97. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. When John Lechleiter put everyone involved in drug development under
one roof in a Development Center of Excellence, he increased the opportunities for the people directly
responsible for drug development to connect and talk about their work. This single move increased the
__________at the company.
a.
formal organization
b.
cycle time for drug approval
c.
centralization of authority
d.
skill variety
e.
behavioral informality
98. Refer to WWYD Eli Lilly. John Lechleiter was able to reorganize personnel and create a the
Development Center of Excellence because he had______with respect to the other employees.
a.
staff authority
b.
centralized authority
c.
unity
d.
autonomy
e.
line authority
SHORT ANSWER
1. Describe what is meant by organizational structure and organizational process and how are these
concepts related to each other? How are they different from each other?
2. Explain what is meant by the term departmentalization. List the five traditional approaches to
departmentalization.
3. There is one common disadvantage associated with geographic, product, and customer
departmentalization. What is it? Explain how the functional and matrix forms avoid this disadvantage.
4. Identify the five traditional approaches to organizational structure. Which one is best for a company to
use? Explain your answer.
5. Define the concept of authority and list the four dimensions which have traditionally been
characterized in organizations.
6. Define standardization and how is this concept is relevant to the degree of organizational
centralization?
7. What is job specialization? Briefly explain its advantages and disadvantages.
8. What are the primary disadvantages of job specialization? How can job redesign be used to overcome
them?
9. The job characteristics model (JCM) is concerned with increasing internal motivation. JCM specifies
three critical psychological traits that must occur for work to be internally motivating. What are they?
10. How do the mechanistic and organic approaches to organizational design differ? Under what
circumstances is each appropriate for use by a company?
11. List and briefly describe the two approaches that companies can use to redesign internal processes.
12. What is a modular organization? Briefly identify the advantages and disadvantages associated with this
organizational form.
1. Identify an organization that you know of and explain how and why its approach to organizational
design tends to fit better with either the traditional (structure) or contemporary (process) approaches to
organizational design. Be sure to state whether your organizational example more closely fits the
model of mechanistic or organic organizational design.
2. List and briefly identify each of the five traditional departmental structures. Explain which one tends
to be the most difficult to manage effectively.
3. Explain what is meant by authority. How can authority be centralized? How can it be decentralized?
Describe the circumstances under which centralization rather than decentralization would be more
desirable. Finally, as a manager in a large company, what particular challenge might you expect to face
with regard to the use of decentralization?
4. Identify a job that you had (or a job that you know of) that was particularly boring and that had the
characteristics of a specialized job. Analyze that job in terms of the five core job characteristics from
the job characteristics model (JCM). Make specific recommendations for redesigning it by using three
to five of the redesign techniques presented in the model.
5. What is an intraorganizational process? Identify the techniques used by companies today to change
these processes. Evaluate the probable level of risk to a company in using each of these approaches.
6. Describe the virtual organization. Explain how the virtual organization could theoretically prove to be
a more formidable competitor than any of the other types of organization in a highly complex,
dynamic business environment.
