Business in
Action 7e
Bovée/Thill
Organization and
Teamwork
Chapter 8 Business in
Action 7e
Bovée/Thill
Learning Objectives
1. Explain the major decisions needed to
design an organization structure
2. Define four major types of organization
structures
3. Explain how a team differs from a group
and describe the six most common forms
of teams
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-3
Learning Objectives
4. Highlight the advantages and disadvantages of
working in teams and list the characteristics of
effective teams
5. Review the five stages of team development
and explain why conflict can arise in team
settings
6. Explain the concept of an unstructured
organization and identify the major benefits and
challenges of taking this approach
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-4
Designing an Effective
Organization Structure
• Organization Structure
A framework that enables managers to divide
responsibilities, ensure employee
accountability, and distribute the decision-
making authority
• Organization Chart
A diagram that shows how employees and
tasks are grouped and where the lines of
communication and authority flow
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-5
Designing an Effective
Organization Structure (cont.)
• Agile Organization
A company whose structure, policies, and
capabilities allow employees to respond
quickly to customer needs and changes in the
business environment
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-6
Identifying Core Competencies
• Core Competencies
Activities that a company considers central
and vital to its business
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-7
Identifying Job Responsibilities
• Work Specialization
specialization in or responsibility for some
portion of an organization’s overall work tasks
also called division of labor
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-8
Exhibit 8.1 Simplified Organization Chart
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-9
Defining the Chain of Command
• Chain of • Line Organization
Command A chain of
A pathway for the command system
flow of authority that establishes a
from one clear line of
management level authority flowing
to the next from the top down
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-10
Defining the Chain of Command
• Line-and-Staff Organization
An organization system that has a clear chain
of command but that also includes functional
groups of people who provide advice and
specialized services
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-11
Defining the Chain of Command
• Span of Management
The number of people under one manager’s
control
Also known as span of control
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-12
Centralization Versus
Decentralization
• Centralization • Decentralization
Concentration of Delegation of
decision-making decision-making
authority at the top authority to
of an organization employees in lower-
level positions
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-13
Organizing the Workforce
• Departmentalization
Grouping people within an organization
according to function, division, matrix, or
network
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-14
Organizing the Workforce
• Functional • Divisional
Structure Structure
Grouping workers Grouping
according to the departments
similarity in their according to
skills, resource use, similarities in
and expertise product, process,
customers, or
geography
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-15
Exhibit 8.4 Customer Division Structure
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-16
Matrix Structure
• Matrix Structure
A structure in which employees are assigned
to both a functional group and a project team
(thus using functional and divisional patterns
simultaneously)
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-17
Network Structure
• Network Structure
A structure in which individual companies are
connected electronically to perform selected
tasks for a small headquarters organization
Also called virtual organization
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-18
Organizing in Teams
• Team
A unit of two or more people who share a
mission and collective responsibility as they
work together to achieve a goal
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-19
Types of Teams
• Problem-Solving Team
A team that meets to find ways of improving
quality, efficiency, and the work environment
• Self-Managed Team
A team in which members are responsible for
an entire process or operation
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-20
Types of Teams
• Functional Team
A team whose members come from a single
functional department which is based on the
organization’s vertical structure
• Cross-Functional Team
A team that draws together employees from
different functional areas
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-21
Cross-functional Teams
• Task Force • Committee
A team of people A team that may
from several become a
departments who permanent part of
are temporarily the organization
brought together to and is designed to
address a specific deal with regularly
issue recurring tasks
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-22
Types of Teams
• Virtual Team
A team that uses communication technology
to bring together geographically distant
employees to achieve goals
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-23
Advantages of Working on Teams
• Higher quality decisions
• Increased diversity of views
• Increased commitment to solutions and
changes
• Lower levels of stress and destructive
internal competition
• Improved flexibility and responsiveness
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-24
Disadvantages of Working on
Teams
Inefficiency
Groupthink
Diminished individual motivation
Structural disruption
Excessive workloads
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-25
Characteristics of Effective Teams
• Clear sense of purpose
• Open and honest communication
• Creative thinking
• Accountability
• Focus
• Decision by consensus
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-26
Exhibit 8.7 Team Member Roles
8-27
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
Exhibit 8.8
Characteristics of
Effective Teams
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-28
Exhibit 8.8
Characteristics of
Effective Teams
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-29
Team Development
Forming
Adjourning Storming
Performing Norming
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-30
Team Development
• Cohesiveness • Norms
A measure of how Informal standards
committed team of conduct that
members are to guide team
their team’s goals behavior
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-31
Team Conflict
• Constructive Conflict
Brings important issues into the open,
increases the involvement of team members,
and generates creative ideas for solving a
problem
• Destructive Conflict
Diverts energy from more important issues,
destroys the morale of teams or individual
team members, or polarizes or divides the
team
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-32
Solutions to Team Conflict
Proactive
Communication Openness
attention
Research Flexibility Fair play
Alliance
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-33
Managing an Unstructured
Organization
• Unstructured Organization
An organization that doesn’t have a
conventional structure but instead assembles
talent as needed from the open market; the
virtual and networked organizational concepts
taken to the extreme
THE END
Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. 8-34