Organizational Behavior 15th Ed Foundations of Organizational Structure Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall15-1 Robbins

Organizational Behavior15th Ed

Foundations of

Organizational Structure

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall 15-1

Robbins and Judge

Chapter

15

Chapter 15 Learning Objectives

After studying this chapter you should be able to:1. Identify the six elements of an organization’s structure.2. Identify the characteristics of a bureaucracy.3. Describe a matrix organization.4. Identify the characteristics of a virtual organization.5. Show why managers want to create boundaryless

organizations.6. Demonstrate how organizational structures differ and

contrast mechanistic and organic structural models.7. Analyze the behavioral implications of different

organizational designs.


Identify the six elements of an organization’s structure


LO 1


• Work Specialization– By the late 1940s, most manufacturing

jobs in industrialized countries were being done this way.

–Managers also looked for other efficiencies that could be achieved through work specialization. • Repetition of work• Training for specialization• Increasing efficiency through invention


LO 1



LO 1


• Departmentalization– Grouping jobs together so common tasks

can be coordinated is called departmentalization. • By functions performed• By type of product or service the

organization produces • By geography or territory • By process differences• By type of customer


LO 1


• Chain of Command– Once a cornerstone in design of

organizations,– "an unbroken line of authority that extends

from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports to whom."

– Two complementary concepts: authority and unity of command.

–Authority–Unity-of-command

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall15-7

LO 1


• Chain of Command– Less relevant today because of technology

and the trend of empowering employees. • Operating employees make decisions

previously reserved for management. • The popularity of self-managed and

cross-functional teams.–Many organizations find that enforcing the

chain of command is most productive


LO 1



LO 1


• Centralization and Decentralization – Centralization refers to the degree to

which decision-making is concentrated at a single point in the organization.

– A decentralized organization can act more quickly to solve problems, more people provide input into decisions, and employees are less likely to feel alienated from those who make decisions that affect their work lives.


LO 1


• Formalization refers to the degree to which jobs within the organization are standardized. – A highly formalized job gives the job incumbent a

minimum amount of discretion.– The greater the standardization, the less input the

employee has into how the job is done. – Low formalization—job behaviors are relatively

nonprogrammed, and employees have a great deal of freedom to exercise discretion in their work.


LO 1

Identify the characteristics of a bureaucracy

• A bureaucracy is characterized by: – Highly routine operating tasks.– Very formalized rules and regulations.– Tasks grouped into functional

departments.– Centralized authority.– Narrow spans of control.– Decision-making that follows the chain of

command.


LO 2

Identify the characteristics of a bureaucracy

• Its primary strength is in its ability to perform standardized activities in a highly efficient manner.

• Weaknesses include subunit conflicts, unit goals dominate, obsessive behavior, covering weak management.

• The bureaucracy is efficient only as long as employees confront familiar problems with programmed decision rules.


LO 2

Describe a matrix organization

• The Matrix Structure– It combines two forms of departmentalization

—functional and product: • The strength of functional is putting

specialists together.– Product departmentalization facilitates

coordination. • It provides clear responsibility for all

activities related to a product, but with duplication of activities and costs.


LO 3

Describe a matrix organization


LO 3

Identify the characteristics of a virtual organization


LO 4

Show why managers want to create boundaryless organizations

• The boundaryless organization seeks to eliminate the chain of command, have limitless spans of control, and replace departments with empowered teams. – Uses cross-hierarchical teams – Uses participative decision-making

practices – Uses 360-degree performance appraisals


LO 5

Show why managers want to create boundaryless organizations

• Functional departments create horizontal boundaries.

• Boundaryless organizations break down geographic barriers.

• Culture can be a boundary element.• Customers perform functions done by

management. • Telecommuting blurs organizational

boundaries.


LO 5

Organizational Downsizing

• The Learner Organization: Organizational Downsizing– The goal of the new organizational forms

we’ve described is to improve agility by creating a lean, focused, and flexible organization.

– Downsizing is a systematic effort to make an organization leaner by selling off business units, closing locations, or reducing staff.


LO 5

Demonstrate how organizational structures differ and contrast mechanistic

and organic structural models


LO 6



• An organization’s structure is a means to help management achieve its objectives.

• Most current strategy frameworks focus on three strategy dimensions:– innovation, – cost minimization, and – imitation.


LO 6




LO 6



• There is considerable evidence to support that an organization’s size significantly affects its structure.

• The impact of size becomes less important as an organization expands.


LO 6



• Technology refers to how an organization transfers its inputs into outputs.

• Every organization has at least one technology.

• Numerous studies have examined the technology-structure relationship.

• Organizations engaged in nonroutine activities tend to prefer organic structures.


LO 6



• An organization’s environment includes outside institutions or forces that can affect its performance.

• Dynamic environments create significantly more uncertainty for managers than do static ones.

• Any organization’s environment has three dimensions: capacity, volatility, and complexity.


LO 6




LO 6

Analyze the behavioral implications of different organizational designs

• Organization’s structure can have significant effects.

• A review of the evidence leads to a pretty clear conclusion: you can’t generalize! – Not everyone prefers the freedom and flexibility

of organic structures. – Some people are most productive and satisfied

when work tasks are standardized and ambiguity minimized.


LO 7


• Let’s consider employee preferences for work specialization, span of control, and centralization. –Work specialization contributes to higher

employee productivity.– No evidence supports a relationship between

span of control and employee satisfaction or performance.

– Fairly strong evidence links centralization and job satisfaction, meaning that less centralization is associated with higher satisfaction. Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

15-28

LO 7


• Although research is slim, it does suggest national culture influences the preference for structure.

• So consider cultural differences along with individual differences when predicting how structure will affect employee performance and satisfaction.


LO 7

Summary and Implications for Managers

• The theme of this chapter is that an organization’s internal structure contributes to explaining and predicting behavior.

• That is, in addition to individual and group factors, the structural relationships in which people work has a bearing on employee attitudes and behavior.


Summary and Implications for Managers



All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall

Documents

Organizational Behavior 15th Ed Foundations of Organizational Structure Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall15-1 Robbins