Organizational Structure and Job Design Quiz

Organizational Trends in the Modern Marketplace

• Organizations are changing their structures and work arrangements.
• Current trends include shorter chains of command, less unity of command, wider spans of control, more delegation/empowerment, and decentralization.

Success Criteria

• Key abilities for success include analyzing current organizational structure trends and explaining various alternative job arrangements.

Review

• Students were asked to draw 6 types of organizational structures: functional, divisional, matrix, team, network, and boundaryless.

What Organizing Trends Are Changing The Workplace?

• Shorter Chains of Command: The line of authority linking employees to higher-level management is being streamlined by eliminating unnecessary management layers. Flatter organizational structures are now more common and seen as an advantage.
• Less Unity of Command: Employees may report to more than one supervisor (often in cross-functional teams), involving multiple tasks, and horizontal structures.
• Wider Spans of Control: Managers now often supervise more employees, with less direct supervision and more delegation.
• More Delegation and Empowerment: Managers are giving employees more responsibility and authority to make decisions, increasing employee accountability.
• Decentralization: Decision-making authority is diffused across various levels of the organization, not just concentrated at top levels.

Specialization

• Task Specialization: The degree to which a worker concentrates on specific tasks. More specialized jobs have less variety.
• Job Simplification: High specialization, involves standardized procedures focusing on well-defined highly specialized tasks. These often have a narrow job scope.
• Potential Benefits of Job Simplification: Easier/quicker training, less supervision of employees and easier to replace. Workers develop expertise in repetitive tasks.
• Potential Disadvantages of Job Simplification: Low job satisfaction, higher absenteeism/tardiness, and worker boredom.
• Job Rotation and Job Enlargement (Moderate Specialization): Increases task variety by shifting workers among different jobs or combining tasks within a job. (horizontal loading)
• Job Enrichment (Low Specialization): Builds more opportunities for satisfaction by expanding the job's content vertically (more depth of responsibility). Emphasizes the scope and depth of the job.

Alternative Job Arrangements

• Compressed Workweek: Full-time work completed in fewer days than a standard workweek. Benefits include more leisure time, lower commuting costs, and potential for improved performance; disadvantages include increased fatigue, family/scheduling difficulties.
• Flexible Hours: Flexible work scheduling allows for employees to tailor job hours, with core times they must be at work. This can appeal to those with family or other responsibilities.
• Job Sharing/Work Sharing: Splitting a full-time position among multiple employees. Often a controversial measure and can be used as a means to avoid layoffs. A controversial measure used as a means to avoid layoffs.
• Telecommuting/Work-at-Home: Some work can be performed remotely. Benefits include freedom from commuting constraints, increased productivity, and distractions; disadvantages include potential for overwork, difficulty separating work/life, and supervising remote employees effectively.
• Part-Time Work: Employees work on schedules with fewer than 40 hours per week, and may not be considered full-time staff.
• Contingency Workers: These individuals supplement the main workforce and are hired temporarily or on a contract basis.