Deck 13: Designing Organizational Structures

Question 1

Large organizations can encourage coordination through informal communication by assigning liaison roles to employees.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

A narrower span of control is necessary when employees perform novel or complex tasks.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Standardizing processes is less effective in nonroutine and complex work.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The two fundamental requirements of all organizational structures are divisionalization and decentralization.

Question 5

Organizing employees from several departments into temporary teams encourages informal communication as a coordinating mechanism.

Question 6

Integrator roles increase informal communication as a coordinating mechanism

Question 7

Training is a form of standardization through skills

Question 8

The formal hierarchy can be used to coordinate the work of front-line workers and executives through the division of organizational activities.

Question 9

Generally, a narrow span of control is necessary where employees perform highly interdependent work with others.

Question 10

When work activities are too complex to standardize through extensive training for employees, companies need to coordinate work effort through precise job descriptions.

Question 11

Division of labour leads to increased job specialization.

Question 12

Informal communication is a coordination mechanism only in small and a few medium-sized organizations.

Question 13

When work is divided among people, a coordinating mechanism is needed to ensure that everyone works in concert.

Question 14

Organizational structures are tools for change.

Question 15

Job descriptions, goal setting, and training are applications of coordination through standardization.

Question 16

Henri Fayol set the maximum span of control at 20 people, but this number may be higher where work activities are routine and standardized.

Question 17

One of the main benefits of formal hierarchy as a coordinating mechanism is that it increases flexibility and responsiveness to customer needs.

Question 18

Job descriptions and training are examples of coordination through standardization.

Question 19

Informal communication as a coordinating mechanism is ineffective in nonroutine situations.

Question 20

Formal hierarchy is the least time-consuming coordinating mechanism where employees work in nonroutine and ambiguous situations.

Question 21

Formalization represents the establishment of standardization as a coordinating mechanism.

Question 22

High levels of formalization tend to undermine organizational learning and creativity

Question 23

Organizations tend to centralize as their external environment becomes more complex

Question 24

Span of control is interconnected with organizational size and the number of layers in the hierarchy.

Question 25

The number of layers in an organization's hierarchy depends on the number of people employed and the average span of control.

Question 26

Companies can be centralized in some parts of the organization and decentralized in other parts.

Question 27

Mechanistic structures operate best in stable environments

Question 28

Organizations tend to become less formalized as they age and grow in number of employees.

Question 29

The six most common pure types of departmentalization are simple, functional, divisional, team-based, matrix, and network.

Question 30

Span of control refers to how much discretion one has over his/her duties

Question 31

Departmentalization establishes interdependencies and coordination through informal communication within each work unit.

Question 32

Tall hierarchies tend to encourage employee empowerment and engagement because they focus power around employees rather than managers.

Question 33

Organizations with fewer layers in the organizational hierarchy are described as having flat structures.

Question 34

Most organizations begin with centralized structures and become more decentralized as they grow larger and divide work into more specialized functions.

Question 35

The main reasons why companies are moving toward flatter organizational structures is because it improves coordination through formal hierarchy.

Question 36

A mechanistic structure is decentralized, has a narrow span of control, and little formalization.

Question 37

As external environments become more complex and dynamic, organizational structures should become more mechanistic and less organic.

Question 38

Organic structures work better in rapidly changing environments.

Question 39

When companies delayer the organizational hierarchy, they run the risk of increasing managerial workloads and stress.

Question 40

One problem with departmentalization is that it discourages coordination through informal communication.

Question 41

One problem with the team-based organizational structure is that employees may experience more stress due to ambiguity of their roles.

Question 42

The primary source of environmental diversity or uncertainty mainly determines the best form of divisional structure an organization should adopt.

Question 43

In a simple structure there exists a complex hierarchy.

Question 44

One problem with the divisional structure is that it increases the risk of duplication and underutilization of resources.

Question 45

Divisional structures may be formed around products, geography, or functional specializations.

Question 46

Organizations with functional structures are typically centralized to coordinate their activities effectively.

Question 47

Companies with divisionalized structures are increasingly adopting the geographically-based structure.

Question 48

Functional structures foster professional identity and permit greater specialization than most other forms of departmentalization.

Question 49

Team-based organizational structures are usually found within the manufacturing or service operations of larger divisionalized structures.

Question 50

A simple structure is one of the best structures in which to accommodate organizational growth and diversification.

Question 51

One of the main advantages of network structures is that they ensure the core organization has a high degree of control over production, marketing, and other functions.

Question 52

In a typical network structure, several satellite organizations are bee-hived around a core firm.

Question 53

A problem with the divisional organizational structure is that it does not allow the organization to grow within that structure.

Question 54

The matrix structure can increase conflict among managers who share power equally

Question 55

Functional structures tend to have higher dysfunctional conflict and poorer coordination across units than other forms of departmentalization.

Question 56

Some matrix structures typically overlay a divisional structure with a functional structure to gain the benefits of both.

Question 57

A common misconception is that all employees working in matrix organizational structure report to two bosses.

Question 58

Canada's Barrick Gold Corporation, the world's largest gold-mining company, uses a geographic divisional structure.

Question 59

Organizations can move towards a team-based structure by flattening the hierarchy, reducing formalization, and making extensive use of self-directed work teams.

Question 60

One of the main forces pushing organizations towards a network structure is the recognition that an organization has only a few core competencies.

Question 61

Which of the following is a coordinating mechanism?

A)Informal communication
B)Formal hierarchy
C)Standardization
D)All of these are coordinating mechanisms.
E)None of these are coordinating mechanisms.

Question 62

A mechanistic structure is preferred where the technology has low variability and high analyzability.

Question 63

Dividing work into more specialized jobs tends to:

A)reduce work efficiency.
B)reduce the opportunity to match people with appropriate jobs.
C)increase training costs.
D)do all of these things.
E)do none of these things.

Question 64

Larger firms tend to be more centralized and make greater use of direct supervision than do smaller firms.

Question 65

Organizations that follow a cost leadership strategy should apply an organic organizational structure.

Question 66

Decentralization is the logical choice in simple, integrated (one market), and hostile environments.

Question 67

When people divide work among themselves, they need to:

A)rely increasingly on a simple structure.
B)centralize.
C)decentralize.
D)rely on one or more coordinating mechanisms.
E)form a team-based organizational structure.

Question 68

The best organizational structure depends on the variety and analyzability of the tasks

Question 69

An organic structure works better than a mechanistic structure where tasks have high variety and low analyzability.

Question 70

All organizational structures have the following two fundamental requirements:

A)decentralization and divisionalization.
B)coordination and decentralization.
C)flatter span of control and decentralization.
D)division of labour and coordination.
E)centralization and outsourcing.

Question 71

All organizations have:

A)a mechanistic structure.
B)some form of coordinating mechanism.
C)a divisionalized structure.
D)formal team-based structures.
E)a formal hierarchy that includes supervisors and non-supervisory employees.

Question 72

Organic structures are better suited to hostile environments.

Question 73

As organizations grow, which of the following does NOT typically occur?

A)There is increasing job specialization.
B)The organization becomes more formalized.
C)More coordination through standardization occurs.
D)There is increasing division of labour.
E)Informal communication becomes more prevalent as a coordinating mechanism.

Question 74

Contingencies, such as size, technology, and environment do not necessarily determine an organization's structure.

Question 75

To increase work efficiency and make it easier to match employee competencies with job requirements, companies tend to:

A)rely on a narrow span of control.
B)centralize decision making.
C)divide work into more specialized jobs.
D)rely on formal hierarchy and a narrow span of control.
E)rely on formal hierarchy as a coordinating mechanism.

Question 76

All of the following describe advantages of job specialization, EXCEPT:

A)Increases work efficiency.
B)Makes it easier to match people to the jobs.
C)Job incumbents can master their tasks quicker.
D)Lowers payroll costs because jobs are not as highly skilled.
E)Reduces training costs.

Question 77

Organizational strategy influences both the contingencies of structure and the structure itself.

Question 78

The more diversified the environment, the more the firm would benefit from a divisionalized form of departmentalization.

Question 79

Network structures come close to the perfect example of a mechanistic organizational structure.

Question 80

Coordination of work activities is required:

A)only when organizations operate in complex environments.
B)whenever there is division of labour.
C)whenever the organization has more than approximately 100 employees.
D)only in team-based organizations.
E)never; coordination of work activities is not found in organizations.