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CHAPTERS SIX AND SEVEN

Chapters Six and Seven

Principles of Management
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Chapter Six Discussion Questions

1. The term organizational design refers to when managers develop or change structure

within an organization (Robbins et al., 2016, p.163).

2. Work Specialization:

Traditional view- work should be divided into separate tasks that can be done by

different individuals (Robbins et al., 2016, pp.163-164).

Contemporary view- work should be given to employees but there should be

limitations, they should be given a workload that they can handle (Robbins et al.,

2016, p.164).

Departmentalization:

Traditional view- classifies a job into one of the five common forms of

departmentalization: functional, product, customer, geographic, or process. After

deciding who will do what tasks, the common work activities would be grouped

back together so it can be done in an integrated way (Robbins et al., 2016, pp.163-

165).

Contemporary view- only marketing and sales units can use geographical and

functional forms of departmentalization while retail stores or super products

might use functional, product, and customer departmentalization (Robbins et al.,

2016, p.166).

Authority and Responsibilities

Traditional view- authority gives managers certain rights but they also have

limitations when operating and each management position has specific rights that
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a manager inherits when taking the position. Each employee has the responsibility

to do their jobs and be held accountable for their performance. Authority and

responsibility cannot be properly understood without the chain of command, this

is the line of authority from upper organizational levels to the lower levels

(Robbins et al., 2016, pp. 166-167).

Contemporary view- you do not have to be a manager to have power in an

organization and power is not correlated with an individual’s level in the

organization. Authority is only one element in the concept of power (Robbins et

al., 2016, p.168).

Span of Control:

traditional view- managers can supervise around six workers efficiently and

effectively (Robbins et al., 2016, p.170). and this allows for the manager to

maintain close control.

Contemporary view- the span of control depends on employee experience and

training, similarly of employee tasks, and the complexity of those tasks (Robbins

et al., 2016, p.170).

Centralization versus Decentralization:

Traditional view: centralization is when decision making takes place at the upper

levels of the company (Robbins et al., 2016, p.171). Decentralization is the degree

to which input, or decisions are made by lower-level managers (Robbins et al.,

2016, p.171). Decisions should be made by the upper most authority.

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Contemporary view- managers choose the amount of centralization or

decentralization that allows them to make and achieve organizational goals. This

is not the same for all organizations so managers choose the amount of

decentralization within each organization (Robbins et al., 2016, p.171).

Formalization:

Traditional view- formalized organizations give details on job descriptions,

organizational rules, and procedures for work processes. Companies design their

jobs in standardized form, but in organizations that have low formalization,

employees have discretion on how they do their work (Robbins et al., 2016,

p.171).

Contemporary view- Formalization is necessary for consistency and control but

today, many organizations rely less on standardization and strict rules for

employee behavior.

3. An organization’s structure can be changed quickly depending on the culture, size, and

leadership support within the organization. If the organization is smaller and if the

organizational structure is open for change, then the structure can change quickly. If

employees resist structural changes, then that would slow down the change and if there is

a larger organization, it may be challenging to make the change happen quickly, whether

an organization’s structure should change depends on the circumstances of the company.

If an organization has employees that are willing to work with the change and if their

workflow remains consistent.

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4. “An organization can have no structure” is a statement that I disagree with, every

organization has some form of structure. Every organization has some type of strategy

and goals, the number of employees affect whatever type of structure a company has,

technology is used for inputs and outputs in every organization, and the environment

(stable or dynamic) effects how an organization runs, and these all effect structure within

an organization (Robbins et al., 2016, pp. 173-174).

5. A mechanist organization has a tightly controlled structure and combines traditional

aspects of the elements of organizational structure: high specialization, rigid

departmentalization, clear chain of command, narrow spans of control leading to taller

structure, centralization, and high formalization (Robbins et al., 2016, p.173). An organic

organization is a flexible and highly adaptable structure: vertical and horizontal

collaboration, informal communication, decentralized decision authority, adaptable

duties, few rules, and wider spans of control, it also has a loose structure (Robbins et al.,

2016, p.173).

6. The four contingency factors that affect organizational design are strategy, size,

technology, and environment. Strategy will help show if an organizational structure is

simple or more complex depending on if they have a simple strategy or an elaborate

strategy, goals are set in an organization and those help shape its structure, and if an

organization has a passionate pursuit of innovation or a passionate pursuit of cost control

will determine whether an organization is organic or mechanistic. The size of a company

will affect its structure. When a company has more than 2,000 employees, they will be a

mechanistic organization, and any less than 2,000 will result in an organic organization.

With a company with more than 2,000 employees, adding more employees is less
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influential. Technology is used by all organizations; they use it for all inputs and outputs.

The environment of an organization can be a constraint on managerial discretion.

Whether there is a stable or dynamic environment will determine whether there is organic

or mechanistic structure (Robbins et al., 2016, pp. 173-174).

7. With the availability of information technology, organizing is still an important

managerial function. Employees still need to know what they are responsible for doing,

who to call if they need something, goals still need to be set in an organization, and

employees need to know who to answer to.

8. Having simplified work tasks should not have negative results for companies and their

employees, with simpler tasks, employees should be able to do their work efficiently and

effectively, there should be reduced error, and training for employees should be easier if

tasks are simplified.

9. “The boundaryless organization has the potential to create a major shift in the way we

work” is a statement that I do agree with because this type of organization is not defined

or limited by vertical, horizontal, or external boundaries (Robbins et al., 2016, p.180).

10. Organizational Chart:

- University President

o Deans

 Department heads

 Professors

o Staff

 Academic affairs

 Registrar
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 Student affairs

 Dean of students

 Resident life

 Student services

Case Application #1

1. Yahoo!’s new work initiative had advantages such as cultural shift, employee

engagement, and visibility and accountability. Disadvantages were reduced flexibility,

and impact on morale.

2. Managers and organizations can make clear privacy and, make regular communication

channels, offer remote training and development opportunities, have flexibility, take

security measures for sensitive data and privacy, and encourage a healthy work-life

balance.

3. From the management perspective, flexible arrangements for productivity may raise

concerns about productivity if employees are not closely supervised, from an employee’s

perspective, they may value the reduced commute time with flexible arrangements that

could enhance productivity. From the management perspective, flexibility arrangements

can promote innovation for employees. From an employee’s perspective, flexible

arrangements could provide them with the freedom they need to think creatively. From

the management perspective, collaboration could be challenging in remote settings, but

today’s technology helps fix that, from an employees perspective, they may like virtual

collaborations but they may miss the social aspect of in-person work.

4. “Face-time” can be critical in one’s career. “Face-time” is important in companies that are

client-oriented, so being physically present can be crucial for the relationship with the
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client, for leadership and management roles, they need to set the example in the

workplace, with company culture, in-person collaboration and visibility is important, and

when it comes to training, it allows for employees to directly learn from their experienced

colleagues.

5. Being able to work remotely is not important to me, although it would be nice to work

from home, I feel like for me there are plenty of distractions, but I would have a bit more

freedom and a personalized workspace. But being in the workplace would allow for more

social interaction, team collaboration, and the work environment would help keep me

focused on work.

Chapter Seven Discussion Questions

1. Human Resource Management (HRM) affects managers in terms of downsizing,

workforce diversity, sexual harassment, and HR costs (Robbins et al., 2016, p.219).

Organizations may have too many employees and managers may have to downsize and

help with the aftermath with the employees left, with workplace diversity managers

widen their recruitment net, with sexual harassment managers need to know if there are

any hostile or offensive environments anywhere in their workplace and try and resolve it,

lastly, with HR costs need to try and be controlled, especially health-care and pension

costs (Robbins et al., 2016, pp. 219-222).

2. External environmental factors that can significantly impact the HRM process are labor

unions, government laws, and demographic trends.

3. Benefits of having a formal HRM process are training and development, HR supports

employee growth, talent management, HR is responsible for recruiting, developing, and

retaining talent, employee advocacy, HR can serve as advocates for employees, and legal
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compliance, HR ensures an organization complies with regulations. Drawbacks of having

a formal HRM process are resistance to change, processes in HR may be resistant to

change and slow down the process, and bureaucracy, HR processes may become

bureaucratic and slow down decision making.

4. I think it is ethical for a prospective employer to look into an applicant’s life by means of

interviews, tests, and background investigations. Companies want to make sure that

whoever they are hiring is not participating in offensive content, discriminatory remarks,

or illegal activities that can negatively reflect their company, with this, if a company is

going to do these things, they need to be transparent with their applicants about their

hiring process.

5. The advantages of using the internet are that there are large numbers of people and they

can get immediate feedback, a disadvantage would be that it can generate many

unqualified candidates. Employee referrals can be beneficial because they would already

have some knowledge of the organization that is provided by a current employee and a

disadvantage may be that it will not increase the diversity of employees. The company

website can help with a wider audience and a disadvantage would be that it can generate

many unqualified candidates. College recruiting gets to a centralized body of candidates

and a disadvantage is that it is limited to entry-level positions. Professional recruiting

organizations can be beneficial because they have a good knowledge of the industry

challenges and requirements and a disadvantage is that there may be limited commitment

to a specific organization (Robbins et al., 2016, p.205).

6. The advantages of interviews allow direct interaction and assess interpersonal skills and

drawbacks would be that they can be time-consuming, and they may be subject to bias.
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An advantage of tests and assessments would be that they can assess specific skills or

knowledge and a drawback of it may be that it may not capture all relevant abilities

(Robbins et al., 2016, pp. 208-210).

7. The benefits of realistic job previews would be that applicants hold lower and more

realistic job expectations. Drawbacks of realistic job previews would be that there might

be limited opportunities to talk to coworkers during the work day, promotion chances are

slim, and work hours may fluctuate erratically (Robbins et al., 2016, p.210).

8. Factors that influence employee compensation and benefits are size of company,

employee’s tenure and performance, kind of job performed, kind of business,

unionization, labor or capital intensive, management philosophy, geographical location,

and company profitability (Robbins et al., 2016, p.217).

9. Sexual harassment constitutes unwanted sexual advantages, sexual coercion, verbal

harassment, display of explicit material, and non-consensual physical contact. Companies

can minimize sexual harassment in the workplace by implementing clear policies,

promote a culture or respect, investigate, and address complaints, and have consistent

enforcement.

Case Application #1

1. This story shows the importance of thorough background checks when hiring applicants,

it shows the potential consequence of not conducting due diligence when verifying

qualifications.

2. When an executive has inaccuracies in their resume, employees, customers, competitors,

and board of directors may all be affected. Employees may feel concerned about the

integrity of the organization’s leadership, customers may lose trust in the organization,
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competitors may use this as a competitive advantage, and board of directors may feel the

need to address the situation.

3. The statistics are not surprising because falsification of credentials and qualifications is a

known issue in the job market.

4. Personally, from this story I learned the importance of personal integrity and potential

consequences of dishonesty, to be truthful on resumes, and that my personal reputation

can be largely impacted by unethical behavior. Professionally, I learned the importance of

thorough background checks and due diligence in the hiring process and the importance

of transparency in the workplace.