Key terms

Question 1

Bureaucracy

Answer 1

Official aspects of an organisation. E.g. hierarchical structure, rules, procedures, paperwork which allow control to be exerted over the whole organisation

Question 2

Rational organisational design

Answer 2

Championed by Fayol. Bureaucratic features designed in the most technically efficient way to achieve the organisation’s goals.

Question 3

Iron cage of bureaucracy

Answer 3

Summarises Weber’s critique of bureaucracy and rationality. Suggested that it’s inescapable and leads to monotonous, dull routines

Question 4

VUCA

Answer 4

VOLATILITY, UNPREDICTABILITY, COMPLEXITY, AMBIGUITY. Refers to turbulent and constantly changing nature of the contemporary environment which organisations face.

Question 5

Informated organisation

Answer 5

Where a large amount of an organisation’s activity is stored as computer code on a database.

Question 6

Post-bureaucracy

Answer 6

A form of organising which moves away from traditional bureaucracy and towards fluid forms which are more responsive to the contemporary environment

Question 7

Environment

Answer 7

Factors outside an organisation which can have an impact on it

Question 8

Digitised organisations

Answer 8

Organisations whose operations and processes take place predominately through computer code