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Organizational social structure

32 important questions on Organizational social structure

How would you define the concept of structure

The stable relationships among parts of a system or entity

What are the two types of structure?

Physical: spatial-temporal relationships between its material elements (bodies, buildings, geographical locations) and the symbolic meanings these embody

Social structure: the relationship between the roles and responsibilities of members in the organization. The social structure is created by and therefore can be changed by, the patterns of interaction among members.

What are according to Weber some main characteristics bureaucracy include?

- division of labour
- hierarchy of offices that are well defined by spheres of competence
- set of general rules governing the performance of offices
- candidates selected on the basis of technical qualifications
- officials remunerated by fixed salaries paid in money
- office as the primary occupation of the office holder
- promotion granted according to seniority or achievement
official work separated from ownership of the means of administration

What are the three core aspects of Weber's bureaucracy?

- division of labour
- hierarchy of authority
- formal rules and procedures

A special hierarchy is the scalar principle, explain this

When each position in an organization is subordinate to only ONE other person

Early modernist organization theorists developed a variety of dimensions to assess and compare organizational social structures. What are these dimensions?

Size, administrative component, differentiation, integration, centralization, standardization, formalization and specialization

What is the disadvantage of centralization?

Since the participation of lower-level employees is limited, they can feel uninvolved and unmotivated to reach the organization's goals.

What is a disadvantage of decentralization?

Management and control is more difficult and leaders have to adapt their roles to be supportive instead of controlling

Explain the relation between formalization and centralization

There is a negative relationship between formalization and centralization for large organizations. Formalization can be used instead as formal rules and procedures direct subordinates to make the same decisions managers would make. Therefore higher-level employees are free to focus on policy and make non-routine decisions. Therefore, large decentralized organizations (including most bureaucracies) are more likely to be formalized than large centralized organizations

Explain the link between organic organizations and the demand for innovation

The greater the demand for innovation from the environment, the greater the advantage to organic forms of organization because employees are not bound to formalized rules and procedures

Explain the link between environmental stability and the social structure

1) unstable environments required a higher degree of differentiation than stable environments to meet varying and complex demands
2) a high degree of integration is required in both stable and unstable environments but the methods differ. In stable environments hierarchy and centralized coordination were favored. In unstable environments, assigning decision-making to lower hierarchical levels to facilitate direct communication was favored.

Name a disadvantage of the contingency theory?

The endless discovery of additional dimensions to measure organizing creates the problems of overdetermination and multicollinearity

Name an advantage of an organizational chart

It represents hierarchy of authority and division of labor, however it cannot depict coordination mechanisms such as liaison, lateral relationships or the effects of power from outside the hierarhcy

What does organisational design entail?

Includes composing and broadcasting typologies based on a subset of generic organizational forms.

What is the primary advantage of functional structure?

It creates specialization and limits duplication of effort and can therefore maximize economies of scale

What are some disadvantages of functional structures?

- goals of different units may conflict
- employees may be more loyal to their function than to the organization as a whole
- these problems can produce functional silo's. Which are organizational units or systems operating in isolation
- the activities of functions have to be coordinated by a top executive. However, as only a limited number of people have an understanding of the bigger picture of the organization, it increases pressure on certain individuals.

Explain the Multidivisional )M-form structure

Consists of a set of separate (often functionally structured) organizations. Each of these organizations is managed by a separate management team but reports to executives in the headquarters. This structure is used when an organization outgrows functional design and decision-making has to be distributed over more executives.

The division management handles day-to-day operations of the business.
Headquarters are responsible for financial control, policy making and long-range strategic developments.

In the M-form structure, there are 3 ways to group units, what 3>

Similar products/production processes, customer type or geographical region of activity

What are the advantages of the M-form

The organization can increase its size more than other structures which offters the competitive advantage of heaving greater influence on their environment

Provides better training for future executives than the functional structure. Divisional managers operate with the same responsibilities presidents of a functionally designed organization

Enhanced responsiveness to the needs of customers because the specialization within the organization allows greater focus on the specific business each division operates

Profitability of each independent division can be determined and divisions can therefore be made accountable and compared

What are the disadvantages of M-structure?

Not as profitable as organizations using functional designs because every function is duplicated within each division. This is creating costs but producing redundant work. This can be limited by centralizing some functions to decrease redundant work/ This in turn risks losing the advantage of being responsive to the market by being too centralized

Coordination costs are higher as the organization is larger and requires more control systems, travel expenditures and demands for communication

What are the advantages of the matrix structure

Simultaneous attention to both functional standards and project goals

The flexible project structure can provide customer service and respond to opportunities in the environment

Maximize the value of expensive specialists because they can be used in a variety of projects

What are some disadvantages of the matrix structure?

Conflict between the dual lines of authority faced by employees, need to meet both the goals of the functional and project managers, which may potentially conflict or have different focuses.

If an employee is more than in one project team they will face added conflicts and focuses

Also conflict between functional chiefs, project bosses and executives.

Name an advantage and disadvantage of the global matrix form

Advantage: units can effectively serve and specialise in a specific region

Disadvantage: the structure is more complex as three dimensions are now being managed: region, product and function. This may cause coordination problems and cost time and resources. The disadvantages of the M-form also apply to the global matrix structure

What are network organisations"

Many units arranged around a central distribution channel that supports the network

for example with technical expertise and equipment

What are some advantages of network organisations?

Information sharing is encouraged, decision making is liberated, facilitates innovation and encouraged democratic management

What is a disadvantage of network organisations?

It relies on reputation trust and cooperation which have to be managed.
Network partners with control over critical information or resources may exploit other partners for their own profits

Explain the supply chain model

Focuses on how material flow through a linear chain of entities starting at the raw materials and ending at the distribution to customers and end users.
Organizations that are a member of the model only carry out a portion of their total activity to the supply chain because they engage in activities outside the narrow view of the supply chain and may participate in more than one supply chain

Name an advantage of the supply chains

After dividing the required tasks among partners in the chain, the advantages of division of labour are acquired without the costs of adding layers of management or bureaucracy. Operating members have to consider the whole chain when making decisions and therefore sharing information between members is of importance.

What are crowdsourced organizations?

Also called virtual organizations. Distinguished by their use of social media to establish and support the organization. For example, online retailers like Ebay let buyers and sellers negotiate economic exchanges through virtual contact

Explain the organizational life cycle theory

Describes organizations as moving through phases. Each phase contains a crisis that threatens the organizational's survival that either pushes the organization forward into the next phase or into decline

What are the 5 phases of the organizational life cycle theory

1) entrepreneurial phase - leadership crisis
2) Collectivity phase - autonomy crisis
3) Delegation phase - crisis of control
4) Formalization phase - crisis of red tape
5 Collaboration phase - crisis of renewal

According to Katz and Kahn, how do organizational systems evolve?

They evolve in response to internal (subsystem) and external (supersystem) pressures, The organization attempts to buffer its technical core so that there are no disruptions to the core transformation processes.

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Organisational theory and dynamics

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