Asked by Natalia Hernandez on Jun 25, 2024
Verified
While preparing for a final examination in organizational behavior, you and a student in another class review the important information regarding organizational structure and design.During the conversation, the other student suggests that just about everything you need to know about organizational structure can be based on knowing the different types of departmentalization.In other words, all of the key features of organizational structure, including a structure's fundamental requirements and elements, are found in descriptions of functional structure, divisionalized structure and other forms of departmentalization.Discuss the accuracy of this statement.
Departmentalization
The process of dividing an organization into different departments or units, each specializing in a specific area of operation.
Organizational Structure
The system used to define a hierarchy within an organization, determining how roles, responsibilities, and authority are organized and how information flows between the levels of management.
Functional Structure
A type of organizational structure where the company is divided into departments or teams based on specialized functions, such as marketing, finance, or production.
- Examine the distribution of tasks and mechanisms of coordination within organizational frameworks.
- Demonstrate the role of departmentalization in enhancing the efficiency of organizations.
Verified Answer
Generally, departmentalization lays out the organizational chart for the organization.It determines how employees are grouped, how power is distributed, how work is organized and what interdependencies exist.Departmentalization also provides some information about the type of coordination.However, this element does not explicitly describe the other three elements of organizational design: span of control, centralization and formalization.For example, it is possible to have a matrix structure with low or high formalization and a wide or narrow span of control.Similarly, a functional structure might be highly centralized or decentralized.A certain level of centralization isn't inherent in a functional structure.The three types of coordinating mechanisms include informal communication, formal hierarchy, and standardization.
Learning Objectives
- Examine the distribution of tasks and mechanisms of coordination within organizational frameworks.
- Demonstrate the role of departmentalization in enhancing the efficiency of organizations.
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