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1. CHAPTER 7:
ORGANIZING AND DELEGATING WORK
CH 7
© 2015 SAGE Publications

2. Organizational Considerations
• Mechanic Organizations
• Are bureaucratic
• Follow rules through tight control
• Specialized jobs
• Decisions made by top managers
• Work well in stable environments
• Organic Organizations
• Are flexible
• Minimal focus on rules
• Broadly defined jobs decisions made at lower levels
• Work well in dynamic environment

3. Command and Direction
• Unity of Command:
• Requires that each employee report to only one boss
• Unity of Direction:
• Requires that all activities be directed toward the same objectives
• Chain of Command or the Scalar Principle:
• The clear line of authority from the top to the bottom of an organization

4. Span of Management
• The number of employees reporting to a manager
• Tall organization:
• Many levels with narrow spans of management
• Flat organization:
• Few levels with wide spans of management

5. Authority
• Based on the specified
relationship among employees
• Sanctioned way of getting the job
done
• Common in mechanistic
organizations
• Based on patterns of relationship
that evolve as employees interact
• Unsanctioned way of getting the
job done
• More accepted in organic
organizations
Formal Authority Informal Authority

6. Centralized and Decentralized Authority
• Important decisions are made by
top managers
• Allows for control and reduced
duplication of work
• Mechanic organization use
centralized authority
• Important decisions are made by
middle and first-line managers
• Pushes authority and
accountability further down the
line
• Allows for efficiency and flexibility
• Organic tend to use decentralized
authority
Centralized Authority Decentralized Authority

7. Levels of Authority
• The Authority to Inform:
• May inform the supervisor alternative actions
• The Authority to Recommend:
• May list alternative decision and actions, analyze them and recommend
one action
• The Authority to Report:
• May select a course of action but must report the action
• Full Authority:
• May make decisions without the supervisor’s knowledge

8. Line and Staff Authority
• Line authority:
• The responsibility to make decisions and issue orders down the chain
of command
• Staff authority:
• The responsibility to advise and assist other personnel

9. Organization Chart
• Graphic illustration of the organizations management hierarchy
and departments and their working relationships
• The Level of Management Hierarchy
• Top, middle and first line
• Chain of Command
• Who reports to whom
• Division of work
• Who is responsible for what function
• Departmentalization
• The grouping of related activities into units

10. Internal Departmentalization
• Based on Internal Operations or Functions
• Also called “Functional Departmentalization”
• Involves organizing department around essential input activities
• Sales, production, and finance
• Used by small organizations

11. External Departmentalization
• Based on the external or output and activities outside the
organization
• Product Departmentalization
• Organizing departments around goods or services
• Customer Departmentalization
• Organizing department around the needs of different types of customers
• Territory Departmentalization
• Establishing separate units in each area in which enterprise does business

12. Multiple Departmentalization
• Many organizations, particularly large, complex ones, use
several types of departmentalization to create a hybrid structure
• Matrix departmentalization
• Combines functional and product departmentalization
• Divisional structure is based on semiautonomous strategic business
units

13. Conglomerate Structure
• Based on autonomous profit centers or many unrelated
diversified business units
• Top management focuses on business portfolio management
to buy and sell lines of business without great concern for
coordinating divisions

14. Contemporary Organizational Designs
• Networks
• Boundariless interrelationships among different organizations
• Modular
• Firms that focus on what they do best, outsource the rest to other
companies, and coordinate their activities
• Virtual Organization
• Continually evolving network of companies that unite temporarily to
exploit specific opportunities or to attain strategic advantages and then
disband when objectives are met

15. Job Design
• The process of identifying tasks that each employee is
responsible for completing

16. Job Simplification and Job Expansion
• Changes in the work
sequence enhance
performance
• Makes job more specialized
• Work smarter, not harder
• Three steps:
• Eliminate
• Combine
• Change sequence
• Makes jobs less specialized
• Jobs can be expanded
through:
• Rotation- performing different
jobs in certain period of time
• Enlargement- adding tasks to
broaden variety
• Enrichment- building motivators
into the job itself to make it
more interesting.
Job Simplification Job Expansion

17. Setting Priorities
• Make a to-do list of tasks
• Assign each task a priority
• Focus on accomplishing only one task at a time

18. Priority Determination Questions
• Do I need to be personally involved because of my knowledge
or skills?
• Is the task my responsibility or will it affect the performance of
my department?
• When is the deadline - is quick action needed?

19. Delegating
• The process of assigning responsibility and authority for
accomplishing objectives
• Obstacles to delegation: Managers believe that they can
perform the task more efficiently than others

20. Four Steps in the Delegating Process
• Explain the need for delegating and the reasons for selecting
the employees
• Set objectives that define responsibility, level of authority and
deadline
• Develop a plan
• Establish control checkpoints and hold employees accountable