Organisation

Question 1

What is organisational structure?

Answer 1

how management organises a business- determining authority and responsibility,communication, etc.

Question 2

Explain line relationships

Answer 2

vertical flow of relationships, authority top to bottom

Question 3

Explain staff relationships

Answer 3

relationship between different employees and management

Question 4

Explain chain of command

Answer 4

line of authority within a business

Question 5

Explain span of control

Answer 5

no. employees for who a manager is responsible
narrow=3=closer supervision and communication
wide=7= gives subordinates chance for independence

Question 6

Explain authority

Answer 6

the power of a person to allocate resources and make decisions

Question 7

Explain responsibility

Answer 7

making sure a certain task is fulfilled- looking after something

Question 8

Explain centralization

Pros and Cons

Answer 8

decision making at top of hierarchy(senior management) e.g. McDonald’s
+ exploit Eos, faster to coordinate, prevents parts becoming independent, easier to implement practices
- less flexible, lower motivation, local managers may want to meet consumer needs, more bureaucratic

Question 9

Explain decentralization

Pros and Cons

Answer 9

decision making spread out across junior managers in hierarchy/individuals/trading location
+motivated, customer service, respond to local circumstances, training and development for local managers
- DM not strategic, consistency difficult, harder to achieve control, duplication=DoS

Question 10

Explain delegation

Answer 10

assignment of particular functions, tasks and decisions

Question 11

Pros and Cons of delegation

Answer 11

+ senior management focus on key tasks, motivated employees, on the job training
- not responsibility, hard in small firm, depends on quality/experience of subordinates, more stress

Question 12

Explain delayering

Answer 12

removing layers of management from the organisation hierarchy

Question 13

Pros and Cons of delayering

Answer 13

+faster DM, lower labor costs, shorter communication paths, stimulates employee innovation, teamwork
-redundancies, span of control increases

Question 14

levels of hierarchy

Answer 14

no. layers of management/supervision

Question 15

Describe a tall structure

Answer 15

(long triangle), traditional, many layers of hierarchy, narrow span of control

Question 16

Describe a flat structure

Answer 16

(squished triangle) organistic, wide span of control, delegation encourage

Question 17

what is employee empowerment?

Answer 17

giving employees the ability to do a job- encourages feedback- motivates

Question 18

Why change an organisational structure?

Answer 18

employee resistance, growth, costs, motivation levels, customer service/quality

Question 19

Describe a matrix organisational structure

Answer 19

employees with similar skills put together to complete a task (1+ manager supervising)
+ more communication, span of control, promotion possibilities, authority clear

Question 20

2 other ways to organise

Answer 20

by system- split into specialist areas- achievement comes from the interaction between the areas- may be hard to evaluate performance, not easy for managers to see their direct contribution
by product- each product is a small company with its own departments- can see direct success but may lead to waste of resources or competition between departments.

Question 21

usefulness of organisation structure in a business?

Answer 21

shows who is responsible for what, spans of control viewed for fair distribution, stakeholders can see if positive on goings , level of authority viewed