Upgrade to remove ads
Only $2.99/month

Organizational Structure and Change

Terms in this set (27)

Centralization
Degree to which decision-making authority is restricted to higher levels of management in an organization.
Formalization
the degree to which jobs within an organization are standardized and rules are written and explicitly articulated.
Span of Control
the optimal number of subordinates a manager supervises or should supervise
Tall Structure
characterized by an overall narrow span of management and a relatively large number of hierarchical levels. Better for security needs of employees.
Flat Structure
characterized by an overall broad span of management and relatively few hierarchical levels. Better for employee self-actualization.
Functional Structures
groups together people with similar skills who perform similar tasks
Divisional Structures
departments represent the unique products, services, customers, or geographic locations the company is serving
Mechanistic Structure
an organizational structure with a narrow span of control and a high degree of formalization and centralization
Organic Structure
an organizational structure in which authority is decentralized to middle and first-line managers and tasks and roles are left ambiguous to encourage employees to cooperate and respond quickly to the unexpected.
Matrix Organizations
A cross between a traditional functional structure with a product structure. Specifically, employees reporting to department managers are also pooled together to form project or product teams.
Unity of Command
a management principle that workers should report to just one boss
Boundaryless Organization
organization in which there are no barriers to information flow
Modular Organization
An organization where all the nonessential functions are outsourced.
Strategic Alliances
cooperative agreements between potential or actual competitors
Learning Organization
An organization skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.

-these organizations vigorously study competitors.
Moore's Law
the observation that computing power roughly doubles every two years.
Forces Which Cause Organizational Change
1. Workforce Demographics
2. Globalization
3. Technology
4. Market Conditions
5. Organizational Growth (startup-large company)
6. Poor Company performance
7. Resistance to Change
Active Resistance
the most negative reaction to a proposed change attempt.
Passive Resistance
Disturbance by changes without voicing opinions about them.
Compliance
going along with proposed company changes with little enthusiasm
Enthusiastic Support
defenders of the new way and actually encourage others around them to give support to the change effort as well
Why Do People Resist Change?
disrupted habits, personality, feelings of uncertainty, fear of failure, personal impact of change, prevalence of change, perceived loss of power
Lewin's Three-Stage Process of Change
unfreeze, change, refreeze
Kotter's Eight Steps for Leading Organizational Change
Job sharing
an arrangement whereby two part-time employees share one full-time job
Ringi System
involves proposals at lower levels being signed and passed along to higher level management in an effort to build consensus
cultures low in uncertainty avoidance
Are more comfortable with change
THIS SET IS OFTEN IN FOLDERS WITH...