Deck 13: Organizational Structure and Culture

Question 1

When a manager has too many direct reports she cannot engage in important coaching and development activities.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The median span for all managers in all industries is around 15.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Structural characteristics refer to the intangible soft properties that determine the basic shape of an organization's internal characteristics.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Broad spans have mostly all disadvantages for organizations.

Question 5

The shape of an organization's hierarchy is determined by its height, spans of control, and type of departmentalization.

Question 6

The recent global economic recession has caused managerial spans of control to decrease.

Question 7

The structure of an organization can be described according to its structural characteristics and hierarchy.

Question 8

Standardization refers to the existence of rules and standard operating procedures.

Question 9

Departmentalization describes the approach used in grouping resources within an organization.

Question 10

Centralization refers to the amount of decision-making authority that is held at the bottom of the organization.

Question 11

Height refers to the number of levels in the organization from CEO to the lower-level associates.

Question 12

Organizational culture involves shared values and norms that influence behavior.

Question 13

Growth can be achieved by developing new products and services internally or by acquiring other organizations.

Question 14

Structuring characteristics refer to policies and approaches used to directly prescribe the behavior of managers and associates.

Question 15

When standardization is high, managers and associates are expected to follow prearranged approaches to their work.

Question 16

Organizational structure refers to the informal system of work roles and authority relationships that govern how associates and managers interact with one another.

Question 17

Centralization is consistent with high involvement management.

Question 18

The FedEx Corporation acts as the hub allowing its decentralized divisions to work together worldwide.

Question 19

If an organization has multiple products or services or operates in multiple geographical areas, it can group its resources into divisions.

Question 20

A manager's span of control corresponds to the number of individuals who report directly to her.

Question 21

SBUs are sometimes used for more complex firms

Question 22

Diversification has been a common and popular corporate strategy.

Question 23

Effective organizations experiencing low environmental uncertainty tend to be less organic.

Question 24

An underdeveloped form of the divisional structure is a SBU (strategic business units).

Question 25

Firms using an internal growth strategy are unlikely to have large marketing and R&D departments.

Question 26

Organizations can be labeled as organic vs. mechanistic.

Question 27

Formalization is the degree to which managers and associates have narrow jobs that use focused skills.

Question 28

A business strategy is how a firm competes for success against other organizations in a particular market.

Question 29

Organizational growth can be achieved through external development or internal acquisition.

Question 30

Two popular business strategies are low-cost strategy and product diversification.

Question 31

Departmentalization at the top of the firm can be either functional or divisional.

Question 32

Corporate strategy is the overall predominant strategy of the organization.

Question 33

Effective organizations experiencing high environmental uncertainty tend to be more organic

Question 34

As firms become more diversified, research suggests that they should adopt the divisional form.

Question 35

Uncertain environments are difficult to monitor and understand.

Question 36

Few organizations use growth as a measure of success.

Question 37

Organic organizations have narrower spans of control and more management levels.

Question 38

Formalization is the degree to which rules and operating procedures are documented on paper or in company intranets.

Question 39

Environmental uncertainty is the degree to which an environment is simplistic and unchanging.

Question 40

Mechanistic organizations are also called traditional organizations.

Question 41

More recent research on technology and structure proposed a link between technology and structure in both manufacturing and service organizations.

Question 42

Managerial linking roles are an example of an alternative lateral process.

Question 43

CAD refers to computer-aided design.

Question 44

Ambidextrous structures and practices were developed in response to the potential for inertia and the need for innovation in large organizations.

Question 45

Relatively low levels of uncertainty can result in more organic structure with shorter time horizons and less emphasis on interpersonal relationships.

Question 46

Craft is one of the four types of technology.

Question 47

Structural arrangements that address information needs are particularly important when the environment is uncertain.

Question 48

Nonroutine is one of the four types of technology.

Question 49

Lateral relations decrease information flow at lower levels.

Question 50

Information technology facilitates the processing of information rather than reducing the need to process it.

Question 51

Smaller organizations tend to have more resistance to change and less innovation.

Question 52

Engineering is one of the four types of technology

Question 53

Early research on the relationship between technology and organizational structure focused on manufacturing technology.

Question 54

Liaison roles are an example of an alternative lateral process.

Question 55

Defining technology on the basis of task variability and task analyzability resulted in four types of technology.

Question 56

The creation of slack resources increases the need for interdepartmental information processing.

Question 57

As an organization grows, it generally becomes taller.

Question 58

Mass customization is an integration of AMT, CAD, and CAM.

Question 59

AMT refers to advanced multiple technology.

Question 60

The creation of self-contained tasks reduces the need for interdepartmental processing of information.

Question 61

Cultural audits monitor the organization's current culture.

Question 62

It is impossible for subcultures to develop in an organization.

Question 63

______________describes the approach used in grouping resources within an organization.

Question 64

An organization's structure can be described in terms of its _______ characteristics and its ______ characteristics.

Question 65

Social dynamics refer to whether newcomers experience serial or disjunctive processes.

Question 66

The recent global economic recession has caused managerial spans of control to _______.

Question 67

The FedEx Corporation acts as a ______, allowing its decentralized divisions to work together worldwide.

Question 68

Google's corporate culture is very formal with a centralized structure.

Question 69

An adhocracy culture places weak values on flexibility and discretion with a focus inside the organization.

Question 70

A clan culture is often more useful for organizations operating in the regulated industries.

Question 71

Newcomers are taught an organization's culture through socialization.

Question 72

Clan is considered to be a type of corporate culture.

Question 73

A(n) __________is the reporting relationships depicted in an organization chart.

Question 74

__________involves shared values and norms that influence behavior.

Question 75

A manager's _____corresponds to the number of individuals who report directly to him.

Question 76

The shape of an organization's hierarchy is determined by its height, spans of control, and type of ________.

Question 77

The strength of an organization's culture is based to some degree on the heterogeneity of associates and managers.

Question 78

_________are the policies and approaches used to directly prescribe the behavior of managers and associates.

Question 79

The existence of subcultures complicates the development and management of an organizational culture.

Question 80

__________is comprised of work roles and authority relationships that influence behavior in an organization.