29 Dec The format of this case

MGT501 Management and Organizational Behavior

Module 4 – Case

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE

Assignment Overview

The format of this case differs from the previous three modules and resembles more closely the format of assignments you will see in many of your courses going forward. This is not to say that you should abandon what you have learned about the analytical process of alternating between the abstract and the concrete, the reflective and the active, but this paper will not follow the format of a section on concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Each of these aspects of analysis should be present, but integrated into the paper as a whole, rather than broken out into distinct sections.

The topic of this case is organizational design. To complete this assignment, we will begin as before, and you should identify an organization you know very well. Then conduct your analysis by addressing the topics below. Do not line up the questions and address them one at a time as in a short-answer test, but rather integrate them into a single coherent commentary and analysis of the organization. A critical part of successful completion of this assignment is for you to demonstrate your ability to employ the concepts introduced in the background material in describing and evaluating the effectiveness of the organizational design. To do this, you will need to draw on the concepts from at least three readings/videos. This paper should be 4-6 pages long.

Case Questions:

Diagram the formal structure of your organization. Identify the various management positions or titles on the chart and indicate the positions/jobs that would report to each. Identify the various management positions or titles on the chart and indicate the positions/jobs that would report to each.

SmartDraw.com (https://cloud.smartdraw.com/) provides free examples, though others are also available via Google. PowerPoint also has templates for organizational charts you can use.

Describe how work is divided (specialization and departmentalization), coordinated (chain of command and span of control), and controlled (centralization and formalization). Is the structure more mechanistic or organic?

Describe the informal structure of the organization. How does work actually get done?

How does the organization deal with the differentiation-integration issue?

Having completed this analysis, identify three strengths and three weaknesses of the organizational design.

If you could suggest one major improvement to the organizational design, what would it be?

Assignment Expectations

Your Case paper will be evaluated using the criteria on the assignment rubric (see the rubric for more detail): Assignment-Driven, Critical Thinking, Business Writing, Effective Use of Information, Citing Sources, and Timeliness.

MGT501 Management and Organizational Behavior

Module 4 – SLP

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND CULTURE

For the SLP 4 assignment, you will explore some aspects of an organization’s culture, at least as you see it. (Select an organization you have worked with, if possible.) Since the concept of organizational culture is open to many interpretations and classifications, this assessment offers a slightly different approach from your background reading on organizational culture.

Required Reading

Debra Woog McGinty and Nicole C. Moss have compiled a short corporate culture survey aimed at identifying characteristics of workplaces. The categories of workplace description that it generates are fairly self-explanatory.

Assignment

When you have completed the assessment think about it for a minute, and how it compares to the Academy, Baseball Team, Fortress, and Club cultures described by McNamara in the Background reading. Then prepare a 2- to 3-page paper addressing:

Your scores on the McGinty/Moss assessment and whether or not they fit your general expectations or constitute a surprise in some ways. Interpret the results of the assessment in terms of your own experience, either to confirm or to question the results. Compare your findings with the McNamara categories.

The degree to which the McGinty/Moss assessment and the McNamara information tell you similar or dissimilar things about your organization.

Do the assessment and the McNamara categories help improve your managerial understanding and/or skills? What can you infer from the assessment results about how your organization’s culture fits or doesn’t fit with you? What (if anything) can you do to make your interaction with the culture more effective?

Provide your opinion on whether or not the questions asked help you understand the organization and how you cope with it. Do they accurately assess what is needed to analyze a company’s culture?

Include the actual results to the survey in an Appendix section in your paper.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Your paper will be evaluated using the criteria on the SLP rubric (see the rubric for more detail): Assignment-Driven, Critical Thinking, Business Writing, Effective Use of Information, Citing Sources, and Timeliness.