Lecture 1

Question 1

The principles of organisational behaviour (2)

Answer 1

• There are individual difference between people

- Future behaviour is (partly) predictable

Question 2

The changing nature of work implications (4)

Answer 2

• Personnel is of great value to success
• Specialists are hard to obtain
• Specialists are hard to retain
• Specialists are hard to manage in the international distributed work environments

Gold collar workers

Question 3

Historical change of work nature (4)

Answer 3

• Industry 1.0: Mechanisation (water and steam power)
• Industry 2.0: Mass production (assembly lines)
• Industry 3.0: Computer and automation
• Industry 4.0: Complex physical systems with (communicating) robots

Question 4

Organisational Structures (2)

Answer 4

• Mechanical structure

- Organic structure

Question 5

Mechanistic Structure (6)

Answer 5

• High specialisation
• Departmentalised
• Hierarchical
• Narrow span of control
• Centralisation
• High formalisation

Question 6

Organic Structure (6)

Answer 6

• Cross functional teams
• Cross hierarchical teams
• Free flow of information
• Wide span of control
• Decentralised
• Low formalisation

Question 7

Main organisational structure types (3)

Answer 7

• Functional Structure
• Divisional Structure
• Matrix Structure

Question 8

Functional structure characteristics (5)

Answer 8

• Function specific tasks
• Enhances specialization
• May save money due to economies of scale
• Implicates department coordination
• Not flexible due to centralisation

Question 9

Divisional structure characteristics (5)

Answer 9

• Employees divided based on product/segment/geography
• Decentralised
• Flexible
• Quick response to changes
• No exchange of knowledge between equal positions across divisions

Question 10

Matrix structure characteristics (4)

Answer 10

• Combines functional and divisional structure
• Some employees obtain two managers (functional and product)
• Difficult to implement due to dual authority
• Very useful for multinationals

Question 11

Basic parts to an organisation (6)

Answer 11

• Ideology
• Strategic Apex
• Middle line
• Operating Core
• Support Staff
• Technostructure

Question 12

Mintzberg 7 structural organisation configurations

Answer 12

• Entrepreneurial
• Machine
• Professional
• Diversified
• Innovative
• Missionary
• Political

Question 13

The changing nature of work (5)

Answer 13

• Intellectual rather than physical
• Innovative rather than routing
• Culturally diverse rather than standard
• Geographically distributed rather than co-located
• Electronic communication rather than face-to-face