Final Exam Review Flashcards
(45 cards)
What is organizational development?
-family of techniques that are designed to help organizations change for the better
-involves changing how people do their work, how they communicate, and how they coordinate their efforts
What is the multistage process of organizational development?
1 - the employees first learn that change needs to occur
2 - the specific form of change must be determined - with the help of employees
3 - the change can be implemented; most likely initially some resistance to change
4 - the new way of operating must be consolidated and become part of the accepted way people operate
What are the techniques identified for organizational development?
- employee acceptance of change
- management by objectives
- survey feedback
- team building
- t-group
What is management by objectives?
based on goal setting, each employee’s own goals are coordinated with the goals of both supervisors and subordinates
What is survey feedback?
involves conducting a survey of employee attitudes and opinions and then feedback on the results to the entire organization
What is team building?
designed to enhance the functioning of work teams (total quality management deming and quality and teams)
What is t-group?
training group; intervention to enhance the communication and interpersonal skills of individual employees through the use of specific group exercises
What determines the effectiveness of an organizational development program?
top management
What is the classic organizational theory?
to create a rational structure and several principles - to allow for the orderly and efficient functioning of an organization
Who created the classical organizational theory?
Weber late 1800s
What are the characteristics and principles for effective organizations?
- division of labor
- delegation of authority and chain of command
- span of control
- line v. staff
What is division of labor?
organization’s specialized job positions, each of which is responsible for different tasks
What is span of control?
the number of subordinates who report to each supervisor
What is line v. staff?
line positions; involved directly with the organization’s major purpose and staff positions; support the activities of a line position
What is the main focus of the human-relations theory?
concerned with the interaction between supervisors and subordinates
Who created the human relations theory?
McGregor 1960
What are the propositions of theory X?
- managers are responsible for organizing elements of the organization
- managers should direct the activities of subordinates
- employees are resistant to organizational needs
- the average employee is lazy, lacks ambition and dislikes responsibility, concerned for him/herself and not the organizations, resistant to change, and gullible and not very bright
What are the propositions of theory Y?
- managers are responsible for organizing elements of the organization
- employees are not by the nature resistant to organizational needs, they have become that way b/c of prior organizational procedures
- managers should make it possible for subordinates to recognize and develop their organizational capabilities
- managers should create organizational conditions so that subordinates can achieve their own goals
Why is the contingency theory called the contingency theory?
it is contingent on the nature of the environment the organization is situated on
What is Burns and Stalker’s 1968 view on contingency theory?
- organizational systems should vary based on the level of the stability in the environment
- two different types of management systems (mechanic and organic systems)
- management is the dependent variables
What is Lawrence and Lorsch’s 1969 view on contingency theory?
- key issue is environmental uncertainty and information flow
- focus on exploring and improving the organization’s relationship with the environment
- environment is characterized along a certainty-uncertainty continuum
What are the general principles of the systems theory?
- parts that make up the system are interrelated
- health of the overall systems is contingent on subsystem functioning
- import and export material from and to the environment
- permeable boundaries (materials can pass through)
- relative openness (the system can regulate permeability)
- second principle of thermodynamics (entropy)
- synergy
- equifinality vs “one best way”
How is an organization viewed?
from biological sciences
What are the 10 characteristics Katz and Kahn describe of an open system?
1 - import energy
2 - transform energy
3 - output products
4 - cycle of events
5 - escape entropy
6 - input information
7 - homeostasis
8 - specialization
9 - coordination and integration
10 - equifinality
