Organizational Design and Structure Flashcards
describe a mechanistic structure
- industrial revolution led from craft, family models to mass production
- scientific management
- Frederick Taylor –> increased production, deskilled and alienated workers, led to quality and innovation problems
describe scientific management within a mechanistic structure
- attempt to separate design of work from its execution
- break down tasks to small, specialized components
- eliminate wasted motion, effort, interaction
what structure is the opposite of mechanistic?
organic
describe a matrix organization
- have departments working together
- moves info more quickly
- report to team and function
what are the two ways to divide labour?
- specialists: narrow experience/knowledge of small number of tasks
- generalists: variety of experience/knowledge
how do we group jobs?
function, geography, process, product/division
describe span of control
number of subordinates managed
-narrow or wide
describe a narrow span of control
-expensive, more managers; makes vertical communication more complicated; discourages autonomy; encourages tight supervision
describe a wide span of control
-less supervision, employees have more responsibility; forces managers to develop clear goals and policies; managers may become overloaded
describe high and low formalization
high: rules, protocols, operating procedures
low: reliance on discretion, emerging routines
when is a bureaucracy good?
- precision is important
- large labour force willing to work
- stable market
- task straightforward
- producing same product over and over
- human “machines” compliant
compare a mechanistic and organic structure
MECHANISTIC
- high specialization
- rigid departmentalization
- clear chain of command
- narrow span of control
- centralization
- high formalization
ORGANIC
- cross-functional teams
- cross-hierarchical teams
- free flow of info
- wide span of control
- decentralization
- low formalization
describe the order of structures from mechanistic to organic
- modern/machine bureaucracy
- professional bureaucracy
- simple structure
- adhocracy
- virtual
describe contingency theory
- organizations must balance internal needs and must continuously adapt to environment
- organizations designed in relation to task and environment
- managers continuously trying to align organization with these considerations
describe a matrix structure
- practice of managing individuals with more than one reporting line
- reporting relationships set up in grid/matrix instead of traditional hierarchy
- employees have dual reporting relationships