Chapter 11—Basic Elements of Organizing Key
1. Job design can be defined as deciding how best to group organizational activities and resources.
2. Organization structure is the manner in which basic organizational components such as strategy, tactics, and
operations are arranged for a particular organization.
3. A manager needs to understand the blocks¾organizational structure¾before building with them
¾organizational design.
4. There are eight basic building blocks managers can use in constructing an organization.
5. Job specialization evolved from the concept of division of labor.
6. Task variety is the perceived importance of the task.
7. Growth-need strength is presumed to affect how the job characteristics approach works for different people.
8. The most common base for departmentalization, especially among smaller organizations, is by product.
9. A disadvantage of functional departmentalization is that administrative costs rise because each department
must have its own functional specialists for areas such as market research and financial analysis.
10. Divisions, units, sections, and bureaus are all synonyms for departments.
11. Most large corporations use one form of departmentalization.
12. The scalar principle suggests that each person within an organization must have a clear reporting
relationship to one and only one boss; newer models of organization design routinely¾and successfully¾violate
this premise.
13. Flat organizations result from broad spans of management.
14. Standardized procedures lead to narrower spans of control.
15. Delegation is power that has been legitimized by the organization.
16. No organization is ever completely decentralized or completely centralized; some firms position themselves
toward one end of the continuum, and some lean the other way.
17. Local networks, increasingly managed by hand-held electronic devices, are making it easier to coordinate
activities.
18. Pooled interdependence is when the output of one unit becomes the input for another in a linear fashion.
19. Once jobs have been broken into small units, the departments need to be linked back together through
coordination.
20. A staff position is responsible for the achievement of an organization’s goals.
21. According to the text, the most effective way to use staff positions is to grant them line authority.
22. An organization with high administrative intensity is one with few staff positions relative to the number of
line positions.
23. Over the past few years, the trend in many organizations has been to decrease administrative intensity.
24. Organizing
25. Which of the following is NOT a part of the organizational structure?
26. ____ is the determination of an individual’s work-related responsibilities.
27. Job ____ refers to the degree to which the organization’s overall task is broken down and divided into
smaller component parts.
28. Some companies now have a chief ethics officer. They usually have a legal background and are responsible
for whistle-blowing, ethics training, financial statements review, and investigations. This is an example of
____.
29. Which of the following statements describes specialization?
30. Which of the following statements are accurate about job specialization?
31. The starting point for all job design activities is determining the level of desired
32. Which of the following statements describes an advantage of job specialization?
33. Army officers use an expression “not in my lane,” which derives from the basic marksmanship function of
establishing firing lanes for who fires at which targets. The idea is to spread people over the whole area so you
do not miss anything and to prevent everyone from firing at the same target. This is an example of
34. Chris Johnson is a running back in the National Football League. He does not play other positions. NFL
teams use
35. ____ can be used to balance with specialization.
36. Workers in a McDonald’s are trained to cook, clean, fill drinks, take orders, and fill orders. During a shift
they work each job for one hour. This is an example of job
37. Gymnastic athletes train for each event. During competition they compete on each of them in the all-around.
They use job ____.
38. In which alternative to specialization does the job itself remain the same, which means satisfaction usually
wanes quickly?
39. Which of the following statements describes a characteristic of job rotation?
40. Actors usually try to get a variety of parts throughout their careers in a variety of genres so that they do not
get type case into only action, or comedy, etc. The actors want
41. One of the common complaints of special education teachers is that they are not allowed to teach because of
all the paperwork they are required to fill out and keep current. They once only had to teach, but now they have
so many other duties that they don’t feel they are doing anything well. In this case, ____ did not produce
satisfied workers.
42. Invacare modified the wheelchair assembly process so that workers assemble the entire wheelchair rather
than simply add one or two pieces as is normal on most assembly lines. This is an example of
43. ____, as an alternative to specialization, has the disadvantages of raising training costs, unions arguing for
more pay for doing more tasks, and worker boredom setting in.
44. With job enrichment, workers can ____. This does not occur with job enlargement.
45. Which of the following is NOT an alternative to job specialization?
46. Cadets at West Point spend time during the summer learning about the branches in the Army like aviation,
infantry, ordnance, finance, etc. In their senior year the cadets select their branch based on this experience. The
academy is using job ____ as a training technique.
47. ____ is defined as systematically moving employees from one job to another.
48. Remote work areas give employees more control over their job. This is an example of
49. Many high school teachers also coach a sport. They have the same autonomy in coaching that they have in
the classroom. This is an example of
50. Job ____ requires that autonomy be part of the job.
51. Although a pay increase would be useful when a change in job design is made, for which of the following
would it be expected?
52. Michelle has a low growth-need. She would not like ____.
53. Rose Marie’s boss tells her what to do, not how to do it. Which of the following statements is TRUE?
54. The job characteristics approach to job design is a specific method for taking into account both the work
system and employee preferences. It is similar to the more general ____ approach.
55. Laundry is never done. Unless it is done naked, doing laundry creates more work. Laundry lacks ____.
56. Managers plan, control, organize, and lead. They need good people abilities as well as analytical abilities. A
manager’s job has
57. Teachers at South Elementary School are allowed to pair up and teach a class twice as large as others. This
allows the teachers to specialize in the subjects they most enjoy. The team teachers now share control over the
classroom. The team teaching decreases
58. Teachers at South Elementary School are allowed to pair up and teach a class twice as large as others. This
allows the teachers to specialize in the subjects they most enjoy. This is an example of
59. When fire fighters go on a call they must focus on the task at hand. They know people’s lives are counting
on them. They have
60. ____ are most alike in terms of the amount of authority and responsibility workers are given with each.
61. ____ is the grouping of jobs into some logical arrangement.
62. All of the following are bases for departmentalization EXCEPT
63. A regional manufacturing operation has the following divisions: manufacturing, finance, human resources,
marketing, and shipping/receiving. This is an example of ____ departmentalization.
64. Which of the following is the MOST commonly used basis for departmentalization, especially among small
businesses?
65. The Hospital for Special Surgery is staffed with over 200 doctors. If a patient has a toe injury she goes to a
foot and ankle specialist. Later if she injures her hand, she will see a different doctor. Each doctor has assistants
based around the specialty. The HSS uses a ____ basis for departmentalization.
66. Which of the following statements describes an advantage of functional departmentalization?
67. A municipal government has departments for construction, fire, first aid, schools, taxes, public works, and
recreation. It uses ____ departmentalization.
68. Which of the following methods of departmentalization groups jobs according to their involvement in the
same or similar activities?
69. At Haldeman Ford dealership employees specialize in sales, service maintenance, customer service, and
accounting. What form of departmentalization does Haldeman use?
70. Air traffic controllers work shifts in the tower. This is an example of which form of departmentalization?
71. Product departmentalization has the disadvantages that ____ and administrative cost is increased.
72. ____ departmentalization has the advantage of reducing the number of skills a manager must possess.
73. In large organizations you would expect to find ____ departmentalization(s).
74. GM has a division for GMC trucks and one for Buicks, Oldsmobiles, and Cadillacs. This is an example of
____ departmentalization.
75. Which of the following statements does NOT describe an advantage of product departmentalization?
76. Procter & Gamble is departmentalized, in part, on the basis of product. Which of the following
characteristics would you expect to find at Procter & Gamble?
77. Target stores have departments for groceries, clothing, electronics, jewelry, and home goods. This is an
example of departmentalization by
78. Which of the following is a common disadvantage inherent in product, customer, and location
departmentalization?
79. Siemens created Siemens One to group employees together that serve the same client. For example people
from medical and building technology both serve hospitals, so a Siemens One representative talks to a hospital
about all of Siemens products and services. Siemens One uses ____ departmentalization.
80. An appropriate basis of departmentalization for multinational companies is
81. Pastors at a large church specialize in meeting the needs of different age groups. They are organized on the
basis of
82. High schools register seniors first, then juniors, sophomores and finally freshmen. What basis of
departmentalization does this represent?
83. The term ____ suggests that there must be a clear and unbroken line of authority and responsibility from the
lowest to the highest position.
84. ____ is defined as clear and distinct lines of authority among all positions in an organization.
85. Which of the following refers to the number of subordinates who report directly to a given manager?
86. Span of management is the
87. Another name for span of management is span of
88. If a manager has only a few subordinates, she has a span of management that is
89. Yoshiko is the manager of the accounting department. She has an assistant manager who reports to her. Six
supervisors also report to her from other divisions. The supervisors have three subordinates each. Yoshiko has a
span of management of
90. Graicunas quantified three kinds of interactions with subordinates. They are