Essential Concepts in Organizational Management & HR
Organizational Design Fundamentals
What is Organizing?
Arranging work to achieve company goals.
What is Organizational Structure?
The formal arrangement of jobs within an organization.
What is Organizational Design?
The process of creating or changing an organization’s structure.
What are the Six Key Elements of Organizational Design?
- Work Specialization
- Departmentalization
- Chain of Command
- Span of Control
- Centralization
- Formalization
What is an Organizational Chart?
The visual representation of a company’s structure.
What is Work Specialization?
The degree to which tasks are divided into separate jobs, each performed by a different person.
What is Departmentalization?
The basis by which jobs are grouped together.
What are the Five Common Forms of Departmentalization?
- Functional
- Geographical
- Product
- Process
- Customer
What are Cross-Functional Teams?
Teams consisting of individuals from different departments and specialties.
What is Unity of Command?
A concept stating that an individual should have only one direct supervisor.
What is Span of Control?
The number of employees a manager can effectively and efficiently supervise.
What is Centralization?
The degree to which decision-making authority is concentrated at the upper levels of management.
What is Decentralization?
The degree to which decision-making authority is pushed down to managers closest to the action (e.g., middle-level managers).
What is Employee Empowerment?
Increasing the power of employees to make decisions.
What is Formalization?
The degree to which jobs are standardized and employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures.
What is a Mechanistic Organization?
An organizational design characterized by rigid departmentalization, high formalization, and centralized authority.
What is an Organic Organization?
An organizational design that is highly adaptive and flexible, with low formalization and decentralized decision-making.
What is Process Production?
The production of items in a continuous process.
What is Simple Structure?
Characterized by low departmentalization, wide spans of control, centralized authority, and little formalization.
What is Functional Structure?
A structure where similar specialists are grouped together.
What is Divisional Structure?
A structure made up of separate, semi-autonomous divisions.
What is Team Structure?
An organizational structure where the entire organization is made up of work teams.
What is Matrix Structure?
A structure where specialists from different departments are assigned to work on projects, often reporting to two managers.
What is Project Structure?
A structure where employees continuously work on projects, with no formal departments.
Human Resource Management Essentials
Why is Human Resource Management (HRM) Important?
(Answer not provided in original text. HRM is crucial for attracting, developing, and retaining a skilled workforce, ensuring organizational success.)
What are High-Performance Work Practices?
Practices that lead to high individual and organizational performance.
What is the HRM Process?
(Answer not provided in original text. The HRM process typically involves human resource planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, performance management, and compensation.)
What are the 12 Steps in the HRM Process?
(Answer not provided in original text. A detailed list of 12 steps would typically include: HR planning, job analysis, recruitment, decruitment, selection, orientation, training, performance management, compensation, benefits, career development, and employee relations.)
What is a Labor Union?
An organization that represents workers and seeks to protect their rights and interests.
What is Human Resource Planning?
A method to ensure that a company has the right number and kind of people at the right time and place.
What are the Two Steps in Human Resource Planning?
- Assessing current HR needs.
- Meeting future HR needs.
What is a Job Analysis?
An assessment that defines a job and the skills needed to perform it effectively.
What is a Job Description?
A written statement that describes a job’s duties, responsibilities, and working conditions.
What is Job Specification?
A statement of the minimum qualifications a person must possess to perform a job successfully.
What is Recruitment?
The process of locating, identifying, and attracting the best applicants for job openings.
What is Decruitment?
The process of reducing a company’s workforce.
What are Some Decruitment Options?
- Job Sharing
- Firing
- Layoffs
- Transfers
- Early Retirement
What is Selection?
The process of screening job applicants to ensure the best candidate is hired.
What are Selection Decision Outcomes?
- Successful and Accept: Correct Decision
- Successful and Reject: Reject Error
- Unsuccessful and Accept: Accept Error
- Unsuccessful and Reject: Correct Decision
What are Some Selection Tools?
- Application Forms
- Interviews
- Written Tests
- Performance Tests
- Background Investigations
What is a Realistic Job Preview (RJP)?
A preview of a job that includes both positive and negative information about the job and the company.
What is Orientation?
The introduction of a new employee to their job and the company culture.
What are Some Types of Training Methods?
- Traditional Training:
- On-the-Job Training
- Job Rotation
- Manuals
- Coaching
- Technological Training:
- CD-ROM/DVD
- Videotape
- Podcast
- E-learning
- Television
What is a Performance Management System?
A system that establishes standards to evaluate employee performance and provides feedback.
What is Skill-Based Pay?
A compensation system that rewards employees for the job skills they demonstrate and acquire.
What is Variable Pay?
A compensation system where pay depends on individual or organizational performance.
What is Downsizing?
The planned elimination of jobs within a company.
What is Sexual Harassment?
Unwanted sexual-based activity that affects an employee’s work environment or creates a hostile work atmosphere.
What are Family-Friendly Benefits?
Benefits designed to accommodate employees’ needs for work-life balance, such as flexible hours or childcare assistance.
Effective Organizational Communication
What is Communication?
The transfer and understanding of meaning between individuals or groups.
What is Interpersonal Communication?
Communication that occurs between two or more people.
What are Some Methods and Considerations for Interpersonal Communication?
- Feedback: The receiver’s response to the sender’s message.
- Formality: The degree of adherence to established rules or procedures.
- Cost: The resources expended in the communication process.
- Time Consumption: The duration required for effective communication.
- Complexity Capacity: The ability of the method to convey intricate information.
What are Key Questions for Choosing a Communication Method?
(Answer not provided in original text. These questions typically relate to factors like audience, message complexity, urgency, confidentiality, and desired impact.)
What is Organizational Communication?
All the patterns, networks, and systems of communication within an organization.
What is Encoding?
The process of converting a message into symbols for transmission.
What is Decoding?
The process of retranslating the sender’s message into a form understandable by the receiver.
What is the Interpersonal Communication Process?
The seven elements involved in transferring meaning from one person to another: sender, encoding, message, channel, decoding, receiver, and feedback.
What is Noise in Communication?
Any disturbance or distraction that interferes with the transmission or understanding of a message.
What is Nonverbal Communication?
Communication that occurs without the use of spoken or written words, such as body language or facial expressions.
What is Verbal Intonation?
The emphasis given to words or phrases that conveys meaning beyond the literal words themselves.
What is Filtering in Communication?
The deliberate manipulation of information by the sender to make it appear more favorable to the receiver.
What is Information Overload?
A situation where the amount of information a person receives exceeds their processing capacity.
What is a High-Context Culture?
A culture where communication relies heavily on nonverbal cues, context, and shared understanding, with fewer explicit words.
Example of a High-Context Culture?
Arab culture, Japanese culture, or Chinese culture.
What is a Low-Context Culture?
A culture where communication relies primarily on explicit verbal messages, with less emphasis on context or nonverbal cues.
Example of a Low-Context Culture?
United States culture, German culture, or Swiss culture.
What is Active Listening?
Listening for the full meaning of a message without judging or interrupting the speaker.
What is Formal Communication?
Communication that follows the official chain of command or established organizational work arrangements.
What is Informal Communication?
Communication that is not defined by the organization’s structural hierarchy, often spontaneous and unofficial.
What is Lateral Communication?
Communication among employees at the same organizational level, often across different departments.
What is Diagonal Communication?
Communication that crosses both work areas and organizational levels, often involving employees from different departments and ranks.
What are Communication Networks?
The patterns of vertical and horizontal flows of organizational communication, such as chain, wheel, or all-channel networks.
What is the Grapevine?
The informal organizational communication network, often characterized by rapid, unofficial information flow.
What are Communities of Practice?
Groups of people who share a set of problems, a common concern, or a passion, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting regularly.
Management Control & Performance
What is Controlling in Management?
(Answer not provided in original text. Controlling is the process of monitoring, comparing, and correcting work performance.)
What is the Control Process?
(Answer not provided in original text. The control process involves three main steps: measuring actual performance, comparing actual performance against a standard, and taking managerial action.)
What are the Three Steps in the Control Process?
- Measuring actual performance.
- Comparing actual performance against a standard.
- Taking managerial action.
What is Range of Variation?
(Answer not provided in original text. Range of variation refers to the acceptable deviation from a standard or target performance level.)
What is Immediate Corrective Action?
(Answer not provided in original text. Immediate corrective action addresses problems at once to get performance back on track.)
What is Basic Corrective Action?
(Answer not provided in original text. Basic corrective action looks at how and why performance deviated and then corrects the source of the deviation.)
What is Performance?
(Answer not provided in original text. Performance refers to the end result of an activity.)
What is Organizational Performance?
(Answer not provided in original text. Organizational performance is the accumulated end results of all the organization’s work processes and activities.)
What is Organizational Effectiveness?
(Answer not provided in original text. Organizational effectiveness is a measure of how appropriate organizational goals are and how well an organization is achieving those goals.)
What is Feedforward Control?
(Answer not provided in original text. Feedforward control prevents problems because it takes place before the actual activity.)
What is Concurrent Control?
(Answer not provided in original text. Concurrent control takes place while a work activity is in progress.)
What is Feedback Control?
(Answer not provided in original text. Feedback control takes place after a work activity is completed.)
What is a Balanced Scorecard?
(Answer not provided in original text. A balanced scorecard is a performance measurement tool that looks at more than just financial perspectives.)
What is a Management Information System (MIS)?
(Answer not provided in original text. An MIS is a system used to provide managers with the information they need to make decisions.)
What is Benchmarking?
(Answer not provided in original text. Benchmarking is the search for the best practices among competitors or non-competitors that lead to superior performance.)
What are Benchmarks?
(Answer not provided in original text. Benchmarks are the standards of excellence against which to measure and compare.)
What is Productivity?
(Answer not provided in original text. Productivity is the amount of goods or services produced divided by the inputs needed to generate that output.)
What is the Service Profit Chain?
(Answer not provided in original text. The service profit chain is the chain of relationships linking employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, and profitability.)
What is Corporate Governance?
(Answer not provided in original text. Corporate governance is the system used to govern a corporation so that the interests of corporate owners are protected.)