soc of orgs part 2

Question 1

Bureaucracies

Answer 1

hierarchic organizations characterized by rules and regulations

Question 2

Weber’s idealized types of rationality

Answer 2

Substantive - feelings based
Practical - accepting realities (it is what it is)
Formal - traditional, shaped by habituation
Theoretical - abstract concepts guide interactions

Question 3

emotional labor

Answer 3

Surface acting (fake): Where an individual’s underlying emotions or feelings run
counter to how they’re behaving at work. Tends to reduce personal well‐being
and job performance outcomes

Deep Acting : here an individual aligns required and true feelings. Tends to
be unrelated to measures of personal well‐being but does correspond to
positive job performance

involves tasks in which a worker
produces (or manages) an emotional state in themselves or others
-Workers’ emotions may be suppressed through routinized
performances

Question 4

Taylorism (scientific management)

Answer 4

Scientific Management is characterized by:
1. Empiricism and efficiency
2. Transformation of craft production into mass production
3. Standardization of best practices
4. Knowledge transfer from skilled workers into tools,
processes, and documentation

Question 5

Ritzer’s mcdonaldization

Answer 5

An organization characterized by McDonaldization emphasizes:
1. Efficiency – The minimization of energy or cost used to achieve an
outcome. Identification of an optimum solution
2. Predictability – The capacity to forecast a desired outcome.
Products and experiences conform to expectations
3. Calculability – An emphasis on quantifiable measures, often
resulting in a focus on quantity over quality
4. Substitution of nonhuman for human technology, and the
deskilling of work by humans
5. Control over uncertainty – The minimization of risk and the
unknown

Question 6

Make or buy decisions

Answer 6

buy external:
Buy when:
less expensive
(cost considerations)
- production facilities
are limited
- Suppliers’ have specific expertise
- Desire to maintain stable workforce

make in house:
- It’s less expensive to make than buy
- Desire to learn/integrate operations
- Need to exert direct control over
production or quality
-suppliers unreliable
-Secrecy required

Question 7

Vertical and horizontal integration

Answer 7

vertical: involves control
over more stages of the supply chain

horizontal: involves
increasing market share by expanding
into the same level of the supply chain

Question 8

Formal organizational structure

Answer 8

Job Design
-Details specific job expectations, responsibilities, and qualifications
-Helpful for hiring, training, and developing performance metrics

formal org structure:
refers to the official division of responsibilities, definitions of how work is to
be done, and reporting relationships
- Frequently details authority and lines of communication

Question 9

Chain of command

Answer 9

refers to a company’s hierarchy of reporting relationships ‐‐ from the bottom to the top of an
organization, who must answer to whom

Authority (power to give orders) ,

unit of command (should be reporting to no more than 1 person), The
corporate ladder goes from top to bottom without
disconnect

Question 10

matrix organizations, hybrid

Question 11

Boundaryless organizations

Question 12

modular organizations

Question 13

Social capital

Answer 13

the resources you accrue by network position and relationships you have
Give you resources and signals (Signals of trust , ability and status )

Question 14

Weak ties:

Answer 14

Novel information a lot better

Question 15

strong ties

Answer 15

Better aid and support

strong tie can never be a bridge, bridges that connect local networks are expected to be
weak ties

Question 16

Classifying tie strength

Answer 16

Mutual confiding
Look at time spent together

1) Interaction frequency
2) Emotional intensity
3) Mutual confiding
4) Reciprocal services

Question 17

forbidden triad

Answer 17

Person a has a strong tie to person b and c, very unlikely that B and C will NOT have a connection

Question 18

Network bridges

Answer 18

a connection in a network which provides
the only path between two clusters

-weak ties

Question 19

structural holes theory

Answer 19

Bridges
Information access
Brokerage opportunities (control)

a gap between two actors (typically clusters
of actors) within a network

An actor that “bridges” a structural hole with a network connection
may realize certain benefits if they represent the sole path between
otherwise disconnected groups

Question 20

role of networks

Answer 20

Important for influence and effectiveness

Helps for financing (venture capital done through contacts)

Learning (coaching from networks)

Marketing (done through word of mouth)

Question 21

span of control

Answer 21

refers to the number of employees that a
manager can efficiently and effectively direct

narrow= closer supervision
wider= more efficient
organization (associated with reduced bureaucracy and
lower management costs)

Question 22

Centralization / Decentralization

Answer 22

“Tall” or Centralized
- Decisions made at the top and communicated down via authority relationships
- Use when goals/activities are generally clear
- May suffer from bureaucracy, excessive management
- Examples: Federal Government, U.S. military

use when goals are clear, efficiency and
predictability are important, coordination is essential

“Flat” or Decentralized
- Decisions/tasks completed through groups with similarly‐ranked members
- Suggestive that indivs. closer to problems may have better knowledge/info
- Use when org. is small; tasks require innovation or entrepreneurial solutions
- Examples: Universities, startups

Use decentralized (flat) orgs when: goals are unclear, markets are
dynamic, knowledge/diverse interests are important

Question 23

Departmentalization

Answer 23

Departmentalization is the subdivision of a business
into units
- The basis by which jobs are grouped together so that
common tasks can be coordinated (integration)
- At the same time, it distinguishes different jobs from
one another (differentiation)

Question 24

friendship paradox

Question 25

Types of information brokerage

Answer 25

• Simple Brokerage: Transfer info or resources. Communicate interests
  and difficulties of individuals on both sides of a structural hole
• transferring Best Practices: Contextual understanding of two separate
  groups could allow a broker to see value in translating certain insights
  from one group to another
• Drawing Analogies: Identifying common solutions or opportunities
  between groups that are otherwise potentially irrelevant
• Synthesis: Familiarity with two disparate groups may allow
  a broker to identify new opportunities by combining
  elements from both groups

Question 26

Redundancy

Question 27

Four Caveats to Network Returns

Answer 27

1. Brokerage returns are a probability, not a certainty
2. Network advantages are somewhat independent of
   personality; evident even when people are randomly
   assigned to a network
3. Personal engagement shapes outcomes
4. Job and type of work shapes outcomes
   -Network position seems to produce greater rewards for
   individuals in unique and high‐ranking jobs

Question 28

Tertius gaudens

Answer 28

(the third who
benefits)
-One party benefits from a conflict (or disjointed
exchange) among two or more others
- Actors with networks rich in structural holes may act as
gatekeepers, potentially shaping the flow of information and
resources (like money)

Question 29

Tertius Iugens

Answer 29

(the third who joins)
Bringing people together can
result in certain communal benefits, but it generally limits access to
unique information and control benefits

Question 30

how social capital shapes

Answer 30

▪ Natural talent
▪ Intelligence
▪ Education
▪ Effort
▪ Luck

Question 31

organizations as a Rational system, Natural system, Open system

Question 32

Features of the organizational
environment

Question 33

network centrality

Answer 33

Individuals positioned in the middle of a network may
learn about info. quickly (not necessarily unique info) and be early adopters

Question 34

path length

Answer 34

refers to average social distance between actors (recall
the “six degrees of separation” popularization of this theory)

Question 35

Desirable Network Characteristics

Answer 35

Efficiency
- Maximize the number of nonredundant contacts to increase
the yield in structural holes per contact
- ‘There is little gain from a new contact redundant with
existing contacts” (Burt 1992)

Effectiveness
- Identify, and maintain relationships with, “primary contacts,”
individuals who are ports of access to clusters of people