Organizational Structure Flashcards
What is organizational structure?
It refers to the formalized arrangement of interaction between and responsibility for the tasks, people, and resources in an organization
What is a simple organizational structure?
It is one where there is an owner and a few employees and where the arrangement of tasks, responsibilities, and communication is highly informal and accomplished through direct supervision
What is a functional organizational structure?
It is one on which the tasks, people, and technologies necessary to do the work of the business are divided into separate “functional” groups (such as marketing, operations, and finance) with increasingly formal procedures for coordinating and integrating their activities to provide the business’s products and services.
What is divisional structure?
It is one in which a set of relatively autonomous units, or divisions, are governed by a central corporate office but where each operating division has its own functional specialists who provide products or services different from those of other divisions
What is the policy business unit?
it is an adaptation of the divisional structure whereby various divisions or parts of divisions are grouped together based on some common policy elements, usually linked to distinct product/market differences
What is the holding company structure?
it is a form of divisional organization, where the corporate entity is a broad collection of often unrelated businesses and divisions such that it (the corporate entity) acts as financial overseer “holding” the ownership interest in the various parts of the company but has little direct managerial involvement
What is the matrix organizational structure?
it is one in which functional and staff personnel are assigned to both a basic functional area and to a project or product manager
What is the product-team structure seeking to do?
it seeks to simplify and amplify the focus of resources on a narrow but strategically important product, project, market, customer, or innovation.
What are some trends affecting organizations in the 21st century?
- globalization
- the internet
- speed
What are some efforts to improve traditional structures?
- Redefine the role of corporate headquarters from control to support and coordination
- Balance the demands for control/differentiation with the need for coordination/integration
- Restructure to emphasize and support strategically critical activities
- Reengineer strategic business processes
- Downsize and self-manage
What is restructuring?
Redesigning an organizational structure with the intent of emphasizing and enabling activities most critical to a firm’s policy to function at maximum effectiveness.
What is business process reengineering?
A customer-centric restructuring approach. It involves fundamental rethinking and radical redesigning of a business process so that a company can best create value for the customer by eliminating barriers that create distance between employees and customers
What is downsizing?
Eliminating the number of employees, particularly middle management, in a company
What is self-management?
Allowing work groups or work teams to supervise and administer their work as a group or team without a direct supervisor exercising the supervisory role.
What is a virtual organization?
a temporary network of independent companies—suppliers, customers, subcontractors, even competitors—linked primarily by information technology to share skills, access to markets, and costs
