Effective Management 7th Edition by Williams
ISBN 128586624X 9781285866246
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1. Organizational structure is the description of the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments, authority, and jobs within a company.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
2. While organizational structure emphasizes the activities through which work is done in the organization, organizational process emphasizes jobs and their authority relationships.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: The definitions of these two key terms are switched. While organizational structure emphasizes jobs and their authority relationships, organizational process emphasizes the activities through which work gets done in the organization, or the collection of activities that transform inputs into outputs that customers value.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
3. Functional departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for particular business functions or areas of expertise.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
4. Departmentalization is a method of organizing work and workers into separate units responsible for particular business functions or areas of expertise.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: This is the definition of one specific type of departmentalization, functional departmentalization. The more general definition of departmentalization is "a method of subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units responsible for completing particular tasks."
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension United States - Level IV Analysis
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
5. Cross-department coordination tends to be very easy in organizations with functional departmentalization.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: Cross-department coordination can be difficult with functional departmentalization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level IV Analysis
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
6. Product departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for particular kinds of customers.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: This is the definition of customer departmentalization. Product departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for producing particular products or services.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge United States - Level IV Analysis
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
7. The two disadvantages associated with product departmentalization are costly duplication and difficulties with crossdepartmental coordination.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge United States - Level III Application
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
8. Under product departmentalization, it is easier for top managers to assess work-unit performance.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level III Application
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
9. Matrix departmentalization is a hybrid structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization, such as the product and functional forms are used together.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
10. In matrix departmentalization, as in other forms of departmentalization, most employees report to a single boss.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: In matrix departmentalization, most employees report to two bosses.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
11. The coordination of departmental activities tends to be more difficult with the geographic approach to departmentalization than with the other approaches.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
12. The most common matrix combines customer and functional forms of departmentalization.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: The most common matrix combines product and functional forms of departmentalization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
13. One of the reasons that matrix organizations are difficult to manage is that the organizational structure violates the principle of delegation of authority.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: One of the reasons that matrix organizations are difficult to manage is that they violate the principle of unity of command
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
14. In a decentralized organization, workers closest to problems are authorized to make the decisions necessary to solve the problems on their own.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Leadership Principles
15. The term task description refers to the number, kind, and variety of tasks that individual workers perform in doing their jobs.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: The term job design refers to the number, kind, and variety of tasks that individual workers perform in doing their jobs.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Leadership Principles
16. Specialized jobs are characterized by simple, easy-to-learn steps; low variety; and high repetition.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Leadership Principles
17. In spite of their disadvantages, companies continue to create and use specialized jobs because they are very economical.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Leadership Principles
18. Specialized jobs are generally inefficient.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: Specialized jobs are highly efficient but can be tedious unless managers use job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment to make them more interesting.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-4a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles
19. Job enlargement and job enrichment mean essentially the same thing.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: While job enlargement increases the number of tasks performed, job enrichment adds a fundamentally different dimension: authority and control to make meaningful decisions about the work.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-4b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM
20. An organic organization is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics
21. All organizations can be categorized clearly as either completely mechanistic or completely organic.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: These dimensions represent bipolar extremes. Since the characteristics that define them can vary along a continuum, so can organizations, which may be more or less mechanistic or organic rather than either completely one or the other.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM
22. Using reciprocal interdependence, work must be performed in succession because one group or job's outputs become the inputs for the next group or job.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: This is the definition of sequential interdependence. Reciprocal interdependence exists when work is completed by different jobs or groups working together in a back-and-forth manner.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics
23. Empowerment can lead to changes in organizational processes because meaning, competence, impact, and selfdetermination produce empowered employees who take active rather than passive roles in their work.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
24. A virtual organization is an organization that outsources noncore business activities to outside companies, suppliers, specialists, or consultants.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: False
RATIONALE: This is the definition of a modular organization. A virtual organization is an organization that is part of a network in which many companies share skills, costs, capabilities, markets, and customers to collectively solve customer problems or provide specific products or services.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-7a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
25. One of the advantages of a virtual organization is the fact that it allows member companies to share costs.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-7b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Information Technologies | Strategy
26. A virtual organization is part of a network in which many companies share skills, costs, capabilities, markets, and customers with each other.
a. True
b. False
ANSWER: True
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-7b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Information Technologies | Strategy
27. As a class project, Senora is working with other classmates to create a company that would market NASCAR memorabilia. Senora’s teacher has instructed her to use the traditional approach to create the organization’s structure. What should Senora do?
a. create an organizational structure with vertical and horizontal configurations
b. use an organizational process to create a matrix design
c. create a virtual organization
d. use the organizational structure to control creativity
e. create a matrix structure that will adhere to the unity of command principle
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Organizational structure is the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments, authority, and jobs within a company.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
28. is the collection of activities that transform inputs into outputs that customer’s value.
a. Reengineering
b. Functionalization
c. Organizational structure
d. Production positioning
e. Organizational process
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
29. The organizational process ____.
a. defines roles not activities
b. limits the adaptivity of an organization
c. uses vertical and horizontal departmentalization
d. is a traditional method for establishing organizational structures
e. is the collection of activities that transform inputs into outputs that customers value
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
30. While emphasizes jobs and their authority relationships, emphasizes the activities through which work gets done in the organization.
a. departmentalization; functionalization
b. organizational process; organizational structure
c. interorganizational process; intraorganizational process
d. intraorganizational process; interorganizational process
e. organizational structure; organizational process
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics
31. departmentalization is defined as organizing work and workers into separate units responsible for particular business functions or areas of expertise.
a. Functional
b. Customer
c. Matrix
d. Product
e. Hierarchical
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics
32. Kimberly-Clark is subdivided into organizational units called Kimberly-Clark Health Care, which provides products to hospitals, Kimberly-Clark Professional, which sells to businesses, and Kimberly-Clark Consumer, which sells the company’s products to customers. From this information, you know that Kimberly-Clark uses ____.
a. hierarchical functionalization
b. departmentalization
c. a nonlinear organizational structure
d. a product layout
e. product formatting
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: Departmentalization is a general term that refers to subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units that are responsible for completing particular tasks.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
33. As a consequence of the Industrial Revolution and its emphasis on specialization, institutions providing higher education developed strict departments that contained specialized functions. This organizational structure was perceived as a way to enhance the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge. Institutions providing higher education have traditionally used ____.
a. reengineering
b. functionalization
c. departmentalization
d. functional empowerment
e. job dissemination
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: Departmentalization is a general term that refers to subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units that are responsible for completing particular tasks.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
34. is a general term that refers to subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units that are responsible for completing particular tasks.
a. Organizational layout
b. Organizational process
c. Departmentalization
d. Job formatting
e. Functionalization
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Operations Management
35. Which of the following statements about functional departmentalization is true?
a. Functional departmentalization allows work to be done by highly qualified specialists.
b. Functional departmentalization increases costs by reducing duplication.
c. Functional departmentalization complicates communication and coordination for departmental managers.
d. Functional departmentalization requires the same kinds of functional departments in any company.
e. Functional departmentalization is also called free-form specialization.
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Functional departmentalization lowers costs by reducing duplication. People within a department organized by functional departmentalization have an easy time communicating with one another. One company that uses functional departmentalization might have an accounts receivable department while another may only have an accounting department.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles
36. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of functional departmentalization?
a. Functional departmentalization allows work to be done by highly qualified specialists.
b. Functional departmentalization lowers costs by reducing duplication.
c. Functional departmentalization produces managers with broader experience and expertise.
d. Functional departmentalization complicates coordination between departments.
e. Functional departmentalization organizes workers into separate units responsible for performing particular business functions.
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: Functional departmentalization may produce managers and workers with narrow experience and expertise because departments are focused on one function.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Reflective Thinking
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Strategy
37. Functional departmentalization ____.
a. makes it easier for top managers to assess work-unit performance
b. allows work to be done by highly qualified specialists
c. produces managers with broader experience and expertise
d. enhances coordination between departments
e. encourages interdepartmental communication
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
38. Hallmark has four departments. These departments are (1) Flowers and Gifts, (2) Cards and E-cards, (3) Hallmark Collectibles, and (4) Photo Albums and Scrapbooks. Hallmark uses departmentalization.
a. matrix
b. product
c. customer
d. geographic
e. functional
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
39. Disadvantages of departmentalization include slower decision making, the development of managers and workers with narrow experience and expertise, and makes it more difficult for cross-departmental coordination.
a. product
b. customer
c. geographic
d. functional
e. hierarchical
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: Functional departmentalization organizes work and workers into separate units responsible for particular business functions.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
40. A manufacturer of acrylic and latex gloves sells to medical laboratories, to factories where employees handle chemicals, to companies that manufacture micro-tech equipment, and to cleaning services. Because it is organized to better satisfy the needs of each of its four target markets, the manufacturer uses departmentalization.
a. matrix
b. product
c. customer
d. geographic
e. functional
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
41. Large accounting agencies typically have separate departments that deal with households, businesses, and governments. This allows them to better serve the needs of their clients, by using departmentalization.
a. matrix
b. product
c. customer
d. geographic
e. functional
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
42. With divisions that focus on business clients and consumer clients, companies like Sprint, American Express, and others are examples of departmentalization.
a. boundaryless
b. product
c. customer
d. functional
e. matrix
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: Customer departmentalization focuses on customers' needs.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
43. The primary disadvantage of customer departmentalization is ____.
a. an over-emphasis on customer needs
b. duplication
c. difficulties in coordinating across departments
d. overspecialization of managers and workers
e. an inability to solve problems for specific customers
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: The customer basis of departmentalization tends to result in functional duplication (e.g., marketing employees in each customer group).
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
44. Procter & Gamble has divisions for personal and beauty, house and home, health and wellness, baby and family, and pet nutrition and care. These divisions indicate that the company uses departmentalization.
a. functional
b. geographic
c. product
d. customer
e. strategic business unit (SBU)
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
45. Which of the following types of departmentalization does NOT have a problem with the duplication of resources?
a. functional
b. geographic and matrix
c. product and customer
d. customer and functional
e. geographic
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Operations Management
46. With departmentalization, most employees report to two bosses.
a. geographic
b. matrix
c. product
d. customer
e. functional
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
47. The primary disadvantage of geographic departmentalization is ____.
a. the absence of cross-departmental coordination
b. broken chains of command
c. spans of control that are too wide
d. the lack of empowerment
e. duplication of resources
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles
48. Commerce Insurance Services has five divisions. They are personal; core commercial; Main Street business; major commercial; and benefits. The company is also departmentalized along product lines. Commerce Insurance Services uses departmentalization.
a. boundaryless
b. product
c. customer
d. functional
e. matrix
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: Matrix departmentalization is a hybrid organizational structure in which two or more forms of departmentalization are used together.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Operations Management
49. Which of the following statements about matrix departmentalization is true?
a. Most employees in an organization that uses matrix departmentalization report to two bosses.
b. With matrix departmentalization, there tends to be more cross-functional interaction among employees than in other types of departmentalization.
c. With matrix departmentalization, there needs to be significant coordination between functional and project managers.
d. The most common matrix combines product and functional departmentalization.
e. All of these statements about matrix departmentalization are true.
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
50. The primary advantage of departmentalization is the fact that it allows companies to manage large, complex tasks efficiently by minimizing duplication.
a. product
b. functional
c. matrix
d. geographic
e. functional
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
51. In a(n) ____, managers from different parts of the matrix report to matrix managers who help them sort out problems and conflicts.
a. networked matrix
b. synergistic matrix
c. complex matrix
d. hierarchical matrix
e. organic matrix
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: This is the definition of a complex matrix.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
52. A(n) is a form of matrix departmentalization in which managers in different parts of the matrix negotiate conflicts and resources directly.
a. simple matrix
b. networked matrix
c. empathetic matrix
d. matrix of convenience
e. synergistic matrix
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
53. departmentalization is notorious for confusion and conflict between project managers in different areas of the organization.
a. Matrix
b. Functional
c. Customer
d. Product
e. Geographic
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: The presence of two bosses can lead to disagreements about scheduling, budgeting, and the sharing of other resources.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
54. Of all types of departmentalization, departmentalization requires the highest level of management skill for successful implementation.
a. geographic
b. customer
c. matrix
d. product
e. functional
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: This is viewed as one of the disadvantages of matrix departmentalization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
55. Because of problems associated with conflicts over schedules, budgets, and available resources (including employees), departmentalization often evolves from a simple form to a more complex form.
a. hierarchical
b. functional
c. customer
d. product
e. matrix
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
56. Honeywell Inc. reorganized its European operations along customer lines to prepare for a unified European Union. In doing so, it abandoned matrix departmentalization. Why would Honeywell engage in such restructuring?
a. to create pools of resources
b. to empower its employees
c. to better adhere to the management philosophy of staff authority
d. to improve its ability to handle complex tasks
e. to end conflict between product managers in different parts of its matrix
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: One of the primary disadvantages of matrix departmentalization is the need for a high level of coordination. Alternatives A and D describe advantages of this form of departmentalization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2e
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
57. In terms of the chain of command, authority is the right to command immediate subordinates, while authority is the right to advise but not command others who are not subordinates.
a. departmental; functional
b. centralized; decentralized
c. functional; expert
d. internal; external
e. line; staff
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
58. Organizational authority is traditionally characterized by ____.
a. chain of command
b. empowerment
c. behavioral informality
d. reengineering
e. all of these
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
59. Robert Strickland works in the legal department at a large consumer products manufacturer. It is his job to craft warnings on package labels. This is Strickland's ____.
a. line function
b. boundary-spanning role
c. chain of command role
d. staff function
e. personal empowerment role
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: A staff function is an activity that does not contribute directly to creating or selling the company's product.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Leadership Principles
60. As a result of their structures, matrix organizations automatically violate the principle of ____.
a. line authority
b. unity of command
c. delegation of authority
d. degree of centralization
e. staff authority
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: Unity of command is the principle that workers should report to just one boss.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
61. One of the key assumptions underlying the chain of command is ____, which means that workers should report to just one supervisor.
a. delegation of command
b. empowerment
c. synergistic authority
d. unity of command
e. centralization of authority
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
62. A(n) function is an activity that contributes directly to creating or selling the company's products.
a. staff
b. line
c. mechanistic
d. organic
e. charted
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Leadership Principles
63. Jennifer Lee works in the public relations department of a large pharmaceutical company. It is her job to write speeches for the company’s top managers, to issue press and video releases, to host plant tours, and to be involved in community affairs. Lee has ____.
a. line authority
b. mechanistic authority
c. empowerment obligations
d. staff authority
e. linear power
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: Staff authority is the right to advise, but not command, others who are not subordinates in the chain of command.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
64. An international distribution company has a shipping division, a warehouse division, a computer hardware and software distribution center, as well as, a marketing research department, a human resources department, and an accounting department. A salesperson who works in the shipping division is told by the accounting department that he must turn in a weekly expense account. His supervisor in the shipping division wants expense accounts submitted monthly. The salesperson is likely experiencing a problem with ____.
a. line authority
b. delegation of authority
c. centralization
d. chain of command
e. organizational synergy
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: The chain of command is the vertical line of authority that clarifies who reports to whom. The salesperson is experiencing competing demands from two different individuals to whom he may be accountable.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
65. The chain of command ____.
a. is the horizontal line of authority that indicates at which level of management an individual belongs
b. acts at cross-purposes to the unity of command principle
c. is only relevant in mechanistic organizations
d. does not permit delegation of authority
e. is described by none of these
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-3a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
66. Which of the following positions most likely performs a staff function?
a. the supervisor of the loading dock
b. the organization's receptionist
c. the vice president of marketing
d. a member of the office cleaning crew
e. a shift supervisor
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: Only the office cleaning crew performs a task that does not directly contribute to the creation or sales of the product.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-3b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
67. involves assigning direct authority and responsibility to a subordinate to complete tasks for which the manager is normally responsible.
a. A job description
b. Staff functionality
c. Delegation of authority
d. Decentralization
e. An organization chart
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-3c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
68. When managers delegate work, three transfers occur. The three transfers are responsibility, authority, and ____.
a. utility
b. synergy
c. reciprocity
d. accountability
e. empathy
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-3c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
69. The marketing manager of a company that manufactures church furniture has been given the job of increasing corporate profits by 5 percent during the upcoming year. The manager decided to give his assistant the full responsibility and authority for developing a mailing campaign to target churches on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. In other words, the marketing manager has ____.
a. implemented feedback controls
b. created a staff position
c. embraced the matrix organizational philosophy
d. delegated the task
e. created a win-win relationship
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: The delegation of authority is the assignment of direct authority and responsibility to a subordinate to complete tasks for which the manager is directly responsible.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-3c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
70. is the process of solving problems by consistently applying the same rules, procedures, and processes.
a. Consistency planning
b. Organizational autonomy
c. Standardization
d. Problem empowerment
e. Procedural planning
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
71. Like most large U.S. hospitals, University Health Care System spends an enormous amount on patient supplies. The hospital has more than 15,000 individual products that are purchased on a routine basis. Its purchasing manager instituted a hospital-wide purchasing policy that gave a specific code to each individual item. In other words, the purchasing manager engaged in ____.
a. consistency planning
b. organizational autonomy
c. standardization
d. problem empowerment
e. procedural planning
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: Standardization is the process of solving problems by consistently applying the same rules, procedures, and processes.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Leadership Principles | Operations Management
72. An Indian Catholic Cardinal's call for local church leaders to have more power and for papal authority to be distributed to lower levels within the Catholic hierarchy has elicited agreement from other church leaders in India. He also asserted that bishops should not have "to run to Rome for everything" and that canon law should be modified to allow the pope to share his authority. Vithayathil is calling for __.
a. centralization
b. standardization
c. top management empowerment
d. job specialization
e. decentralization
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: Decentralization is the location of a significant amount of authority in the lower levels of an organization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
73. According to an Indian Cardinal by the name of Varkey Vithayathil, the greatest weakness of the Catholic Church is the way papal authority is exercised without the participation of those concerned. His eminence Cardinal Vithayathil is criticizing the fact that the Catholic Church relies on ____.
a. centralization of authority
b. standardization
c. top management reciprocity
d. job specialization
e. decentralization
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Centralization of authority is the location of most authority at the upper levels of management.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
74. Decentralization ____.
a. leads to faster decision making and more satisfied customers and employees
b. tends to stymie employee capabilities
c. is characteristic of large companies
d. is more appropriate where standardization is important
e. is accurately described by all of these
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
75. Where standardization is important, it is appropriate to ____.
a. centralize authority
b. decentralize authority
c. emphasize line authority
d. have a flat organizational structure
e. evaluate interdependence
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
76. is characterized by simple, easy-to-learn steps; low variety; and high repetition.
a. Job consistency
b. Job specialization
c. Task reengineering
d. Standardization
e. Task homogeneity
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Operations Management
77. Job specialization can result in ____.
a. high job satisfaction
b. employee boredom
c. low employee turnover
d. complicated job designs
e. low absenteeism
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: A job that is only a small part of a larger job tends to be repetitive.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics
78. determines the number, kind, and variety of tasks that individual workers perform in their jobs.
a. Standardization
b. Task mapping
c. Job design
d. Job specialization
e. An organizational chart
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: This is the definition of job design.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
79. An organization that has increased the number of different tasks that a worker performs within one particular job has engaged in ____.
a. task aggregation
b. job specialization
c. job enlargement
d. employee specialization
e. job rotation
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: This is the definition of job enlargement.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
80. The Ryerson University Library is organized in a hierarchy with six unit heads reporting to a chief librarian. Within these units are fifteen librarians and forty-seven full-time library staff. One of the tools used in the organizational development of the library was to systematically move employees from one job to another to give them an opportunity to learn and use different skills. The Ryerson University Library used ____.
a. task aggregation
b. job specialization
c. job enlargement
d. employee specialization
e. job rotation
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: Job rotation is the periodic movement of employees from one specialized task to another.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
81. The job design approach associated with involves increasing the number of different tasks that a worker performs within one particular job and giving workers the authority and control to make meaningful decisions about their work.
a. job rotation and job enlargement
b. job specialization and job enrichment
c. job specialization and job enlargement
d. job enlargement and job enrichment
e. job enrichment and job rotation
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-4b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
82. The central concern of the job characteristics model (JCM) is ____.
a. internal motivation
b. synergy
c. task identification
d. time-motion studies
e. a value-added measure
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics
83. Which of the following approaches to job redesign entails more than simply providing additional variety in job tasks?
a. the job enrichment plan
b. the job characteristics model
c. the Gantt chart
d. the task specialization map
e. the task breakdown plan
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: The JCM is an approach to job redesign that seeks to formulate jobs in ways that motivate workers and lead to positive work outcomes.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
84. Which of the following is NOT one of the core job characteristics in the job characteristics model (JCM)?
a. client relationships
b. task identity
c. autonomy
d. skill variety
e. task significance
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: See Exhibit 8.10.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
85. Elena works in a data processing department for a large credit reporting service and is bored. She spends her days inputting an endless stream of monotonous data into much larger data bases. According to the job characteristics model (JCM), one of the primary reasons for her boredom is ____.
a. a low degree of feedback
b. a high degree of autonomy
c. a low degree of task identity
d. a high degree of task significance
e. a high degree of skill variety
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: Her job is just a small part of a much bigger task, so Elena does is not involved in the entire task as it is done from beginning to end.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics
86. is the degree to which a job gives workers the discretion, freedom, and independence to decide how and when to accomplish their jobs.
a. Task significance
b. Task identity
c. Skill variety
d. Autonomy
e. Skill feedback
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics
87. is the degree to which a job is perceived to have a substantial impact on others inside or outside the organization.
a. Task significance
b. Skill feedback
c. Skill variety
d. Autonomy
e. Task identity
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics
88. According to the job characteristics model, means pushing some managerial authority down to workers.
a. establishing reciprocity
b. vertical loading
c. forming natural work units
d. decoding tasks
e. creating group norms
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: See What Really Works, The Job Characteristics Model: Making Jobs More Interesting and Motivating.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-4c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
89. A(n) organization is one that is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibilities; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge.
a. centralized
b. mechanistic
c. departmentalized
d. organic
e. modular
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
90. According to an electronics CEO, the first requirement of management is that it should make the fullest use of the capacities of its members. Thus any individual’s job should be as little defined as possible so that it would ‘shape itself’ to the person’s special abilities and initiative. This electronics company more than likely had a(n) organization.
a. centralized
b. mechanistic
c. departmentalized
d. organic
e. modular
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: An organic organization is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibilities; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
91. In a(n) organization, the normal procedure for dealing with any matter lying outside the boundaries of one individual’s functional responsibility is to refer it to the point in the system where such responsibility is known to reside, or, failing that, to lay it before one’s superior.
a. centralized
b. mechanistic
c. departmentalized
d. organic
e. modular
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: The existence of a rigid chain of command in a mechanistic organization precludes a subordinate acting on his or her own.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
92. When higher management in a(n) organization admits there is a need for better communication, the response is to tether subordinates to their jobs and to appoint newly hired employees who specialize in establishing liaison relationships.
a. centralized
b. mechanistic
c. departmentalized
d. organic
e. modular
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: The reliance on vertical communication in a mechanistic organization precludes subordinates from sharing ideas, etc.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
AACSB Communication
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics
93. Which of the following statements about the organic form of organization design is true?
a. The organic form of organization design is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge.
b. The organic form of organization design works best in stable business environments.
c. The organic form of organization design is better suited to using organizational design techniques based upon functional departmentalization and centralized authority.
d. The organic form of organization design is typically less appropriate than the mechanistic approach for the environments in which today's businesses compete.
e. All of these statements about the organic form of organization design are true.
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Organic organizations work best in dynamic business environments, are loosely defined, and are more appropriate for today’s businesses.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
94. A(n) organization is an organization that is characterized by specialized jobs and responsibilities; precisely defined, unchanging roles; and a rigid chain of command based on centralized authority and vertical communication.
a. modular
b. departmentalized
c. standardized
d. organic
e. mechanistic
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
95. Which of the following statements about mechanistic organizations is true?
a. Mechanistic organizations rely on decentralized authority.
b. Mechanistic organizations work best in stable, unchanging business environments.
c. Mechanistic organizations are characterized by horizontal communication based on task knowledge.
d. Mechanistic organizations have broadly defined jobs.
e. None of these statements about mechanistic organizations is true.
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: Mechanistic organizations use job specialization, a rigid chain of command, and vertical communication.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
96. is a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical measures of performance such as cost, quality, service, and speed.
a. Pooling interdependence
b. Reciprocating interdependence
c. Reengineering
d. Repositioning
e. Manufacturing conversion
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
97. In recent years, the Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) has undergone a radical change in how it determines and shares local weather conditions with pilots. Before the local base weather station was responsible for warnings. The quality of this information varied. Now AFWA provides the same high standard of weather information to all pilots. This is an example of ____?
a. customization
b. micro-adaptation
c. sequential independence
d. reengineering
e. customer empowerment
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of processes to achieve dramatic improvements in performance.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
98. LexisNexis realized that its ability to serve new Web-based customers was severely straining its customer service department after thousands of small and midsize law firms representing a huge business opportunity had to wait 48 hours to have their Web accounts activated after signing up. Clearly, LexisNexis needed to revamp its customer sign-up and order-fulfillment processes, which were designed for large law firms and the ordering of hardcover legal tomes. LexisNexis would most likely use to radically change its business practices.
a. standardization
b. micro-adaptation
c. sequential independence
d. reengineering
e. customer empowerment
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: Reengineering is the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of operational processes.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
99. is a feeling of intrinsic motivation, in which workers perceive their work to have meaning and perceive themselves to be competent, having an impact, and capable of self-determination.
a. Reciprocity
b. Motivational assertion
c. Eutonomy
d. Empowerment
e. Autonomy
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-6b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: HRM | Leadership Principles | Motivation Concepts
100. The three types of task interdependence are
a. pooled, delegated, and systematic
b. delegated, integrated, and combined
c. sequential, delegated, and pooled
d. reciprocal, pooled, and sequential
e. integrated, reciprocal, and synergistic
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Operations Management
101. Zara clothing stores has developed a system that can order new fashions and deliver them to the store in only three weeks. It uses to pass information to the next person in the line of development.
a. standardization
b. sequential interdependence
c. pooled interdependence
d. manager empowerment
e. transactional intradependence
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: Sequential interdependence is work completed in succession.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: HRM | Operations Management
102. A military expert describes how the military forces were organized for Operation Desert Storm as pooled interdependence. This means that each branch of the military that took part in the operation ____.
a. independently contributed to the success of the campaign
b. worked with each other in a give-and-take manner
c. performed identical tasks
d. accepted the fact that one's group's output was another group's input
e. had little, or no, autonomy
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Pooled interdependence means that the task was completed by each branch acting independently.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
103. Leaders during any disaster need to give their employees a sense that everyone is participating in the relief effort. The Gap gave its employees the authority to transfer their paid time off to some 1,300 employees affected by Hurricane Katrina. The Gap used to allow its employees to gain a feeling of intrinsic motivation.
a. standardization
b. sequential interdependence
c. pooled interdependence
d. empowerment
e. transactional intradependence
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: Empowerment allows workers to gain feelings of intrinsic motivation because they are allowed to determine their own, individual response to a work situation.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles | Motivation Concepts | Operations Management
104. Roughly 70 percent of all reengineering projects fail because ____.
a. of how the process affects people in the workplace
b. the reengineering process requires the organization's vision to be changed
c. staff personnel must be given line authority to effectively implement reengineering
d. satisfactory benchmarks cannot be located
e. newly hired employees cannot internalize the organizational culture
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
105. Novo Nordisk is a European manufacturer of pharmaceuticals. An employee , Rikke NedergaardBischoff, who is a clinical-development scientist, contends that Novo upholds the standards expected of public institutions without the stifling bureaucracy. She says, "There's a great deal of empowerment at Novo Nordisk." Novo Nordisk provides NedergaardBischoff with ____.
a. a rigid chain of command
b. a mechanistic work environment
c. feelings of intrinsic motivation
d. reengineering opportunities
e. a high degree of job significance as defined by the JCM
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: Intrinsic motivation, or empowerment, means permanently passing decision-making authority and responsibility from managers to workers.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles | Motivation Concepts | Operations Management
106. In essence, reengineering changes organizations by ____.
a. increasing reciprocal interdependence
b. decreasing the use of autonomy
c. increasing pooled interdependence
d. decreasing delegation
e. increasing sequential interdependence
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: By reducing the handoffs between different jobs or groups, reengineering decreases sequential interdependence. By making groups or individuals responsible for larger, more complete processes, reengineering increases reciprocal interdependence.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
107. Which of the following is an approach to managing interorganizational processes?
a. matrix organizations
b. modular organizations
c. flat organizations
d. hierarchical organizations
e. tall organizations
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-7
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | HRM | Individual Dynamics | Leadership Principles
108. Except for the core business activities that they can perform better, faster, and cheaper than others, outsource all remaining business activities to outside companies, suppliers, specialists, or consultants.
a. modular organizations
b. hierarchical organizations
c. boundaryless organizations
d. organizational networks
e. virtual organizations
ANSWER: a
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-7a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
109. Modular organizations ____.
a. allow a high level of control over business processes and output
b. cost significantly more to run than traditional organizations
c. outsource all but the core business activities that they can perform best
d. succeed because they operate independently from vendors and suppliers
e. are accurately described by all of these
ANSWER: c
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-7a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
110. A(n) organization is part of a network in which many companies share skills, costs, capabilities, markets, and customers with each other.
a. modular
b. virtual
c. matrix
d. electronic
e. boundaryless
ANSWER: b
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-7b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS:
AACSB Analytic
AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Information Technologies | Strategy
111. A park, recreation, and open space (PROS) cooperative is a recognized association of park, recreation, open space, and related entities united voluntarily. PROS cooperatives conserve the diversity of valued resources and recreation opportunities for the benefit these afford individuals, communities, the economy, and the environment. A PROS cooperative is an example of a organization.
a. modular
b. boundaryless
c. decentralized
d. virtual
e. mechanistic
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: A virtual organization is a network in which many companies share skills, costs, capabilities, markets, and customers with each other.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-7b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
112. In the automobile industry, three car manufacturers and a variety of suppliers and distributors have formed a network to create economies in production through outsourcing. It is intended for this to cut as much as $3,000 from the costs of producing one car.
a. matrix organization
b. functional organization
c. modular organization
d. hierarchical organization
e. virtual organization
ANSWER: e
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-7b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
113. The composition of a organization is always changing.
a. modular
b. boundaryless
c. decentralized
d. virtual
e. mechanistic
ANSWER: d
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-7b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS:
AACSB Analytic
AACSB Technology
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
Yahoo!
Welcome to Yahoo! where you’ll find a $100 million loss, plummeting advertising sales, a stock price that has fallen from an all-time high of $237 to less than $10 per share, and layoffs that cost 800 people including the previous CEO their jobs. At this once-phenomenally-successful company, so many basic things have gone wrong that the question is: Where do you start to fix it?
One key problem is the organizational structure: with just 3,200 employees, Yahoo! has forty-four different business units! Even General Electric, with 300,000 employees, has only 13. You think to yourself, “This is unmanageable. Too many people and no focus.” Amazingly, despite having 44 business units, Yahoo! doesn’t have a direct sales unit. No one, it turns out, is responsible for cultivating customers. Why not? Well, during the “go-go” days, customers were literally throwing themselves and their advertising dollars at the company. As one Yahoo! manager said, “The fish were jumping into the boat.” Consequently, most orders took place via email. Yahoo! didn’t have to establish relationships with customers because customers came to it. Unfortunately, this led to arrogance. Jeff Bell, a vice president at one of Yahoo!’s potential customers, said the message was, “Buy our stuff [meaning Yahoo!’s advertising], and shut up.” Jeff Mallett, Yahoo!’s former president, said, “We ran Yahoo! to optimize market share. I make no apologies for that. If there was a company that didn’t get it [Internet advertising], we moved on very quickly.” Another problem was the overly creative, freewheeling, spontaneous company culture in which everyone, including the CEO, worked in cubicles. The problem wasn’t so much the cubicles, but what they came to represent: an overly informal culture with no controls. At Yahoo!, employees played soccer in a large open space outside the company boardroom, even while the board was meeting. Furthermore, no one had an overall perspective of what was best for the entire company. Consequently, said one Yahoo! vice president, “[Unit] managers would beg, borrow, and steal from the network [meaning the overall company] to help their own properties.” Plus, if you had an idea, you pursued it without having to get anyone’s feedback or approval. Yahoo!’s chief operating officer said, “Yahoo!’s original mission was to grow as fast as you can and put things out there and see what works.” The more serious problem, he said, was that “nobody knew what would work.”
The most amazing aspect of this culture was that, as one manager explained, “There was a fair amount of resistance toward the strategy of monetizing our businesses.” In other words, the culture at Yahoo! was so informal, so unfocused, and so freewheeling that no one really worried about whether the company could charge for the services it provided and make a profit. “There was a fear,” said this manager, “that if all of our efforts were put into profit making, we’d starve research and development and lose our innovation.”
114. Refer to Yahoo!. One of the causes of the precipitous drop in the value of Yahoo's stock was the company's inability to subdivide work and workers into separate organizational units responsible for completing particular tasks. For example,
Yahoo has no sales unit to cultivate and call on advertising customers. Yahoo caused itself trouble when it decided to not engage in ____.
a. decentralization
b. cultural rigidity
c. the appropriate change of command
d. departmentalization
e. employee empowerment
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: This is the definition of departmentalization
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
115. Refer to Yahoo!. After restructuring, Yahoo's four new departments were consumer services, marketing services, business and enterprise services, and premium services. What type of organizational structure did Yahoo adopt during its restructuring?
a. product
b. matrix
c. networked
d. functional
e. customer
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Product departmentalization is defined as organizing work and workers into separate units responsible for producing particular services.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | Environmental Influence | HRM | Strategy
116. Refer to Yahoo!. What is one of the advantages of Yahoo's new organizational structure?
a. elimination of the constraints associated with the chain of command
b. a flatter structure better able to respond to a static environment
c. elimination of resource duplication
d. the ease with which cross-departmental cooperation can be achieved
e. the ease with which top managers can assess work-unit performance
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: One of the advantages of product departmentalization cited in the text is the ease with which top managers can access work-unit performance.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
117. Refer to Yahoo!. One of the causes of the precipitous drop in the value of Yahoo's stock was that too many unrelated decisions were being made by unrelated people in the company without any regard for what was best for the entire company. One way to solve this problem would be to use more ____.
a. behavioral informality
b. centralization of authority
c. delegation
d. employee empowerment
e. autonomy
ANSWER: b
RATIONALE: Centralization of authority is defined as the location of a significant amount of authority at the upper levels of the organization. If authority at Yahoo were concentrated in this manner, decision making should be more consistent (i.e., same top managers making key decisions).
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles | Operations Management
118. Refer to Yahoo!. Before restructuring, Yahoo! was described as having an overly creative, freewheeling culture, a highly decentralized decision-making structure in which managers did only what was best for their units rather than what was best for the entire company and exhibited resistance to actually making a profit by placing too much value on innovation to the exclusion of profit. What kind of an organization did the company have?
a. mechanistic
b. transformational
c. organic
d. synergistic
e. transactional
ANSWER: c
RATIONALE: An organic organization is characterized by broadly defined jobs and responsibility; loosely defined, frequently changing roles; and decentralized authority and horizontal communication based on task knowledge. This definition is consistent with the descriptions of Yahoo as “free wheeling” and “highly decentralized.”
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-5
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles | Operations Management
WWYD Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly’s 20-year patent on Zyprexa, a drug that generates $5 billion a year runs out in October 2011. This means other manufacturers can sell low-priced generic versions of the drug. Lilly has seven other major drugs that will fall off the “patent cliff” and stands to lose 75% of its annual revenue if it doesn’t generate new “blockbuster” drugs. And Lilly isn’t the only pharmaceutical company in this situation. The entire industry will see half of its revenues fall off due to expiring patents. When Lilly’s patent expired on Prozac, a drug for depression taken daily by 40 million people, then-CEO Sidney
Taurel took steps to energize drug development by increasing R&D budget and instructing Lilly’s 7,000 researchers to focus on drugs that could produce one-half billion dollars a year in sales. This time, however, expanding headcount and increasing R&D budgets aren’t options. The long-term challenge is to grow Lilly’s drug pipeline with faster, less expensive innovation. Some think that large budgets, centralized approval for allocating research dollars, and “siloed" research (where few know and understand what others in the company are working on) stifle innovation and slow decision making. Thus, after laying off workers and reducing annual expenses by $1 billion, CEO John Lechleiter had to jumpstart Lilly’s drug development process and restructure his company to address this challenge.
John Lechleiter restructured Lilly to significantly improve communication in product development teams and speed up the entire drug development process. One of his first actions was to put everyone involved in the drug development process under one building, which Lilly named the Development Center of Excellence. In addition to improving chances for spontaneous communication, the company focused on ways to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, service, and speed. Lilly began using Critical Chain project management developed by physicist Eli Goldratt, which eliminates delays that occur in a process when a task is completed by one person and then handed off to the next to begin the next step or task in the process.
Lilly also created a group within the company called Chorus, which outsources 80% of Lilly’s research to contract research organizations (CROs). To ensure results, CROs earn bonuses for successfully meeting deadlines and, if the products make it to market, they earn drug sale royalties too.
The cost of using CROs is roughly a third less than it would have cost for Lilly to do the testing in-house. Of course, modular organizations have disadvantages, too, such as the loss of control that occurs when key business activities are outsourced to other companies. Also, suppliers to whom work is outsourced can sometimes become competitors. So, is Lilly risking its future by outsourcing the core function of researching and testing new drugs? While CROs may help pharmaceutical companies do a faster job of determining which drugs don’t deserve more expensive late-phase testing, some critics doubt whether they can help firms like Lilly uncover the blockbuster drugs they need to replace the drugs that are coming out of patent protection.
119. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. The shift to “siloed” research would likely be proposed by those in the company who advocate______departmentalization.
a. functional
b. product
c. geographic
d. customer
e. matrix
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Siloed research means workers are organized in to functional groups. The hallmark of this type of departmentalization is limited cross-departmental coordination, or siloes.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-2a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Leadership Principles
120. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. Although product departmentalization each unit devoted to particular drug would work well in developing new drugs for Lilly, which of the following would be the most problematic issue for this kind of project management?
a. Having teams in each unit do the same thing one division could do for all units.
b. Not all units have the same highly qualified specialists.
c. There is no evidence that this kind of project management guarantees blockbusters.
d. Duplication could result in higher costs.
e. All of these would be problematic aspects to product departmentalization at Eli Lilly.
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: A disadvantage of product departmentalization is coordinating across the different product departments.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Leadership Principles
121. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. The adoption of the Critical Chain project management methodology is one way Lilly internal processes to increase the speed of getting new drugs on the market.
a. reengineered
b. informalized
c. increased the number of CROs who perform
d. outsourced
e. mobilized
ANSWER: a
RATIONALE: Lilly reengineered internal processes to significantly increase the speed with which it completed the formal phases of drug development and testing.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-6a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Leadership Principles
122. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. Lilly’s move to outsource its research to contract research organizations to cut costs for R&D, rigorous testing, and manufacturing, is indicative of the company’s new______structure.
a. matrix
b. geographic
c. virtual
d. modular
e. process
ANSWER: d
RATIONALE: As part of its move toward becoming a modular organization, Lilly outsources 80% of Lilly’s research to contract research organizations.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-7a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Leadership Principles
123. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. When John Lechleiter put everyone involved in drug development under one roof in a Development Center of Excellence, he increased the opportunities for the people directly responsible for drug development to connect and talk about their work. This single move increased the __________at the company.
a. formal organization
b. cycle time for drug approval
c. centralization of authority
d. skill variety
e. behavioral informality
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: Behavioral informality refers to workplaces characterized by spontaneity, casualness, and interpersonal familiarity. By increasing chance encounters for drug developers to connect and chat, the new Development Center of Excellence increased the level of behavioral informality at the company.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-6c
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level VI Evaluation
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | Leadership Principles
124. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. John Lechleiter was able to reorganize personnel and create a the Development Center of Excellence because he had______with respect to the other employees.
a. staff authority
b. centralized authority
c. unity
d. autonomy
e. line authority
ANSWER: e
RATIONALE: Line authority is the right to command immediate subordinates in the chain of command. The CEO has line authority over the division presidents who would have carried out the reorganization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-3b
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Group Dynamics | HRM | Leadership Principles
125. Describe what is meant by organizational structure and organizational process and how are these concepts related to each other? How are they different from each other?
ANSWER: Organizational structure is the traditional approach to organizational design. It refers to the vertical and horizontal configuration of departments, authority, and jobs within a company. It is exemplified in the organizational chart. Organizational process, on the other hand, refers to the collection of activities that transform inputs into outputs that customers value. In contrast to traditional approaches to organizational structure, contemporary organizations are becoming more adaptive by redesigning their internal and external processes. The process view of a company, which focuses on how things get done, is very different from the hierarchical view of the company presented by its organization chart, which focuses on accountability, responsibility, and position within the chain of command.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-1
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation
126. Explain what is meant by the term departmentalization. List the five traditional approaches to departmentalization.
ANSWER: Departmentalization is a method of subdividing work and workers into separate organizational units that take responsibility for completing particular tasks. Traditionally, organizational structures have been based on some form of departmentalization. The five traditional approaches to departmentalization are (1) functional, (2) product, (3) customer, (4) geographic, and (5) matrix.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
127. There is one common disadvantage associated with geographic, product, and customer departmentalization. What is it? Explain how the functional and matrix forms avoid this disadvantage.
ANSWER: The common disadvantage to many forms of departmentalization, which is not shared by the functional and matrix forms, is duplication of resources. This disadvantage is shared by the product, customer, and geographic approaches to departmentalization, all of which typically duplicate functional departments such as human resources and sales in each of their divisions. Since the functional structure organizes workers around functions and does not have divisions, duplication never occurs. In the case of the matrix structure, duplication is minimized or avoided by assigning and reassigning workers from functional departments to different projects as they are needed.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management
128. Identify the five traditional approaches to organizational structure. Which one is best for a company to use? Explain your answer.
ANSWER: The five traditional approaches to organizational structure are departmentalization based upon (1) functional, (2) product, (3) customer, (4) geographic, and (5) matrix approaches. There is no single best approach to organizational structure that applies in all cases. Each structure has advantages and disadvantages. The form of departmentalization that is best for a particular company depends upon the specific characteristics of the internal and external environments faced by the company. The company should select a structure that will maximize benefits through its advantages, and minimize costs through its disadvantages. As the environment facing the company changes, the structure may also have to change.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-2
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level I Knowledge
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles | Operations Management
129. Define the concept of authority and list the four dimensions which have traditionally been characterized in organizations.
ANSWER: Authority is the right to give commands, take action, and make decisions to achieve organizational objectives. Traditionally, organizational authority has been characterized by the following four dimensions: (1) chain of command, (2) line versus staff authority, (3) delegation of authority, and (4) degree of centralization.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Leadership Principles
130. Define standardization and how is this concept is relevant to the degree of organizational centralization?
ANSWER: Standardization involves solving problems by consistently applying the same rules, procedures, and processes. The higher the degree of standardization a company wants to achieve, the more centralized its authority should be. Centralization of authority is the location of most authority at the upper levels of the organization. In a centralized organization, managers make most decisions, even the relatively small ones. Centralized decision-making authority makes it easier to standardize rules, procedures, and processes than it would be if decisions were made by various individuals at lower levels of an organization. Decentralization is the location of a significant amount of authority in the lower levels of the organization. Decentralization is associated with faster decision making, more satisfied customers and employees, as well as better organizational performance, the key question is no longer whether companies should decentralize, but where they should decentralize. Still, it is to a company’s advantage to remain centralized where standardization is important.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Moderate
REFERENCES: 8-3d
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level II Comprehension
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Leadership Principles | Operations Management
131. What is job specialization? Briefly explain its advantages and disadvantages.
ANSWER: Job specialization involves breaking a job into smaller parts, each done by a different person. A specialized job is a job composed of a small part of a larger task or process. Specialized jobs are characterized by simple, easy-to-learn steps; low variety; and high repetition. In terms of advantages, specialized jobs are very economical. Once a job has been specialized, it takes little time to learn and master. Consequently, when experienced workers quit or are absent, the company loses little productivity when replacing them with a new employee. Because the work is designed to be simple, wages can remain low, since it isn't necessary to pay high salaries to attract highly experienced, educated, or trained workers. One of the clear disadvantages of specialized jobs is that, being so easy to learn, they quickly become boring. This, in turn, can lead to low job satisfaction and high absenteeism and employee turnover, all of which are very costly to organizations.
POINTS: 1
DIFFICULTY: Easy
REFERENCES: 8-4a
NATIONAL STANDARDS: United States - Level IV Analysis
TOPICS: AACSB Analytic
KEYWORDS: Creation of Value | HRM | Operations Management