Business in Action Chapter 8 Terms – Flashcards
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Organization structure
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A framework that enables managers to divide responsibilities, ensure employee accountability, and distribute decision making authority
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organization chart
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A diagram that shows how employees and tasks are grouped and where the lines of communication and authority flow
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agile organization
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A company whose structure, policies and capabilities allow employees to respond quickly to customer needs and changes in the business enviroment
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core competencies
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Activities that a company considers central and vital to its business
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work specialization
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specialization in or responsibility for some portion of an organization's overall work tasks; also called division of labor
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chain of command
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a pathway for the flow of authority from one management level to the next
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line organization
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A chain of command system that estabilshes a clear line of authority flowing from the top down
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line and and staff organization
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An organization system that has a clear chain of command but that also includes functional groups of people who provide advice and specialized services.
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span of management
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The number of people under one manager's control; also known as span of control
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centralization
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Concentration of decision-making authority at the top of an organization
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decentralization
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Delegation of decision making authority to employees in lower-level positions
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departmentalization
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Grouping people within an organization according to function, division, matrix, or network.
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Functional structure
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Grouping workers according to their similar skills, resource use, and expertise.
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Divisional structure
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Grouping departments according to similarities in product, process, customer, or geography.
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matrix structure
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A structure in which employees are assigned to both a functional group and a project team (thus using functional and divisional patterns simultaneously).
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network structure
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A structure in which individual companies are connected electronically to perform selected tasks for a small headquarters organization
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team
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a unit of two or more people who share a mission and collective responsibility as they work together to achieve a goal
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problem-solving team
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A team that meets to find ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work enviroment
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self managed team
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a team in which members are responsible for the entire process or operation
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functional team
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a team, whose members come from a single functional department and that is based on the organization's vertical structure
