Org. Theory and Design: Chapter 5 (True/False)

According to the contingency approach, the design of an organization's structure is tailored to the sources of uncertainty facing the organization. True or False?

Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch believe that the strength of forces in the general and specific environments does not affect the extent of differentiation inside an organization. True or False?

Increasing the number of managers to monitor, evaluate, and reward employees is a way for an organization to improve its ability to coordinate and motivate its members. True or False?

In an organic structure, personal competence, expertise, and freedom to act in innovative ways are emphasized. True or False?

The contingency theory states that an organization should design its internal structure to ignore the external environment. True or False?

An organization's hierarchy begins to emerge when it becomes easier to coordinate and motivate employees. True or False?

IT has led to a centralization of authority in organizations.

Self-managed teams are not responsible for ensuring that the team accomplishes its goals.

Contingent workers receive indirect benefits such as health insurance or pensions.

The advantages of contingent workers include that they have strong incentive to perform at a high level.

It’s likely that contingent workers will help organizations develop core competences.

Empowerment is the process of taking away authority from employees throughout an organization.

Cross-functional teams are empowered to direct and coordinate the value-creation activities necessary to complete different programs or projects.

IT is not making it easier for managers to design a cost-effective structure and control system.

Empowered workers have limited authority to make important decisions.

Organizations must not develop core competences in their functions to gain competitive advantage.

Increasing personal supervision can be an effective way of motivating employees and promoting behaviors that increase effectiveness.

A flat organization has many levels in its hierarchy.

Research suggests that the increase in the size of the managerial components in an organization is proportional to the increase in size of the organization as it grows.

In a pyramid-like structure, an organization has fewer and fewer managers at each level.

Communication problems and distortion are not issues in tall hierarchies.

According to Parkinson, the growth in the number of managers and hierarchical levels is controlled by two principles: making a larger empire and creating more work for one another.

According to the principle of minimum chain of command, an organization should choose the maximum number of hierarchical levels consistent with its goals and the environment in which it operates.

An organization with a flat structure will experience more communication, motivation, and cost problems than a tall organization.

By increasing its managers’ span of control, an organization can avoid becoming too tall while maintaining effective control of its workforce.

A manager's ability to supervise and control subordinates’ behavior directly is not limited by the complexity of subordinates’ tasks.

Horizontal differentiation leads to the emergence of integrated subunits within an organization.

Centralization reduces the amount of direct supervision required in a relatively tall organizational structure.

A bureaucracy is a form of organizational structure in which people can be held accountable for their actions because they are required to act in accordance with rules and standard operating procedures.

Max Weber developed principles for designing a hierarchy to effectively allocate decision-making authority and control over resources.

A bureaucracy is not founded on the concept of rational-legal authority.

Organizational roles are held on the basis of technical competence, not because of social status, kinship, or heredity.

Verbal differentiation refers to the clear specification of a role’s task responsibility and decision-making authority and its relationship to other roles in the organization.

The organization of roles in a bureaucracy is such that each lower office in the hierarchy is under control and supervision of a higher office.

Administrative acts, decisions, and rules should be formulated and put in writing.

The primary advantage of a bureaucracy is that it lays out the ground rules for designing an organizational hierarchy that efficiently controls interactions between organizational levels.

Bureaucracy separates the position from the person, allowing individuals to develop their skills and pass them on to their successors.

Management by objectives (MBO) involves three specific steps: establishing goals at each level of the organization, determining subordinates’ goals, and periodically reviewing progress towards meeting goals.

In a decentralized organization, MBO works somewhat differently; it's not about goals for the subordinates, but about goals for the teams.

At all levels in the organization, decision making and coordination frequently take place outside the formally designed channels as people interact informally on the job.