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Exam 8: Adapting Organizations to Todays Markets

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Question 41

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A flat organization is less likely to respond quickly to customer needs. Flat organizations have wider spans of control.A wider span of control lends itself to empowering lower level employees to respond more quickly to customer needs,without the need to get permission from managers.

A) True
B) False

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Question 42

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The key people in a company's grapevine typically have considerable influence in the organization. The grapevine is the informal organization's nerve center.Unofficial information flows through this system.

A) True
B) False

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Question 43

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One of Fayol's principles suggests that managers should have the right to give orders and expect others to follow.

Mario kept humming that old song,"Well,I heard it through the grapevine,not much longer would you" be mine..." Earlier today,he heard from his coworker Jessica that by the end of today,several employees would get their hours reduced and other would lose their jobs.He decided to stop by George's office.If anyone had the scoop,it would be George.To Mario,George represented an influential person in the informal organization. There are persons who are more influential than others in a firm's informal organization.It is wise to learn quickly who is important.Key people in the grapevine of the information organization have considerable influence.

Wizard Manufacturing makes small consumer electronics like mixers and toasters.The industry is relatively stable,having few new advances in product development.Wizard should use a line or line-and-staff organizational structure to ensure efficient operations. Both line and line-and-staff organization structures work well in organizations with a relatively unchanging environment and slow product development,such as firms selling consumer products like toasters.In such firms,clear lines of authority and relatively fixed organization structures are assets that ensure efficient operations.

Carlos is the person to see in the welding department if you are a new employee.While he is not a manager,he is the person that most of the others in the department look to for advice and assistance.Carlos is an important member of the firm's:

Matrix organizational structures were first developed in:

Benchmarking requires organizations to compare each organizational function against the best in the world.

The traditional technique used to departmentalize an organization is by:

New technology such as the Internet has opened up opportunities for firms to sell to new markets.

Transparency allows two companies to work more efficiently together.

Outsourcing has become commonplace,particularly when organizations want to focus on core competencies. Outsourcing is assigning one or more functions to another organization.Often companies will look outside the firm for accounting services,transportation services,and legal services,to name a few.They prefer to utilize their resources on core competencies,those functions that they do better than most.

Once a company has restructured a firm to be more competitive in today's market,it alleviates the need to scan the external environment. Adapting to change is difficult but necessary in today's business world.Companies must be careful to avoid complacency.

To better serve customers,many firms are restructuring to empower front-line employees.

John recently accepted a job in the marketing department with the Burbank Bagel Boys.After just a few days on the job,John learned that the company has many layers of management,and seems to have a rule to cover almost every situation.These conditions suggest that Burbank Bagel Boys is a(n) :

Bureaucratic organizations are structured to empower employees and please customers.

The trend towards employee empowerment results in a wider span of control.

Top management at Topdown,Inc.wants to encourage communication between different departments and prevent employees from becoming narrow specialists.The best way to accomplish these goals is to departmentalize Topdown's organization by function. Two disadvantages of functional departmentalization are that it tends to reduce communication among departments,and employees often end up becoming narrow specialists.

Transparency describes the relationship between a firm and its stockholders.

An advantage of departmentalization is "groupthink".