Question 1

Reengineering is essentially the same notion as downsizing.

Accepted Answer

Reengineering is a process of radically redesigning and improving business processes, while downsizing is a strategy of reducing the size and cost of an organization by eliminating jobs and departments. While they may be related, they are not the same notion.

Question 2

Social specialization refers to the division of jobs into simple, repetitive tasks.

Accepted Answer

Social specialization refers to the process by which individuals in a society focus on specific roles or jobs, leading to a division of labor where different people perform different tasks, but it does not necessarily imply that these tasks are simple or repetitive.

Question 3

Learning forces are pressure for organizations to imitate the behaviours of industry leaders.

Accepted Answer

Learning forces refer to the pressure on organizations to adopt new practices or technologies to improve efficiency or effectiveness, not specifically to imitate industry leaders.

Question 4

Routine technologies are better suited to innovative, organic structures that do not allow formality and rules to govern activity.

Accepted Answer

Routine technologies are better suited to mechanistic structures that rely on formality, rules, and standardized procedures to govern activity, as these structures provide the predictability and efficiency needed for routine tasks. Innovative, organic structures are more adaptable and less formal, designed to foster creativity and manage the uncertainty of non-routine, innovative tasks.

Question 5

Frederick Taylor's philosophy of scientific management advocated a high degree of job specialization

Accepted Answer

Frederick Taylor believed that breaking down work into smaller, specialized tasks and training workers to perform them efficiently would lead to greater productivity and profitability.

Question 6

There is research evidence indicating that organizations that engaged in an employee downsizing (that is, terminated at least 5% of the workforce combined with little change in plant and equipment costs) did not outperform other organizations in their industry

Accepted Answer

Research has shown that organizations that engage in employee downsizing do not necessarily perform better than their counterparts in the industry.

Question 7

Organizations can become more &#34;virtual&#34; by shedding some of their noncore functions and outsourcing these to affiliated organizations

Accepted Answer

By outsourcing noncore functions to other organizations, an organization can become more virtual by reducing its physical footprint and focusing on its primary operations. This can allow for increased flexibility and cost savings.

Question 8

The open-systems approach to understanding organizations is based on the metaphor of the organization as a living organism.

Accepted Answer

The open-systems approach does use the metaphor of the organization as a living organism, where the organization is seen as a system that interacts with its environment and adapts to changing conditions. This approach emphasizes the importance of inputs, transformation processes, outputs, and feedback loops in understanding organizational behavior.

Question 9

If there is any consistent pattern in the sweeping changes to corporate architecture, it has been the delayering of organizational hierarchies.

Accepted Answer

The statement is true, as there has been a trend towards delayering of organizational hierarchies in corporate architecture.

Question 10

A narrow span of control tends to reflect a tall organization, while a wide span of control tends to reflect a flat organization.

Accepted Answer

A narrow span of control means that each manager has fewer subordinates to manage, which results in more layers of management and a taller organizational structure. On the other hand, a wide span of control means that each manager has more subordinates to manage, which results in fewer layers of management and a flatter organizational structure.

Deck 4: Asection 5: Global Forces: How Is Canada Faring in the Global Village