Definitions

Question 1

Bureaucratic

Answer 1

Describing the process of bureaucracy, sometimes used in a derogatory sense

Question 2

McDonaldization

Answer 2

the principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control by which fast food restaurants are managed and organised, as applied by Ritzer to other contemporary organisations

Question 3

Hawthorne Studies

Answer 3

A series of studies which ran from 1924 into the late 1930s. Widely credited wit discovering the human side of the organisation.

Question 4

Group

Answer 4

A collection of people with a sense of shared identity and something in common but not with a shared purpose.

Question 5

Team

Answer 5

A group who meet together with a common purpose and some degree of mutual interdependence.

Question 6

Personality

Answer 6

A set of characteristics and behaviour displayed by any individual.

Question 7

Motivation

Answer 7

The will and desire that a person has to engage in a particular behaviour or perform a particular task.

Question 8

Knowledge and learning

Answer 8

An aspect of organisational behaviour which emphasises the importance of information, understanding and practical skills for organisational success. In particular it examines the capacity of the organisation to share this knowledge in effective ways.

Question 9

Change

Answer 9

The process by which an organisation changes in practice, process, culture etc. in a planned or emergent fashion.

Question 10

Leadership

Answer 10

The process of leading or influencing the behaviour of others. In the broadest definition, it can be carried out by anyone in the organisation.

Question 11

Power games and politics

Answer 11

The process where one individual or group tries to gain advantage or get another group to do things that they might not do otherwise.

Question 12

Globalization

Answer 12

Defined in many different ways, globalisation is where activities take place on an increasingly global scale

Question 13

Service Sector

Answer 13

Non-Manufacturing industries, such as retail, leisure, transport, finance and media

Question 14

Corporate social responsibility

Answer 14

A contested term with different interpretations but generally taken to be the social and environmental responsibly corporations have towards their stakeholders

Question 15

Direct Control

Answer 15

Face to face control of workers by a manager or owner

Question 16

Impersonal control

Answer 16

Control of workers that is NOT done face to face , e.g. through delegation or through rules and procedures

Question 17

Rational Organisational Design

Answer 17

The design of organisational structure and activities in order to achieve the organisation’s goals in the most technically efficient manner.
It also suggests an organisation which is designed logically and systematically, even scientifically, so as to achieve its aims.

Question 18

Bureaucracy

Answer 18

Covers official, formal elements of rational organisational design, such as hierarchal structure, rules and procedure and official paperwork which exert impersonal control over the organisation.

Question 19

Hierarchy

Answer 19

The levels and ranks within an organisation. Any one level reports to the level immediately above.

Question 20

Office

Answer 20

A defined role within the organisation

Question 21

Records

Answer 21

Information held by the organisation relevant for bureaucratic functioning, including information about workers.

Question 22

Span of Control

Answer 22

The number of worker controlled by a manager at anyone particular level in a hierarchy

Question 23

Organisational structure

Answer 23

The roles and positions in an organisation, often organised horizontally and vertically in the form of an organisational chart diagram.

Question 24

Vertical differentiation

Answer 24

The process whereby a hierarchy creates a number of different lanes of management within the organisation.

Question 25

Horizontal/ functional differentiation

Answer 25

The process of whereby different parts of the hierarchy are grouped according to criteria, such as function performed, the geographical area served to the product or service produced.

Question 26

Official

Answer 26

A person who fills a particular role in an organisation. When working in that role, a person is said to be working in an official capacity.

Question 27

Discretion

Answer 27

The ability of an individual to act according to their own independent judgement, rather than being told exactly what to do

Question 28

Human resource management (MRM)

Answer 28

The part of the organisation that concentrates on policies and procedures relevant to the management of people within the organisation.

Question 29

Pro-Forma

Answer 29

A type of paperwork, sometimes called a form. It is a blank template with standard fields for different types of relevant information , which is filled in as a means of capturing information for the records of an organisation.

Question 30

Rational legal authority

Answer 30

According to Weber this is the power that is legitimated by rules and procedures associated with an office rather than by tradition or charismatic ways.

Question 31

Formal Rational

Answer 31

Technically efficient means of achieving particular ends without thinking of the human or ethical consequence
e.g Nazi

Question 32

Substantive Rationality

Answer 32

Rationality from a human and ethical perspective if something is formally rational and efficient it does not make it substantively rational when considering its human and ethical consequences.

Question 33

Disenchantment

Answer 33

For Weber this was a loss of magical elements in society and suggests some of the dehumanising elements of bureaucracy.

Question 34

Iron cage of bureaucracy

Answer 34

term coined by Weber to describe how it traded people in routine and procedures.

Question 35

Dysfunctions of Bureaucracy

Answer 35

Unintended consequences of bureaucracy which lead to it not functioning in the efficient manner for which it is designed.

Question 36

Red tape

Answer 36

An unintended consequence of bureaucracy, where rules and paperwork get in the way of work and activities, rather than helping tasks to perform efficiently.

Question 37

Bureaucratic personality

Answer 37

A tendency to follow rules to the letter rather than seeing the wider picture and making more common sense judgements.

Question 38

Trained incapacity

Answer 38

Where people are so used to their behaviour being controlled by bureaucratic rules that they become inflexible and unable to think for themselves and show initiative.