week 7 - foundations of organising Flashcards
6 key elements in organisational design
- Work specilisation
- Departmentalization
- Authority and responsibility (and accountability)
- Span of control
- Cenrealisation v Decentralisation
- Formalization
what is work specilisation
Economies and Diseconomies of work
e.g. surged hands over to different members who are specialised in a field to boost productivity and makes a more efficient uses of resources
explain 5 types of departmentalisation
functional - groups employees based on work performed (e.g. hr, finance)
Product - grou[s empties based on major product areas in organisation (e.g mens and womans)
Consumer - Groups employees based on customers’ problems and needs (e.g.retail wholesale )
Geographic - groups employees based on location served (e.g. vic, nsw)
Process - Groups employees based on the basis of work or customer flow (e.g. testing, payment)
Cross functional teams also included
explain authority and unity of command
o An employee who has to report to 2 or more bosses might have to cope with conflicting demands and priorities. Accordingly, the early writers believed that each employee should report to only one manager, a term called Unity of command.
o Why is this often called ask mummy then daddy rule?
what is the difference between power and managerial authoruty
Authority: a right whose legitimacy is based on an authority figure’s position in the organisation
Power: An individual’s capacity to influence decisions
5 types of power?
coercive power - power based on fear
Reward power - power based on the ability to distribute something that others value
Legitimate power - power based on ones position in a formal hierarchy
Expert power - power based on one’s expertise, special skills or knowledge
Referent Power - Power based on identification with a person who has desirable resources or personal traits
Span of Control – How many people can be effectively and efficiently managed?
Depends on contingency factors such as:
o Employee expierence and training
o Similarity of employee tasks
o Complexity of tasks
o Physical proximity of employees
o Amount and type of standardized procedures
o Sophistication of organisation’s MIS
o Strength of the organisation’s value system
o Preferred managing style of the manager
explain difference between centralisation and decentralisation
Centralization = The degree to which decision making takes place at upper levels of the organisation
Decentralisation = The degree to which lower-level managers provide input or actually make decisions
Define formalisation
Formalisation – refers to how standardized an organisations jobs are and the extent to which employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures
o Highly formalized organisations have explicit job descriptions, numerous organisational rule and clearly defined procedures covering work procedures
Identify the contingency factors that favour either mechanistic model or the organic model of organisational design (pg.127-134
mechanistic: rigid hierarchal relationships fixed duties many rules formalised communication channels centralised decision authority taller structures
Organic: Collaboration (both vertical and horizontal) Adaptive duties few roles informal communccation decentralised decision authority flater structures
Structural contingency (situational Factors) The most appropriate structure to use depends on 5 contingency factors:
o Strategy o Size o Culture o Technology o Environmental uncertainty
how do strategies affect structure
Stratergies = determine structure because changes in cooperate stratergy lead to changes in an organisation’s structure that support the new stratergy
Organic:
o Free flowing information works well when an organisation is pursuing meaningful and unique innovations
Mechanistic:
o Efficiency, stability and tight controls works best for companies wanting to tightly control costs
Describe the key components of the human resource management procedure and the important influences on that process
Him = right people, right place, right time
look at the arm process pics
Discuss techniques for simulating innovation:
Creativity: The ability to produce novel and useful ideas
Innovation: The process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service or method of operation
innovation process
- Perception
- Incubation
- Inspiration
- innovation
e. g. crowd funding
Innovation variables
stratal variables: organs structure abdunant resources high inter-unit communication minimal time pressure work and non-work support
Human resource variables:
high commitment to training and development
high job security creative people
Cultural variables: Acceptance of ambiguity tolerance of the impractical low external controls tolerance of conflict focus on ends open-system focus positive feedback
Define organisational change and compare and contrast views on the change process:
Categories of organisational change
Structure:
authority relationships coordinating mechanisms job design span of control
Technology:
work processes work methods and equipment
People:
Attitudes, expectations, perceptions and behaviour
what drives organisational change
External factors: o Marketplace o Government laws and regulations o Technology o Labour markets o Economic conditions
Internal Factors:
o strategy
o Composition of workforce
o Employee situation
initiating change
Organisational change needs a catalyst. People who act as catalysts are called change catalysts.
Change metaphor of ‘calm waters’
explain the 3 step change process
unfreezing
changing
refreezing
implementing change, explain otgantional development
Organisational development (OD): Efforts that assist organisational members with a planned change by focusing on their attitudes and values.
This includes:
- Survey feedback
- Process consultation
- Team-building
- Intergroup development
What are the factors that drives organisational change?
o Provide one external factor and one internal factor that could drive change. Explain in detail how managers could respond to that change using either its structure, technology, or people
