/efficient
43
Q

What is the waterfall model?

A

A project-work type, similar to the structural framework on project level. Analyse, plan and decide before implementing things in projects. Some decisions are never implemented, and some are hard to apply because of uncertainties that can’t be planned

44
Q

What is the definition of a project in the structural framework?

A

Goal-oriented rational activities, characterised by limited resources and a limited time period

45
Q

What is the stage model?

A

A more realistic version of the waterfall model. The project is divided into clear formal stages, and between them there is a gate. A gate is passed when the goal of the first phase is reached, and then you start working on the goal for the next phase. Planning leading to implementation thus takes place gradually. Projects should be so carefully planned that work can be done optimally according to plan.

46
Q

What is the Gantt chart?

A

A graphical planning model that divides up work and follows a project’s progress. There is a clear timeline for each activity.

47
Q

What is the PERT chart?

A

A variant of the Gantt chart that shows stages of work division and the logical sequence they should follow.

48
Q

What are the strengths of the structural framework?

A
  • potential to create a clear description in terms of structures/formal processes
  • normative power, proper analysis yield answer of how they should be organised, by focusing on formal, material aspects.
49
Q

What are the weaknesses of the structural framework?

A

The strengths also becomes weaknesses.

  • Focus on formal, material, rational makes it fail to deal with idealistic, emotional employees
  • Normative power makes it possible to hide behind analysis, human is then not responsible for actions
  • Rational efficient human can be caught in iron cage of rationality -> no spirit/heart
  • Criticised for lack of flexibility, adaptability to changing conditions, and difficulties to motivate employees.

BE101 - Management (8 decks)

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