Unit-2- Study Questions with Answers…..

 What are the essentials of organizational design?

 How do contingency factors influence organization

design?

 What are the major issues in subsystems design?

 How can work processes be reengineered?

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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?

 Organizational design
– Choosing and implementing structures that best
arrange resources to serve the organization’s
mission and objectives.
– A problem-solving activity that should be
approached from a contingency perspective.
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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?

 Organizational effectiveness
– Sustainable high performance in using resources to
accomplish mission and objectives.
– Approaches:
• Systems resource approach  focuses on inputs.
• Internal process approach  focuses on transformation
process.
• Internal process approach  focuses on outputs.
• Internal process approach  focuses on environment.
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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?
 Short-run, medium-run and long-run criteria for
evaluating organizational effectiveness:
– Short-run focus.
• Goal accomplishment.
• Performance efficiency in resource utilization.
• Stakeholder satisfaction.
– Medium-run focus.
• Adaptability in the face of changing environments.
• Development of people and systems to meet new challenges.
– Long-run focus.
• Survival under conditions of uncertainty.

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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?

 Bureaucracy
– A form of organization based on logic, order, and the
legitimate use of formal authority.
– Bureaucratic designs feature …
• Clear-cut division of labor.
• Strict hierarchy of authority.
• Formal rules and procedures.
• Promotion based on competency.

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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?
 Contingency perspective on bureaucracy asks the
questions:
– When is a bureaucratic form a good choice for an
organization?
– What alternatives exist when it is not a good choice?
 Environment determines the answers to these
questions.
– A mechanistic design works in a stable environment
– An organic design works in a rapidly changing and
uncertain environment.

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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?
 Structural characteristics associated with design
alternatives:
– Goal  predictability versus adaptability.
– Authority  centralized versus decentralized.
– Rules and procedures  many versus few.
– Spans of control  narrow versus wide.
– Tasks  specialized versus shared.
– Teams and task forces  few versus many.
– Coordination  formal and impersonal versus informal
and personal.
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Study Question 1: What are the essentials of
organizational design?
 Mechanistic Designs
– Predictable goals
– Centralized authority
– Many rules and
procedures
– Narrow spans of control
– Specialized tasks
– Few teams and task
forces
– Formal and impersonal
means of coordination
 Organic Designs
– Adaptable goals
– Decentralized authority
– Few rules and
procedures
– Wide spans of control
– Shared tasks
– Many teams and task
forces
– Informal and personal
means of coordination

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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?
 Checklist for identifying contingency factors in
organizational design:
– Does the design fit well with the major problems and opportunities of
the external environment?
– Does the design support implementation of strategies and the
accomplishment of key operating objectives?
– Does the design support core technologies and allow them to be used
to best advantage?
– Can the design handle changes in organizational size and different
stages in the organizational life cycle?
– Does the design support and empower workers and allow their talents
to be used to best advantage?

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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?
 Environment and organizational design —
– Certain environment …
• Relatively stable and predictable elements.
• Bureaucratic organizations and mechanistic designs
are appropriate.
– Uncertain environment …
• More dynamic and less predictable elements.
• Adaptive organizations and organic designs are
appropriate.
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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?

 Strategy and organizational design —

– Structure follows strategy.
– Stability strategy is supported by:
– Bureaucratic organizations using mechanistic
designs.
– Growth strategies are is supported by :
– Adaptive organizations using organic designs.

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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?

 Technology

– The combination of knowledge, skills,

equipment, computers, and work methods
used to transform resource inputs into
organization outputs.
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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?
 Core manufacturing technologies:
– Small-batch production.
• A variety of custom products are tailor-made to order.
– Mass production.
• A large number of uniform products are made in an assembly-
line system.
– Continuous-process production.
• A few products are made by continuously feeding raw materials
through a highly automated production system with largely
computerized controls.
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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?

 Technology and organization design —

– The technological imperative
• Technology is a major influence on organizational
structure.
• The best small-batch and continuous process plants
have more flexible organic structures.
• The best mass-production plants have more rigid
mechanistic structures.
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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?
 Core service technologies:
– Intensive technology
• Focuses the efforts of many people with special expertise on the
needs of patients or clients.
– Mediating technology
• Links together parties seeking a mutually beneficial exchange of
values.
– Long-linked technology
• Functions like mass production, where a client is passed from
point to point for various aspects of service delivery.
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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?
 Organization size, life cycle, and design —
– Larger organizations tend to have more mechanistic
designs, but it is not always best.
– Organizational life cycle:
• Birth stage — small size, simple structure.
• Youth stage — rapid growth in size, simple structure experiences
stress.
• Midlife stage — growing to large size, more complex and formal
structure.
• Maturity stage — stabilizes at large size, mechanistic structure.

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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?

 Coping with the disadvantages of large size:

– Downsizing.
• Reducing the scope of operations and number of employees.
– Intrapreneurship.
• The pursuit of entrepreneurial behavior by individuals and
subunits within large organizations.
– Simultaneous structures.
• Organizations that combine mechanistic and organic designs.

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Study Question 2: How do contingency
factors influence organization design?
 Human resources and good organization
design —
– Provides people with supporting structures
needed for both high performance and work
satisfaction.
– Produces a good “fit” between organization
structures and human resources.
– Allows the expertise and talents of organization
members to be unlocked and utilized.
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Study Question 3: What are the major issues
in subsystems design?

 Basics of subsystem design …

– Subsystem —
• A department or work unit headed by a manager.
• Operates as a smaller part of the larger
organization.
– Ideally, each subsystem supports other
subsystems, working toward interests of entire
organization.
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Study Question 3: What are the major issues
in subsystems design?
 Lawrence and Lorsch’s findings on
subsystems design …
– The total system structures of successful firms
match the challenges of their environments.
– The subsystems structures of successful firms
match the challenges of their respective
subenvironments.
– Subsystems in successful firms worked well
with each other.
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Study Question 3: What are the major issues
in subsystems design?
 Managing subsystem differentiation:
– Differentiation is the degree of difference that
exists among the internal components of an
organization.
– Common sources of subsystems differentiation:
• Time orientation
• Objectives
• Interpersonal orientation
• Formal structure

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Study Question 3: What are the major issues
in subsystems design?

 Managing subsystem integration:

– Integration is the level of coordination achieved
among an organization’s internal components.
– Organization design paradox —
• Increased differentiation creates the need for greater
integration.
• Integration is more difficult to achieve as
differentiation increases.

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Study Question 3: What are the major issues
in subsystems design?
 Mechanisms for achieving subsystem integration:
– Rules and procedures
– Hierarchical referral
– Planning
– Direct contact
– Liaison role
– Task forces
– Teams
– Matrix organizations
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Study Question 4: How can work processes
be reengineered?
 Process reengineering
– Systematic and complete analysis of work processes.
– Design of new and better work processes.
 Work process
– “A related group of tasks that create a result of value
for the customer.” (Michael Hammer)
 Workflow
– Movement of work from one point to another in the
manufacturing or service delivery process.
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