Applying the Concept 7-1: Principles of Organization

Identify which organizational principle or principles are represented by each statement.

A. unity of command and direction
B. chain of command
C. span of management
D. division of labor
E. coordination
F. balanced responsibility and authority
G. delegation
H. flexibility
 

1. “I know it will be difficult to supervise 20 employees reporting to you, Ed, but by cutting two managers, we all have to take on more employees.”
C. Span of management. The number of employees reporting to a manager is the span of management.

2. “She is a good customer, Sean, so make her happy and ignore the rule and give her a cash refund without the sales receipt.”
H. Flexibility. Being allowed to breaking rules is being flexible.

3. “To make your job more interesting, Helen, I’m going to assign a new task to you.”
G. Delegation. Assigning a new task is a delegation.

4. “My department manager, Carlos, tells me to do one thing, but my project manager, Chris, tells me to do something else at the same time. Whom should I listen to?”     
A. Unity of command and direction. Having two bosses violates the unity of command principle.

5. “I need Rick to do some research for me, but as a middle manager, I can’t give an operative employee a direct order to do it. I have to have my supervisor, Betty, give Rick the assignment for me.”   
B. Chain of command. The manager is following the downward chain of command.

6. “The ambulance is on the way. Latina, call Dr. Rodriguez and have her get to emergency room A in 10 minutes. Arron, prepare emergency room A. Juan, get the paperwork ready.”     
E. Coordination. The head nurse is coordinating the organization’s resources through ordering or instructing employees to do their jobs rather than truly delegating new tasks to them.

7. “Tonya told me to use her computer to get some information for her. But when I got to her computer, it was turned off, and when it booted up, I didn’t have her password, so I couldn’t get the information.”         
F. Balanced responsibility and authority. The employee was not given the password; therefore, the assignment was delegated without authority.

8. “Tom handles all the accounts receivable transactions, and Brenda does all the accounts payable transactions.”
D. Division of labor. They specialize by business accounting functions.

 

Applying the Concept 7-2: Authority

Identify the type of authority referred to in each statement.

A. formal
B. informal
C. centralized
D. decentralized
E. line
F. staff

9. “I need you to stop making chocolate ice cream and make vanilla now.”
E. Line. This is a line manager giving production instructions to an employee.

10. “I like being a manager here because I have the autonomy to run the department the way I want to.”
D. Decentralized. Having autonomy to run the department is decentralization.

11. “Be sure you don’t take any action until you check with me for my approval.”           
C. Centralized. The higher level manager is going to make the decision—micromanagement.

12. “I like your creative idea for a new product. I’ll talk to the boss, and if he likes it, he’ll let us present the idea to his boss.”           
A. Formal. They are following the formal chain of command.

13. “When I recommend good sales rep job candidates to the marketing manager, I get angry when he does not hire them.”
F. Staff. This is a human resources staff person who is advising and assisting with hiring for the marketing department.

14. “Employees at all levels throughout the organization are encouraged to share information with everyone else to get the job done.”          
B. Informal. Within the informal organization, people develop patterns of relationships and can communicate outside the chain of command.

 

Applying the Concept 7-3: Departmentalization

Identify the type of departmentalization illustrated by each organization chart.

A. functional
B. product (service)
C. customer
D. territory (geographic)
E. matrix
F. divisional

15. Procter & Gamble (P&G)
E. Matrix. Three activities are provided for all three divisions, making it a matrix.

16. New York COnsulting Company
B. Product (Service). The company is a consulting firm. These are services it offers to its clients. These are not internal functions.

17. New Age Publishing Company
C. Customer. The customers have different needs. The books sold to each type of customer are different.

18. Worldwide Marriage Encounter--USA
D. Territory. These are departmentalized by geographic areas.

19. IQ (change from Best) Company International
F. Divisional. These are business units in a conglomerate structure.

20. Great Toy Company production department
A. Functional. These are internal activities within a functional area of production stages.

 

Applying the Concept 7-4: Job Designs

Identify which job design technique is exemplified in each statement.

A. job simplification
B. job rotation
C. job enlargement
D. job enrichment
E. work teams

21. “Karen, would you like me to delegate a new task to you to make your job more challenging?”
D. Job enrichment. Delegating challenging tasks is a simple way to enrich jobs.

22. “When you travel, you will be given $25 per meal, so you no longer need to provide a receipt.”
A. Job simplification. This is eliminating paper work.

23. “Tommy, would you like your job to be less repetitive? If so, I can add a couple new tasks to your job responsibility.”
C. Job enlargement. Adding new tasks to a job is enlarging it.

24. “Jamal, I’d like you to learn how to run the switchboard so that you can fill in for Bridget while she is on vacation.”
B. Job rotation. The person will do his or her usual job, then rotate to the cash register, and rotate back to his or her usual job.

25. “I’ve called this meeting because I’d like you guys to work together to come up with ways to improve how the department jobs get done.”
E. Work teams. The manager is asking the department members to act as a team to redesign jobs