Al\'s Auto is a thriving car dealership. As CEO, Al overseas the managers of thr

Question

Al's Auto is a thriving car dealership. As CEO, Al overseas the managers of three departments: sales, service, and parts. Employees are specialized and grouped according to their expertise. Here is the organizational chart showing the structure or departmentalization for Al's Autos:

1) Al's Autos has a _________ structure.

(A) Matrix (B) Functional (C) Team-based (D) Virtual network (E) Divisional

2) Which of the following characteristics would you expect Al's Autos to have? Check all that apply.

(A) Decision making in this company is centralized, with the CEO ultimately responsible for problem solving.

(B) Employees receive extensive training specific areas, leading to the development of in-depth expertise.

(C) There is extensive communication between employees in different departments of this company.

(D) Employee specialization leads to increased efficiency.

3) The CEO of Al's Autos is considering moving to a matrix structure. What would be the best reason to make such a move?

(A) To improve communication across functions.

(B) To take advantage of economies of scale

(C) To increase the company's efficiency

4) What problem might the CEO expect if the company switches to a matrix structure?

(A) Organizational politics and the number of meetings will increase

(B) Employees will lose access to their managers

(C) Communication will be increased across functions

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1) As an organization becomes more organic, its communication flow becomes ____________.

(A) Narrower (B) Broader (C) More verticle (D) More horizontal

2) Dollar General uses a cost leadership strategy. The Dollar General slogan is "Save time. Save money. Everyday!" Dollar General will be more effective if it has __________ structure. Which of the following reasons explain this? Check all that apply.

(A) Centralized decision making allows the organization to place tighter controls on the way work is done and, in the process, achieve economies of scale.

(B) Narrow spans of management ensure that employees operate efficiently.

(C) Horizontal communication and broad spans of management allow for added flexibility in employee decision making.

(D) Short chains of command ensure that the company will operate most effectively in a turbulent environment.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your great-great grandmother left you her recipe book. It contains amazing, delicious cake recipes, and you are certain you can make a fortune with them if you just set up your bakery right. You are considering three possible designs for your bakery:

Design 1: A factory in which assembly workers create low-cost, standardized cakes to be sold in grocery stores.

Design 2: A factory in which all cakes are created by machines; technology will enable you to shift from cake to cake as customer needs change.

Design 3: A personalized wedding cake business in which you will create custom delicacies for your clients.

1) According to Joan Woodward ____________ is a classified as a continuous process production company.

(A) Design 3 (B) Design 2 (C) Design 1

2) Fill in the three terms that are missing from this table.

3) According to the information in the table, which of the following conclusions is most likely to be true?

(A) A continuous process production design is likely to be effective if your bakery pursues a low-cost leadership strategy.

(B) A bakery using a mass production design will be able to operate with fewer employees than a bakery using a continuous process design.

(C) A small-batch production design will help your bakery to operate more efficiently.

(D) A mass production design is likely to be effective if your bakery is operating in a stable environment without a lot of competition

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Modern-Shed has 12 to 14 knowledge workers who handle manufacturing and sales in its Seattle office. Outside of Seattle, Modern-Shed products are sold by dealers who also sell other types of compatible products. Modern-Shed also uses external companies to do fabrication, help organize trade shows, and perform marketing duties.

1) Modern-Shed has a __________ structure that allows it to:

(A) Maintain the flexibility it needs to meet customer demands

(B) Create maximally efficient organization through work specialization

(C) Coordinate work projects across functions and products

(D) Maintain high levels of control over the way its products are sold and fabricated

2) Under what conditions is the current organizational structure of Modern-Shed most likely to be effective? Check all that apply.

(A) When the economic environment is turbulent and uncertain

(B) When following a low-cost leadership strategy for the business

(C) In times of crisis, when everyone needs to follow a single leader

(D) When following a differentiation strategy for the business

CEO Sales Mgr. Service Mgr. Parts Mgr. Sales EEs Service EEs Parts EEs

Explanation / Answer

As per our rules, I will answer the first full question(all 4 parts) on AI's auto.

1. A). Functional structure

Reason: Here we can see in the organizational chart that each of these functions : sales, service and parts have a different reporting structure. There is a manager and a lower employee seperately for each division who is not answerable across divisions. So this is a functional structure.

2. B: Employees receive extensive training specific areas, leading to the development of in-depth expertise.

Reason: Employees belong to either one of the areas. Therefore, they will recieve training in specific areas only. Thus they will not have broader overview, but will get deeper expertise in their areas.

D: Employee specialization leads to increased efficiency.

Reason: Due to the learning curve, when an employee specializes in a function, he will devote all the hours to that function and hence will gain faster learning. This will lead to higher efficiency(Learning cure theory)

3. A) To increase communication across functions

Reason: According to theory of organizations, matrix struture leads to more openness of communication. This is due to cross functional involvement and intersection of team roles.

4. (A) Organizational politics and the number of meetings will increase

Reason: Since the communication and intersection of teams increase, thus meetings among people will increase and it gives rise to organizational politics.

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