Question 1

Traditional organizations are structured in a pyramid, with the power and authority located in the pyramid's broad base.

Accepted Answer

The power and authority in a traditional organization resides at the narrow point of the pyramid where top management is located, not the base.

Question 2

Grouping jobs on the basis of major product areas is termed customer departmentalization.

Accepted Answer

Grouping along the lines of product areas is termed product departmentalization, not customer departmentalization.

Question 3

A mechanistic organization is bureaucratic and hierarchical.

Accepted Answer

Mechanistic organizations are formal, hierarchical, impersonal, specialized, and heavily dependent on rules and protocols.

Question 4

Today, most managers see work specialization as a source of ever-increasing productivity.

Accepted Answer

Today, managers see a limit to the amount of productivity increase they can see from specialization. Specialization that is not deadening to employees tends to work best. Monotonous assembly-line work seems to have diminishing returns.

Question 5

Innovators need the efficiency, stability, and tight controls of a mechanistic structure rather than an organic structure.

Accepted Answer

Innovators usually do better in a flexible organic structure where they are given leeway to think creatively.

Question 6

The two prevalent organizational structure models in today's world are the organic organization and the inorganic organization.

Accepted Answer

The two structures are termed organic and mechanistic.

Question 7

The original ideas about organizational design formulated by Fayol and Weber are now largely obsolete.

Accepted Answer

Surprisingly, many of the ideas of Fayol and Weber about organizational design are still valid today.

Question 8

When decisions tend to be made at lower levels in an organization, the organization is said to be centralized.

Accepted Answer

Centralized decisions originate at higher rather than lower levels of an organization.

Question 9

Line authority can be exerted only after a manager checks with his or her superior.

Accepted Answer

Line authority does not require checking with superiors. It can be exerted as the manager sees fit without any kind of consultation.

Question 10

The relationship between organizational size and structure tends to be linear.

Accepted Answer

The greater the size of the organization, the more mechanistic it tends to be. However, the relationship is not at all linear but rather seems to jump at certain levels in numbers of employees. An organization with fewer than 100 employees, for example, may be very organic, while adding just a few more employees could cause the organization to suddenly take on more mechanistic characteristics.

Question 11

An organic organization tends to be flexible and have few formal rules.

Accepted Answer

An organic organization tries to be nimble in a dynamic business climate, paring down bureaucratic complexity and focusing on innovation, flexibility, and creativity.

Question 12

Staff authority is the ability to direct the work of any employee who does not have a higher rank in the organization.

Accepted Answer

Staff authority is authority over support staff only, not general employees. Thus, a payroll manager has authority over payroll staff but not other organizational employees.

Question 13

The advantage of work specialization is that it always results in high employee motivation and high productivity.

Accepted Answer

The opposite occurs-too much work specialization results in lower motivation and productivity.

Question 14

There are four basic elements in organizational structure.

Accepted Answer

There are six elements: work specialization, departmentalization, authority and responsibility, span of control, centralization and decentralization, and formalization.

Question 15

Organizational design is the process in which managers change or develop an organization's structure.

Accepted Answer

By definition, organizational design requires a manager to develop an organization's structure, or change the structure in some way.

Question 16

Power is a right that a manager has when he or she has a higher rank in an organization.

Accepted Answer

Power can arise from rank, but it also can arise from a particular skill, knowledge, or access within the organization. For example, the boss's secretary has power to gain access to the boss without having a high rank in the organization.

Question 17

Departmentalization is how jobs are grouped.

Accepted Answer

The grouping of jobs along lines of function, product, and other criteria defines departmentalization.

Question 18

When work specialization originally began to be implemented early in the twentieth century, employee productivity initially rose.

Accepted Answer

Initially, managers saw huge increases in productivity as a result of specialization. However, when work became overly specialized, employee morale and motivation dropped, erasing many productivity gains.

Question 19

Joan Woodward attempted to view organizational structure from a technological perspective.

Accepted Answer

Woodward looked at how production methods affected organization structure.

Question 20

Unity of command prevents an employee from trying to follow two conflicting commands at once.

Accepted Answer

The original management theorists stated that subordinates should not be put in the position to try to follow two or more conflicting commands at once. Unity of command ensures that the command from the highest organizational level is followed.

Quiz 8: Organizational Structure and Design