Unit 6 - Org Structure and Change Flashcards
•What are the advantages and disadvantages of decentralization?
decision making at lower levels of a company
employees are more empored
decisions can be made more quickly
employees think of this style as more “fair”
•All else being equal, would you prefer to work in a tall or flat organization? Why?
in a tall organization
- more streamlined tasks
- more specialized managers to report to
- better job opportunities
- higher feeling of secureness
•What are the advantages and disadvantages of departmentalization by product?
Workers are generalists instead of specialists. Employees are in charge of performing many different tasks.
each product field has specific deman which can be more tendered this way. more effective in stable environemnts that are slow to change.
Formalization
Organizationals policies, procedures, job descriptions and rules, written and expliccitly articulated.
- controls employees behavior
- little autonomy to decide for employees
- makes behavior more predictable
- reduced innovativeness
- reduced motivation and job satisfaction
- slower path of decision making
Hierarchical elvels
number of levels in a company’s hierarchy
- tall structures
- flatt structures
tall:
- no of employees reporting to manager lower
- greater supervision opportunities
employees feel greater job security
flat:
no of employees reporting to a manager higher
- one manager responsible for a lot of people
can become a bottleneck
employes experience great levels of role ambiguity
small advancement opportunities because no hierarchy
Departmentalization
Splitting up organizational structures either
- functional
- divisional
- mixture of these 2
Functiona: similar job groups or functions
- marketing
- manufacturing
- accounting
divisional: splitting up departments by unique products, services, customers …
- medical devices
- consumer products
- USA customers
- DE customers …
mixtures:
most of the stuff is functional split but some operations and some responsibility is split up by division tasks.
MAtrix organization
Matrix structures are created in response to uncertainty and dynamism of the environment and the need
to give particular attention to specific products or projects. Using the matrix structure as opposed to product
departments may increase communication and cooperation among departments because project managers will
need to coordinate their actions with those of department managers.
Matrix structures also have the benefit of providing quick responses to technical problems and customer demands, and The existence of a project manager keeps the focus on the product or service provid
•What do you think are some key reasons why people resist change?
active resistance: sabotage
passive resistance: be distrubed by changes
compliance: go along with change
enthusiastic support: support change
WHY do peopel resist?
- distrupted habits
- personality (openness)
- uncertainty
- . fear of failure
- impact of change
- prevalence of change
- loss of power
Learning organizations
one whoose desgn activly seeks to acquire knowledge and change behavior. Norms: experimenting, learning, reflecting. Teh structure tolerates failure and risk taking is encouraged. This supports learning. Learning organizations conduct a lot of (compeititor, customer, market …) analyses to learn.
Organizational change
movement of an organization from one state of affairs to another. Change in environment often requires change within the organization. Change is sometimes met with resistance.
its important to include emplyoees in the change process.
type of org. change
structure strategy policies procedures technology culture
Globalization
another threat for organizations
its often cheaper to produce goods and services in other countries. this led to outsourcing of operations.
Changes in market conditions
…
growth
successful companies usually grow. this leads to larger, complex organizations
resistance to change
is not always bad. can be valueable feedback.
