OTD Chapter 5 Flashcards
Two things an organization does to improve its ability to control
- Increase the number of managers it uses.
- Increase the number of levels in its managerial hierarchy.
Direct supervision
Situation in which there is always a supervisor present. Employees receive continuous feedback and guidance.
Here, employees are unable to hide information.
Personal-authority relationship
Creates and bonds people into an organization and determines how well they perform.
Tall organization
An organization in which the hierarchy has many levels relative to its size.
Flat organization
An organization that has few levels in its hierarchy relative to its size.
Problems with tall hierarchies
- Bureaucratic costs
- Communication problems
- Motivation problems
Distortion
Information becomes distorted as it flows up and down the hierarchy through many levels of management.
Here, managers can even deliberately manipulate information to promote their own interests.
Motivation problems (explained)
As the number of levels in the hierarchy increases, the relatively difference in the authority possessed by managers at each level decreases, as does their area of responsibility.
Parkinson’s Law Problem
Parkinson argues that the growth in number of managers and hierarchical levels is controlled by two principles:
- An official want to multiply subordinates, not rivals.
Managers value their rank/status in the hierarchy. The fewer managers at their hierarchical level, and the greater the number of managers below them, the larger is their “empire” and the higher is their status. Subordinates of the manager also want more status and focus on creating their own subordinates, leading to a hierarchy becoming taller and taller.
- An official makes work for one another.
With more levels of hierarchy, managers must spend more time monitoring and controlling actions and behaviours of subordinates, creating unnecessary work. More managers = more work.
Span of control
The number of subordinates a manager directly manages.
Advantage horizontal differentiation
It avoids many of the problems of tall hierarchies because the development of numerous subunit hierarchies allows the organization to remain flat.
Disadvantage horizontal differentiation
The development of divergent subunit orientations can lead to additional coordination and motivation problems.
Bureaucracy
An organizational structure in which people can be held accountable for their actions because they are required to act in accordance with rules and standard operation procedures.
Role conflict
When two or more people have different views of what another person should do, and as a result, make conflicting demand on the person.
Role ambiguity
The uncertainty that occurs for a person whose tasks or authority are not clearly defined.
A bureaucracy …
Is founded on the concept of rational-legal authority: the authority a person possesses because of his or her status in the organization.
has roles that are based on technical competence, not on social status, kinship, or heredity.
Advantages bureaucracy
- It lays out the ground rules for designing an organizational hierarchy that efficiently controls interactions between organizational levels.
- It separates the position from the person.
Disadvantages bureaucracy
- Over time, managers fail to control the organizational development.
- Members come to rely too much on rules and SOPs to make decisions. They become unresponsive to the needs of customers and other stakeholders.
Management by Objectives
A system of evaluating subordinates on their ability to achieve specific organizational goals or performance standards and to meet operating budgets.
Contingent workers
Workers who are employed for temporary periods by an organization and who receive no direct benefits such as health insurance or pensions.
Self-managed teams
Work groups consisting of people who are jointly responsible for ensuring that the team accomplishes its goals and who are empires to lead themselves.
Cross-functional teams
Formal work groups of employees from across an organization’s different functions that are empowered to direct and coordinate the value-creation activities necessary to complete different programs or projects.
