Starter Question
 Think about the story of the 3 little pigs. What does it
teach up about structure?
 Complete block building activity
Slide
15-1
Organizational Structure
 Organizational structure formally dictates how jobs and tasks
are divided and coordinated between individuals and groups
within the company.
 An organizational chart represents every function in the
organization [horizontal info] and the reporting relationships
between those jobs (aka, management) [vertical info]
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Hierarchical,
layered, complex
Flat, simple
Slide
15-2
Elements of Organizational Structure (see Table 15-1)
 Work specialization (aka division of labor) is the way in
which work in an organization are divided into separate jobs.
 Industrial revolution example
 Chain of command shows the flow of authority through the
levels of an organization’s structure.
 Answers the question “Who reports to whom?”
 Direct reporting vs indirect (matrixed)
 Span of control represents how many employees the manager
is responsible for in the organization.
 Narrow vs wide
 Centralization tells where decisions are made in organizations.
 Centralized vs decentralized
 Army example
 A company is high in formalization when there are many
specific rules and procedures to standardize behaviors
Slide
15-3
Organizational Design
Organizational design is the process of creating, selecting, or
changing the structure of an organization.
The process of changing an organization’s structure is called
restructuring.
 Restructuring has a small negative effect on task performance.
 Restructuring has a larger negative effect on organizational commitment.
Company size refers to the total number of employees, and
structure.
An organization’s technology is the method by which it
transforms inputs into outputs.
Slide
15-4
Why Organizations Have Different Structures?
Group activity:
-Define a common
organizational form
Table 15-6
Slide
15-5