Chapter 8 - Organising

Question 1

What needs to be in place for departments to perform tasks?

Answer 1

Communication
Cooperation
Coordination

Question 2

Give 5 reasons why Organising is important.

Answer 2

1) ensures joint and coordinated efforts
2) divides workload
3) productive utilisation of resources
4) related activities grouped together (departments)
5) to a complete, uniform harmonious unit

Question 3

What are the 5 building blocks in Organising of an organisation in constructing the organisation. What are they?

Answer 3

1) designing jobs
2) grouping jobs (departments)
3) establishing reporting relationships
4) establishing auth relationships
5) coordinating activities

Question 4

What is job design?

Answer 4

Determines an employees work related responsibilities

Question 5

Job specialisation is normally an extension of:

Answer 5

Organisational growth

Question 6

What is job rotation?

Answer 6

Involves systematically moving employees around from 1 job to another.

Question 7

Is job rotation successful in motivating employees?

Answer 7

The job does not change. Rotation is better used as training.

Question 8

What is job enlargement?

Answer 8

Increasing the number if tasks

Question 9

Is job enlargement successful in motivation?

Answer 9

No, the benefits were offset by the disadvantages. Eg. Training costs higher; employees demand more money

Question 10

What does Job Enrichment entail?

Answer 10

Increasing the numbers of tasks and the control the employee has over the tasks.

Question 11

What is an alternative to job specialisation?

Answer 11

Work teams

Question 12

How does work teams work?

Answer 12

This allows an entire team to design a work system it will use for tasks. Specific tasks may be delegated to team members. Teams monitor and control their own performance.
They have autonomy over the work scheduling

Question 13

What are the 4?benefits of job specialisation?

Answer 13

1) proficient at each task
2) transfer time between jobs decrease
3) easier to develop specialized equipment to assist with job
4) training relatively cheap

Question 14

What are the 2 limitations of specialisation?

Answer 14

1) boredom - absenteeism

2) anticipated benefits to not always occur

Question 15

There are 5 types of departmentalisation. What are they?

Answer 15

1) functional
2) product
3) location
4) customer - eg banks
5) matrix organisational

Question 16

What is the Matrix organisational system about?

Answer 16

It incorporates the advantages of the other structures (function, product, customer and location)
This suits ad hoc and complex projects requiring specialised skills. Eg IBM

Question 17

What are the 2 steps in establishing reporting relationships?

Answer 17

1) establishing reporting lines

2) establishing span of management (how many people report to a manager)

Question 18

What is the span of management also known as?

Answer 18

Span of control

Question 19

What 9 factors influence the appropriate span of management?

Answer 19

1) skill, competence and maturity of supervisor
2) physical dispersion of subordinates
3) complexity of business
4) extent of non-supervisory work
5) degree of required interaction
6) extent of standardised procedures
7) similarity of tasks being supervised
8) frequency of new problems
9) preferences of supervisors and subordinates

Question 20

How can Responsibility be defined?

Answer 20

The duty to perform a task or activity as assigned

Question 21

How can Authority be defined?

Answer 21

The right to command or give orders

It is power that has been ligitimised by the organisation

Question 22

What are the 3 characteristics of Formal Authority?

Answer 22

1) vested in organisational positions - NOT people
2) accepted by subordinates
3) auth flows down the vertical hierarchy

Question 23

What is line authority?

Answer 23

Auth delegated down the line of command. Eg. MD has line auth over the financial manager.

Question 24

What is decentralisation?

Answer 24

Process of delegating power and auth throughout the organisation to middle and lower level managers.

Question 25

What happens next after the authority relationships have been completed?

Answer 25

Managers have to design an organisational structure that will enable coordination.

Question 26

How can problems of cooperation between departments be resolved?

Answer 26

Keep each unit focussed on the organisational goal

Question 27

Why should managers encourage informal structures in an organisation?

Answer 27

1) informal comm takes place much more rapidly
2) it promotes teamwork
3) informal organisation supports the formal organisation

Question 28

Which 5 factors influence the organisation structure?

Answer 28

1) ENVIRONMENT in which buss operates
2) RELATIONSHIP between strategy and structure
3) SIZE of the business
4) STAFF employed
5) organisational CULTURE

Question 29

There are 3 types of environments in which a business can operate. What are they?

Answer 29

1) stable environment
2) turbulent environment
3) technologically dominated environment

Question 30

What is Organising?

Answer 30

The process of delegating and coordinating tasks, activities and resources to achieve organisational goals.