Учебное пособие: Management of organization

There are four basic departmentalization formats, each with its own combination of advantages and disadvantages. Functional departmentalization is the most common approach. The others are product-service, geographic location, and customer departmentalization. In actual practice, these pure types of departmentalization usually are combined.

Design variables available to organizers are span of control (the number of people who report directly to a manager), decentralization, line and staff, and matrix. As organizers have come to realize that situational factors dictate how many people a manager can directly supervise, the notion of ideal span of control has become obsolete. Decentralization, the delegation of decision authority to lower-level managers, has been praised as being democratic and criticized for reducing top management’s control. Strategic business foster a high degree of decentralization. Line and staff organization helps balance specialization and unity of command. Functional authority serves to make staff organization more organic by giving staff specialists temporary and limited line authority. Matrix organizations are highly organic because they combine vertical and horizontal lines of authority to achieve coordinated control over complex projects.

Delegation of authority, although generally resisted for a variety of reasons, is crucial to decentralization. Effective delegation permit managers to tackle higher-priority duties while helping train and develop lower-level managers. Although delegation varies in degree, it never means abdicating primary responsibility.

I. Reading Exercises:

Exercise 1. Read and memorize using a dictionary:

environmental complexity, contingency, relationships, responsibilities, advantage, differentiation, temporary, staff, rigid, flexible, authority, stable

Exercise 2. Answer the questions:

1)Why is organizing an important managerial function?

2)What is the idea behind contingency design?

3) What did Burns and Stalker discover?

4) What are design variables available to organizers?

Exercise 3. Match the left part with the right:

1. Decentralization, the delegation of decision authority to lower-level managers, has been praised	a) as environmental complexity has increased.
2. Contingency organization design has grown in popularity	b) by giving staff specialists temporary and limited line authority
3. Functional authority serves to make staff organization more organic	c) each with its own combination of advantages and disadvantages.
4. There are four basic departmentalization formats,	d) as being democratic and criticized for reducing top management’s control.

Exercise 4. Open brackets choosing the right words:

As organizers have come to (deny/realize) that situational factors dictate how many people a manager can directly supervise, the notion of ideal span of control has (become/combined) obsolete.

The speaking module

II. Speaking Exercises:

Exercise 1. Describe o rganization charts ; contingency design , decentralization, matrix organization, line and staff organization using the suggested words as in example:

organization charts helpful, structural, horizontal, hierarchy, visual, skeleton, structural, delineate example : Organization charts are helpfulvisual aids for organizers. Representing the organization’s structural skeleton, organization charts delineate vertical hierarchy and horizontal specialization.

contingency design demands, situations, uncertainty, to fit, setup, situational, all, environmental

decentralization democratic, reducing, authority, delegation, praised, lower-level managers, control

matrix organization organic, achieve, authority, horizontal, coordinated, combine, vertical, projects, because

line and staff organization balance, command, functional, temporary, line, by giving, unity, staff, serves

Exercise 2. Ask questions to the given answers: