CHAPTER 8 Flashcards
(28 cards)
Organization Structure
A framework that enables managers to divide responsibilities, ensure employee accountability, and distribute decision-making authority.
Organization Chart
A diagram that shows how employees and tasks are grouped and where the lines of communication and authority flow.
Core Competencies
Activities that a company considers central and vital to its business.
Work Specialization
Specialization in or responsibility for some portion of an organization’s overall work tasks; also called division of labor.
Chain of Command
A pathway for the flow of authority from one management level to the next.
Span of Management
The number of people under one manager’s control; also known as span of control.
Centralization
Concentration of decision-making authority at the top of an organization.
Decentralization
Delegation of decision-making authority to employees in lower-level positions.
Agile Organization
A company whose structure, policies, and capabilities allow employees to respond quickly to customer needs and changes in the business environment.
Departmentalization
Grouping people within an organization according to function, division, matrix, or network.
Functional Structure
Grouping workers according to their similar skills, resource use, and expertise.
Divisional Structure
Grouping departments according to similarities in product, process, customer, or geography.
Matrix Structure
A structure in which employees are assigned to both a functional group and a project team (thus using functional and divisional patterns simultaneously).
Network Stucture
A structure that coordinates resources inside and outside the company to form a cohesive whole.
Team
A unit of two or more people who share a mission and collective responsibility as they work together to achieve a goal.
Problem-Solving Team
A team that meets to find ways to improve quality, efficiency, and the work environment.
Self-Managed Team
A team in which members are responsible for an entire process or operation.
Functional Team
A team whose members come from a single functional department and that is based on the organization’s vertical structure.
Cross-Functional Team
A team that draws together employees from different functional areas.
Task Force
A team of people from several departments who are temporarily brought together to address a specific issue.
Committee
A team that may become a permanent part of the organization and is designed to deal with regularly recurring tasks.
Virtual Team
A team that uses communication technology to bring together geographically distant employees to achieve goals.
Groupthink
Uniformity of thought that occurs when peer pressures cause individual team members to withhold contrary or unpopular opinions.
Hidden Agenda
Private, counterproductive motives in a team setting, such as a desire to take control of the group, to undermine someone else on the team, or to pursue an incompatible goal.
