Restructuring at Digital Arts (Scenario)
Victor Lee is the founder and president of Digital Arts, a Vancouver-based company that makes games for popular electronic game consoles. The company has experienced tremendous growth over the years, but now Victor is concerned that the company's structure has become too tall and rigid. He explains, "Twenty years ago we started with five people and one product. Today we are a global operation with 500 people employed in six countries producing over 200 game titles." Digital Arts is currently organized into five specialized departments: product development, production, marketing, accounting, and human resources. To coordinate the workflow, many rules and regulations have been introduced. Victor now worries that the increased bureaucracy is beginning to stifle innovation. He ponders several restructuring options.
-One option to improve workflow coordination and communication across the company is to assign specialists from each department to work on various projects being led by project managers.This contemporary design is called a ________ structure.
A)functional
B)divisional
C)matrix
D)network

Question

Restructuring at Digital Arts (Scenario)
Victor Lee is the founder and president of Digital Arts, a Vancouver-based company that makes games for popular electronic game consoles. The company has experienced tremendous growth over the years, but now Victor is concerned that the company's structure has become too tall and rigid. He explains, "Twenty years ago we started with five people and one product. Today we are a global operation with 500 people employed in six countries producing over 200 game titles." Digital Arts is currently organized into five specialized departments: product development, production, marketing, accounting, and human resources. To coordinate the workflow, many rules and regulations have been introduced. Victor now worries that the increased bureaucracy is beginning to stifle innovation. He ponders several restructuring options. 
-One option to improve workflow coordination and communication across the company is to assign specialists from each department to work on various projects being led by project managers.This contemporary design is called a ________ structure.
A)functional
B)divisional
C)matrix
D)network

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The option that Victor is considering is a matrix structure, where specialists from different departments work together on projects led by project managers. This would allow for improved coordination and communication across the company while still retaining the expertise of each department. A functional structure (A) would maintain the current departmental silos and may not address Victor's concerns. A divisional structure (B) would divide the company into smaller, more autonomous units and could create more bureaucracy. A network structure (D) would be too decentralized for Digital Arts' current size and complexity.