BUS 432 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Cross-Functional Team, Organizational Culture, Contingency Theory

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Business Administration
• Course: BUS 432
• Professor: Dave Thomas

Document Summary

Organizations open systems that take inputs from the environment (hr) and return outputs (product and services) Why do we need a formal structure: for coordination and control because this reduces variability and the purpose of organizational structure is to reduce variability. Org structure consists of differentiation of roles and hierarchy of authority. How do we define their structure: structure is defined in terms of complexity, formalization, and centralization. You can define any organization by these 3 things: Formalization extent to which rules and procedures govern the activities of organization members how many rules and procedures in the company. Formal organization allow for little discretion in the way people should do their jobs, instead they have policies and procedures in place. Centralization the extent to which decisions are made at a single point in the org where decisions are made. Centralizes: decisions are made at one point in the organization like it"s hq. Decentralized: decision making is disperse throughout the org.