Podcast
Questions and Answers
Which benefit is associated with functional departmentalization?
Which benefit is associated with functional departmentalization?
Which type of staff conducts technical work that is beyond the time or knowledge capacity of top management?
Which type of staff conducts technical work that is beyond the time or knowledge capacity of top management?
What is the primary goal of job specialization?
What is the primary goal of job specialization?
What is a benefit of product-based departmentalization?
What is a benefit of product-based departmentalization?
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What does job enrichment aim to achieve?
What does job enrichment aim to achieve?
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What is a primary characteristic of job rotation?
What is a primary characteristic of job rotation?
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What is the main focus of re-engineering?
What is the main focus of re-engineering?
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Which statement describes a function of organization staff?
Which statement describes a function of organization staff?
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Which is NOT a characteristic of job design?
Which is NOT a characteristic of job design?
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Which is a feature of line authority in an organization?
Which is a feature of line authority in an organization?
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Which organizational structure allows for considerable input from team members into decision-making?
Which organizational structure allows for considerable input from team members into decision-making?
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Which structure is characterized by enabling each organization to leverage a distinctive competency?
Which structure is characterized by enabling each organization to leverage a distinctive competency?
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Which dimension of complexity in an organization is characterized by the geographical distribution of offices and personnel?
Which dimension of complexity in an organization is characterized by the geographical distribution of offices and personnel?
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What is a major challenge of the 'Report to Two Bosses' structure?
What is a major challenge of the 'Report to Two Bosses' structure?
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In the principles of organizational structure, what role does 'specialization' primarily serve?
In the principles of organizational structure, what role does 'specialization' primarily serve?
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Which organizational structure permits rapid global expansion?
Which organizational structure permits rapid global expansion?
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What does the scalar principle emphasize in an organizational hierarchy?
What does the scalar principle emphasize in an organizational hierarchy?
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Which organizational structure is noted for its cost-reducing attributes?
Which organizational structure is noted for its cost-reducing attributes?
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What is a primary characteristic of a mechanistic structure?
What is a primary characteristic of a mechanistic structure?
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Which structure provides greater work satisfaction and makes very good use of resources and expertise?
Which structure provides greater work satisfaction and makes very good use of resources and expertise?
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Which organizational principle advocates that one person should report to only one superior?
Which organizational principle advocates that one person should report to only one superior?
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In which structure is poor decision-making a potential downside?
In which structure is poor decision-making a potential downside?
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Which organizational structure is likely to experience slower decision-making and creativity opportunities?
Which organizational structure is likely to experience slower decision-making and creativity opportunities?
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What is the benefit of the 'Uniformity in operation' characteristic found in?
What is the benefit of the 'Uniformity in operation' characteristic found in?
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Which type of organizational structure allows for the creation of 'the best of the best' to focus resources on customer needs?
Which type of organizational structure allows for the creation of 'the best of the best' to focus resources on customer needs?
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What facilitative role does hierarchy play within an organization according to the principles of organizational structure?
What facilitative role does hierarchy play within an organization according to the principles of organizational structure?
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Which concept describes the number of specialized activities or individuals supervised by one person?
Which concept describes the number of specialized activities or individuals supervised by one person?
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What is a primary disadvantage of exposing the core firm to market forces?
What is a primary disadvantage of exposing the core firm to market forces?
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What is the extent to which jobs within an organization are specialized known as?
What is the extent to which jobs within an organization are specialized known as?
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Which principle involves the horizontal clustering of different types of functions and activities?
Which principle involves the horizontal clustering of different types of functions and activities?
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What does organizational analysis primarily determine?
What does organizational analysis primarily determine?
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Which training method involves participants assuming roles like president or marketing vice president of hypothetical organizations to compete against each other?
Which training method involves participants assuming roles like president or marketing vice president of hypothetical organizations to compete against each other?
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In task analysis, which techniques are not usually employed to identify job tasks and necessary competencies?
In task analysis, which techniques are not usually employed to identify job tasks and necessary competencies?
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What is the main purpose of establishing specific T&D objectives?
What is the main purpose of establishing specific T&D objectives?
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Which method uses online technology-based methods such as DVDs, company intranets, and the internet?
Which method uses online technology-based methods such as DVDs, company intranets, and the internet?
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Which analysis focuses on determining which employees need training and in which areas?
Which analysis focuses on determining which employees need training and in which areas?
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Which training method involves participants responding to specific problems by acting out real-world scenarios?
Which training method involves participants responding to specific problems by acting out real-world scenarios?
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In organizational analysis, what condition must be met for training to be effective?
In organizational analysis, what condition must be met for training to be effective?
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Which training method allows trainees to practice newly learned skills under actual working conditions?
Which training method allows trainees to practice newly learned skills under actual working conditions?
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According to the content, which method is an informal T&D approach that permits an employee to learn job tasks by actually performing them?
According to the content, which method is an informal T&D approach that permits an employee to learn job tasks by actually performing them?
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Which organizational structure is characterized by grouping employees around specific knowledge or other resources?
Which organizational structure is characterized by grouping employees around specific knowledge or other resources?
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What is the primary characteristic of a network organizational structure?
What is the primary characteristic of a network organizational structure?
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Which job characteristic describes the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or identifiable piece of work?
Which job characteristic describes the degree to which a job requires completion of a whole or identifiable piece of work?
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According to the Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Theory, what do employees desire from their jobs?
According to the Hackman and Oldham's Job Characteristics Theory, what do employees desire from their jobs?
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What is an example of informal job changes known as job crafting?
What is an example of informal job changes known as job crafting?
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Which job characteristic allows employees freedom and independence in their work scheduling?
Which job characteristic allows employees freedom and independence in their work scheduling?
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In which organizational structure are employees grouped around geographic areas, outputs, or clients?
In which organizational structure are employees grouped around geographic areas, outputs, or clients?
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What does a wider span of control typically indicate?
What does a wider span of control typically indicate?
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Which term best describes a minimal hierarchical organizational structure with few people?
Which term best describes a minimal hierarchical organizational structure with few people?
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What does departmentalization specify in an organization?
What does departmentalization specify in an organization?
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Which element does a clear organization chart primarily help a business keep track of?
Which element does a clear organization chart primarily help a business keep track of?
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In a tall organizational structure, how does information typically flow?
In a tall organizational structure, how does information typically flow?
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Which activity is at the heart of human resource development?
Which activity is at the heart of human resource development?
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Which of the following is a primary focus of Human Resource Management (HRM)?
Which of the following is a primary focus of Human Resource Management (HRM)?
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Which organizational structure empowers front-line employees to make a range of decisions on their own?
Which organizational structure empowers front-line employees to make a range of decisions on their own?
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What does Human Resource Development (HRD) specifically deal with?
What does Human Resource Development (HRD) specifically deal with?
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What is a primary goal of Organizational Development (OD)?
What is a primary goal of Organizational Development (OD)?
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What aspect do Human Resource Development and Employee Training share?
What aspect do Human Resource Development and Employee Training share?
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Which activities are included in Human Resource Development?
Which activities are included in Human Resource Development?
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Which type of structure generally results in faster information flow from bottom to top level employees?
Which type of structure generally results in faster information flow from bottom to top level employees?
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What is the primary focus of career development in an organization?
What is the primary focus of career development in an organization?
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Which activity is included in the formal career development approach?
Which activity is included in the formal career development approach?
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How do free agents manage their careers?
How do free agents manage their careers?
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What does management development aim to achieve?
What does management development aim to achieve?
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Which approach is utilized in reverse mentoring?
Which approach is utilized in reverse mentoring?
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What is the responsibility of the immediate boss in the context of coaching?
What is the responsibility of the immediate boss in the context of coaching?
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What does the process of career planning involve?
What does the process of career planning involve?
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Which activity is a part of informal career development?
Which activity is a part of informal career development?
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How is the success of a program manager typically measured?
How is the success of a program manager typically measured?
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Which of the following best describes a demotion?
Which of the following best describes a demotion?
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Which delivery system is characterized by training on equipment that closely resembles what is used on the job, but takes place away from the production area?
Which delivery system is characterized by training on equipment that closely resembles what is used on the job, but takes place away from the production area?
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Which training method enhances team members' understanding of each other's jobs, leading to improved flexibility and communication?
Which training method enhances team members' understanding of each other's jobs, leading to improved flexibility and communication?
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What is the primary objective of Team Coordination Training?
What is the primary objective of Team Coordination Training?
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Which type of career path incorporates both vertical and horizontal progression opportunities?
Which type of career path incorporates both vertical and horizontal progression opportunities?
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Which factor is critical for the successful implementation of T&D programs?
Which factor is critical for the successful implementation of T&D programs?
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What is a key outcome measured under Organizational Results as part of T&D program evaluation?
What is a key outcome measured under Organizational Results as part of T&D program evaluation?
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Which form of training delivery system specifically saves employees' time by reducing the need to commute to school?
Which form of training delivery system specifically saves employees' time by reducing the need to commute to school?
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What method is used to help new employees quickly become productive by familiarizing them with the corporate culture?
What method is used to help new employees quickly become productive by familiarizing them with the corporate culture?
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Which phase of evaluating T&D programs focuses on measuring changes in job-related behaviors due to the training?
Which phase of evaluating T&D programs focuses on measuring changes in job-related behaviors due to the training?
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Which of the following refers to the process of monitoring and measuring a firm's internal processes and comparing them with leading companies?
Which of the following refers to the process of monitoring and measuring a firm's internal processes and comparing them with leading companies?
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What is a common problem associated with self-appraisals?
What is a common problem associated with self-appraisals?
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How does upward feedback typically align in performance appraisals?
How does upward feedback typically align in performance appraisals?
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Which method involves customers being enlisted to periodically evaluate service?
Which method involves customers being enlisted to periodically evaluate service?
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What is the goal of using Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales?
What is the goal of using Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales?
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What is the main characteristic of the Graphic Rating Scale technique?
What is the main characteristic of the Graphic Rating Scale technique?
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What is a primary benefit of using Rating Committees in performance appraisals?
What is a primary benefit of using Rating Committees in performance appraisals?
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Which of the following is an issue with having unclear standards in performance appraisals?
Which of the following is an issue with having unclear standards in performance appraisals?
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Which performance appraisal method requires an employee’s immediate supervisor and three or four other supervisors?
Which performance appraisal method requires an employee’s immediate supervisor and three or four other supervisors?
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What does the critical incident method rely on?
What does the critical incident method rely on?
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What does the concept of 'halo effect' imply in the context of performance appraisals?
What does the concept of 'halo effect' imply in the context of performance appraisals?
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Which personality trait is associated with stricter employee scoring by raters?
Which personality trait is associated with stricter employee scoring by raters?
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Which factor is NOT a recommendation to boost employee retention?
Which factor is NOT a recommendation to boost employee retention?
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Which of the following HR practices does NOT directly relate to voluntary turnover?
Which of the following HR practices does NOT directly relate to voluntary turnover?
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Which of the following is an example of a statutory exception that could affect dismissal?
Which of the following is an example of a statutory exception that could affect dismissal?
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What term describes the incremental process starting from daydreaming and leading to quitting?
What term describes the incremental process starting from daydreaming and leading to quitting?
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Which approach is used by organizations to ensure employees with potential are given the opportunity to advance?
Which approach is used by organizations to ensure employees with potential are given the opportunity to advance?
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What term refers to the termination of an employee's contract by the employer due to unsatisfactory performance or misconduct?
What term refers to the termination of an employee's contract by the employer due to unsatisfactory performance or misconduct?
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What metaphor describes the barrier preventing certain individuals from reaching higher positions?
What metaphor describes the barrier preventing certain individuals from reaching higher positions?
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Which term is used to describe a transfer from one job to another with no change in salary or grade?
Which term is used to describe a transfer from one job to another with no change in salary or grade?
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Which of the following describes an action that creates physical or psychological distance between an employee and their work?
Which of the following describes an action that creates physical or psychological distance between an employee and their work?
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Study Notes
Industrial Psychology
Functional Departmentalization
- Easier communication with sub-units
- Application of high technical knowledge for solving problems
- Greater group and professional identification
- Less duplication of staff activities
- Higher product quality
- Increased organizational efficiency
Product-Based Departmentalization
- Less conflict between major sub-units
- Easier communication between subunits
- Less complex coordination mechanisms
- Providing a training ground for top management
- More customer orientation
- Greater concern for long-term issues
Decentralization and Centralization
Line and Staff Relationship
-
Line Authority: Refers to the scalar chain or the superior-subordinate linkages that extend throughout the hierarchy
- Line: Achieve objectives
- Staff: Support the line employees
Types of Staff
- Specialized Staff: Conduct technical work that is beyond the time or knowledge capacity of top management, such as conducting market research and forecasting
- General Staff: Consists of staff assistants to whom managers assign work
- Organization Staff: Provide services to the organization as a whole; their role is to integrate different operations across departments
Job Design
- Developing new jobs or adding responsibilities to existing jobs
- Process of assigning tasks to a job, including interdependency of those tasks with other jobs
- Allows a company to more easily reach its goals by having more employees perform more tasks within the organization
- May involve developing a new position or simply adjusting the set of tasks that a current position encompasses
Job Design Elements
- Define tasks and form them into natural work units to organize duties
- Structuring the content and size of jobs for efficient task performance, flexibility, and worker satisfaction
- Assignment of goals and tasks that are to be accomplished by employees
- Job Specialization: Occurs when the work required is subdivided into separate jobs assigned to different people to improve work efficiency
-
Job Enrichment: An employee assumes more responsibility over the tasks
- Combining highly interdependent tasks into one job (Natural Grouping)
- Feel sense of ownership, therefore, increase job quality
- Putting employees in direct contact with their clients rather than using another group or the supervisor as the liaison between employee and the customer (Establishing Client Relationships)
-
Job Rotation: Workers are rotated among a variety of jobs, spending a certain length of time at each
- Exposing workers to as many areas of the organization as possible so they can gain a good knowledge of its workings and how the various jobs and departments fit together
- Increases worker flexibility, eliminates boredom, and increases worker satisfaction
-
Job Enlargement: Adding tasks to an existing job
- Might involve combining two or more complete jobs into one or just adding one or two more tasks to an existing job
- Significantly improve work efficiency and flexibility
- Employees are motivated when they perform a variety of tasks and have the freedom and knowledge to structure their work to achieve the highest satisfaction and performance
Re-engineering
- Fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of performance, such as costs, quality, service, and speed
Organizational Structures
Team Organization/Team-Based
- Collaboration with other workers to get the job done
- Each worker is viewed as knowledgeable and skilled
- Team members have considerable input into organizational decision-making
- Less emphasis on organizational status
- More flexible and responsive in turbulent environments
- Reduce costs
Project Task Force/Network
- Offer flexibility to realign their structure with changing environmental requirements
- Enable flexible and adaptive response to dynamic environments
- Creates the best of the best organization to focus resources on customer and market needs
- Enables each organization to leverage a distinctive competency
- Permits rapid global expansion
- Can produce synergistic results
Centralized
- Uniformity, each department should operate with some average level of quality and efficiency
- More efficient operations
Decentralized
- Can make their own decisions
- Decision-making and problems are solved at lower levels, more
Report to Two Bosses
- Report to two bosses simultaneously can cause confusion and conflict
- Increases conflict among managers who share equal power
- Can be very difficult to introduce without a preexisting supportive management climate
- Increases role ambiguity, stress, and anxiety by assigning people to more than one department
- Without power balancing between product and functional forms, lowers overall performance
- Makes inconsistent demands, which may result in unproductive conflicts and short-term crisis management
- May reward political skills as opposed to technical skills
Greater Work Satisfaction
- Greater work satisfaction
- Makes very good use of resources and expertise
- Improves communication
- Efficiency, project flexibility, and innovation
- Makes specialized, functional knowledge available to all projects
- Uses people flexibly, because departments maintain reservoirs of specialists
- Maintains consistency between different departments and projects by forcing communication between managers
- Recognizes and provides mechanisms for dealing with legitimate, multiple sources of power in the organization
- Can adapt to environmental changes by shifting emphasis between project and functional aspects
They Expose the Core Firm to Market Forces
- They expose the core firm to market forces
- Information technology makes worldwide communication much easier, but it will never replace the degree of control organizations have when manufacturing, marketing, and other functions are in-house
- Managing lateral relations across autonomous organizations is difficult
- Motivating members to relinquish autonomy to join the network is troublesome
- Sustaining membership and benefits can be problematic
- May give partners access to proprietary knowledge/technology when work is outsourced, secret information about the organization may be breached
Components of the Structure in an Organization
Complexity
- Degree to which activities within an organization are differentiated
3 Dimensions
- Horizontal: Based on the orientation of members, the nature of tasks they perform, and their education and training
- Vertical: Characterized by the number of hierarchical levels in the organization
- Spatial: Location of the organization's offices, facilities, and personnel are geographically distributed
Formalization
- Extent to which jobs within an organization are specialized
Centralization
- Where the decision-making is concentrated
Principles of Organizational Structure
-
Specialization: Facilitates division of work into units for efficient performance
- Enables application of specialized knowledge which betters the quality of work and improves organizational efficiency
- Can also influence fundamental work attitudes, relationships, and communication
-
Coordination: Integrating the objectives and activities of specialized departments to realize broad strategic objectives
- Hierarchy facilitates vertical coordination of various departments and their activities
Principles of Hierarchy
- Unity of Command: Every person in an organization should be responsible to one superior and receive orders from that person only
- Scalar Principle: Decision-making authority and the chain of command in an organization should flow in a straight line from the highest level to the lowest
- Responsibility and Authority Principle: Responsibility must be accompanied by proper authority
- Span of Control: Number of specialized activities or individuals supervised by one person
- Departmentalization: Process of horizontal clustering of different types of functions and activities on any one level of the hierarchy
Organizational Structure
- Defined structure as the arrangement and interrelationship of component parts and positions in an organization
- Provides guidelines on:
- Division of work into activities
- Linkage between different functions
- Hierarchy
- Authority Structure
- Authority Relationships
- Coordination with the Movement
Mechanistic
- Limited decision-making at lower levels
- Tasks are rigidly defined and are altered only by higher authorities
- Limited autonomy and self-determination which could lower intrinsic motivation of workers
Organic
- Emphasize information sharing and an empowered workforce rather than hierarchy and status
- Communication decentralized down to teams and individuals
- Opportunities for creativity
- More open communication
- Better employee satisfaction
- Fewer formal procedures
- Deeper employee relationships
- May lower productivity
- Too many ideas
- Slower decision-making
- Less-regulated work
- Slower adaptation for new employees
Training and Development
Determining Specific Training and Development Needs
-
Organizational Analysis:
- Determine those organizational factors that either facilitate or inhibit training effectiveness
- Focus on the goals the organization wants to achieve, the extent to which training will achieve those goals, the organization's ability to conduct training, and the extent to which employees are willing and able to be trained
-
Task Analysis:
- Use of the job analysis to identify the tasks performed by each employee, the conditions under which these tasks are performed, and the competencies needed to perform the tasks under identified conditions
- Interviews, observations, task inventories
-
Person Analysis:
- Determining which employees need training and which areas
- Not every employee needs further training for every task performed
- Based on performance appraisal scores, surveys, interviews, skill and knowledge tests, and critical incidents### Employee Training and Development
- Employee training provides learners with knowledge and skills needed for their present job.
- HRD deals with training, development, and overall growth of employees, focused on future needs of the organization and its members.
Career Management and Development
- Career management enables employees to better understand and develop their career skills and interests.
- Career development is a formal approach used by the organization to ensure that people with proper qualifications and experiences are available when needed.
- It involves lifelong series of activities that contribute to a person's career exploration, establishment, success, and fulfillment.
Performance Appraisal
- Performance appraisal is a means of evaluating an employee's current and/or past performance relative to his or her performance standards.
- It is used for base pay, promotion, and retention decisions, and ensures that each employee's performance makes sense in terms of the company's overall goals.
- Performance appraisal involves setting work standards, assessing the employee's actual performance, and providing feedback to eliminate performance deficiencies.
Types of Performance Appraisal
- Reactions: the extent to which the trainees liked the training program.
- Learning: the extent to which the principles, facts, and techniques were understood and retained in memory by the employee.
- Behavior Change: changes in job-related behaviors or performance that can be attributed to training.
- Transfer of Training: the extent to which an employee generalizes knowledge and skill learned in training to the workplace.
- Organizational Results: refer to such outcomes as enhanced productivity, lower costs, and higher product or service quality.
Training and Development Methods
- Apprenticeship: combines classroom method with on-the-job training.
- Team Training: focuses on imparting knowledge and skills to individuals who are expected to work collectively towards meeting common objectives.
- Team Coordination Training: educates team members on how to orchestrate the work they do to complete tasks.
- Cross-Training: educates team members about other members' jobs so that they may perform them when a team member is absent.
- Coaching: takes in two forms: experienced employees and professional coaches.
- Mentoring: a veteran in the organization takes special interest in a new employee and helps them adjust to the job and organization.
Orientation and On-Boarding
- Orientation (on-boarding) informs new employees about the company, the job, and the work group.
- It familiarizes them with the corporate culture and helps them to quickly become productive.
Career Paths
- Traditional Career Path: employee progresses vertically upward in the organization.
- Network Career Path: contains both vertical sequence of jobs and series of horizontal opportunities.
- Lateral Skill Path: allows for lateral moves within the firm to permit an employee to become revitalized and find new challenges.
Rating Errors
- Unclear standards: might result in unfair appraisals, because the traits and degrees of merits are ambiguous.
- Halo Effect: influence of a rater's general impression on ratings of specific ratee qualities.
- Central Tendency Error: rating all employees as average.
- Leniency Error: rater is very lenient and gives employees higher scores.
- Strictness Error: rater is very strict and gives employees lower scores.
Industrial Psychology
- Sources: Aamodt (2016), Levy (2017), Howes & Muchinsky (2019), Riggio (2013), McShane & Glinow (2018), Dessler (2017), Cummings & Worley (2009), Mondy & Martocchio (2016)
Performance Management and Turnover
- Performance Management: a continuous process of identifying, measuring, and developing the performance of individuals and teams, and aligning their performance with the organization's goals.
- Turnover: the rate at which employees leave the firm.
- Voluntary Turnover: employees voluntarily leave the organization, maybe due to dissatisfaction.
- Job Withdrawal: actions intended to place physical or psychological distance between employees and their work environment.
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Description
Learn about the different types of departmentalization in industrial psychology, including functional and product-based departmentalization, and their advantages.
