Organizations: Behavior, structure, processes

Gibson, J. L., Ivancevich, J. M., Donnelly, J. H., & Konopaske, R.

New York, NY. McGraw-Hill, 2012, págs. 424-427
ISBN: 0-471-26572-1.

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Organizations
Behavior, Structure, Processes Fourteenth Edition

James L. Gibson
University of Kentucky

John M. Ivancevich
University of Houston

James H. Donnelly, Jr.

University of Kentucky

Robert Konopaske
Texas State University
gib12664_fm_i-xxii.indd Page iv 10/02/11 1:47 PM user-f494 /208/MHBR213/gib12664_disk1of1/0078112664/gib12664_pagefiles

ORGANIZATIONS: BEHAVIOR, STRUCTURE, PROCESSES, FOURTEENTH EDITION

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Organizations : behavior, structure, processes / James L. Gibson . . . [et al.].—14th ed.

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ISBN 978-0-07-811266-9 (soft cover : alk. paper) 1. Organization. 2. Organizational behavior.
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424 Part Four The Structure and Design of Organizations

3. Discuss the statement that to manage effectively, a person must have the authority to
hire subordinates, assign them to specific jobs, and reward them on the basis of perfor-
mance. Interview the chairperson of an academic department and determine whether
he has this authority.
4. What implications for managerial spans of control can be expected in organizations
that downsize? What additional demands will be placed on remaining managers after
downsizing?
5. Describe managerial skills and behaviors that would be required to manage effectively
in a functional department. Are these skills and behaviors different from those required
in a product department? Explain.
6. For what type of organization would you prefer to work? Organic or mechanistic?
Explain.
7. What in your experience has been the dominant contingency factor in the design of the
organizations in which you have worked? Technology? Environmental uncertainty?
Strategy?
8. Use the characteristics of mechanistic and organic organizations to describe two different
organizations that you know about. After determining the organizational differences, see
if you can relate the differences to technological and environmental differences.
9. Think about the organizational design of your current organization or the school you
are attending. Which organizational design discussed in this chapter best describes
your current organization or school? Explain the reasons for your choice.
10. Assume that you are starting your own business and want the organizational structure
to be a virtual one. What are the advantages and disadvantages of creating such a vir-
tual organization? Explain.

Taking It to Virtual Organizational Design

Virtual teams are becoming more common as organizations attempt to establish “real-time”
the Net relationships with clients, suppliers, and vendors who are based in geographically dispersed
locations. Taken to the extreme, sometimes entire organizations operate in a virtual manner
(i.e., the organization comprises employees who are based in different geographic loca-
tions). Using your favorite search engine, such as www.google.com or www.yahoo.com,
search the Internet for at least five organizations that use a virtual organization design. Then,
answer the following three questions about the virtual organizations you identified:
1. In your opinion, how can the “leaders” of the organizations exercise control over their
geographically dispersed employees?
2. How do you think members of these virtual organizations arrive at decisions?
3. How would you group the members’ jobs? By function? By territory? By product? Or
by customer?

Case for Analysis: Defining the Role of a Liaison Officer

Recently, the governor of a southeastern state created
a Department for Human Resources. It combined
many formerly distinct state agencies that carried out
health and welfare programs. The department’s orga-
nization chart is shown in Exhibit 1. The functions of
each of the bureaus were described in the governor’s
press release:
The Bureau for Social Insurance will operate all
income maintenance and all income supplementation
programs of the Department for Human Resources.

EXHIBIT 1
Human Resources
Department for Advisory Councils
Human Resources:
Organization Chart
Office for Policy
and Budget
Commissioner Commissioner
Bureau for Bureau for
Social Social
Insurance Services
That is, it will issue financial support to the poor,
unemployed, and needy, and it will issue food stamps
and pay for medical assistance.
The Bureau for Social Services will provide
child welfare services, foster care, adoptions,
family services, and all other general counseling
in support of families and individuals who require
assistance for successful and adequate human
development.
The Bureau for Health Services will operate all
departmental programs that provide health service,
including all physical and mental health programs.
This bureau will take over the functions of the
Department of Health, the Department of Mental
Health, and the Commission for Handicapped
Children.
The Bureau for Manpower Services will operate all
labor force development and job placement programs
of the department, including all job recruitments and
business liaison functions, job training, worker
readiness functions, and job counseling and
placement.
The Bureau for Administration and Operations
will consolidate numerous support services, such as
preaudits, accounting, data processing, purchasing,
and duplicating, now furnished by 19 separate units.
Soon after the department began to operate in
its reorganized form, major problems arose that were
traceable to the Bureau for Administration and
Operations (BAO). Prior to reorganization, each depart-
ment had had its own support staff for data processing,
accounting, personnel, and budgeting. Those staffs and
equipment had all been relocated and brought under the
direction of the BAO commissioner. Employees who
had once specialized in the work of one area, such as
mental health, were now expected to perform work for
Chapter 14 Organization Structure 425
Office of Secretary Human Resources
Secretary Regulatory Boards
Ombudsman Office of the
Counsel
Commissioner Commissioner Commissioner
Bureau for Bureau for Bureau for
Administration Health Manpower
and Operations Services Services
all the bureaus. In addition, they had to revise forms,
procedures, computer programs, accounts, and records
to conform to the new department’s policies.
Consequently, the department began to experience
administrative problems. Payrolls were late and inaccu-
rate; payments to vendors and clients were delayed; and
personnel actions got lost in the paperwork. Eventually,
the integrity of the department’s service programs was
in jeopardy.
The executive staff of the department, consisting
of the secretary, commissioner, and administrator of
the Office for Policy and Budget, soon found itself
spending more time dealing with these administrative
problems than with policy formulation. Apparently,
the department’s effectiveness would depend on its
ability to integrate the functions of BAO with the
needs of the program bureaus. Also, the executive
staff was not the appropriate body to deal with
these  issues. Aside from the inordinate amount of
time spent on the administrative problems, a great deal
of interpersonal conflict was generated among the
commissioners.
The BAO commissioner was instructed by the secre-
tary to give his full-time attention to devising a means
for integrating the administrative functions. After con-
sultation with his staff, the idea of an administrative
liaison officer was formulated. The BAO commissioner
presented the staff paper that described this new job
(Exhibit 2) to the executive staff for discussion and
adoption. According to the commissioner, there was
simply no procedural or planning means for integrating
the administrative functions. Rather, it would continue
to be a conflict-laden process requiring the undivided
attention of an individual assigned to each of the four
bureaus.
426 Part Four The Structure and Design of Organizations

EXHIBIT 2 Description of Responsibilities, Administrative Liaison Officer

Introduction
Executive Order 86-777 abolished the former human resources agencies and merged their functions into a new, single
department. A prime element in the organizational concept of the new department is the centralization of administrative
and support activities into a Bureau of Administration and Operations, which supports the four program bureaus of the
department. While the centralization of these administrative and support activities only included those functions that were
located in centralized administrative units in the former human resources agencies, the size of the Department for Human
Resources dictates that extra levels of effort be applied to ensure close coordination and cooperation between the four
program bureaus and the Bureau for Administration and Operations.
As one element in the comprehensive range of efforts now being applied to ensure a high level of responsiveness and
cooperation between the Bureau for Administration and Operations and each program bureau, there will be created within
the office of the Commissioner for Administration and Operations four positions for administrative liaison officers, one of
which will be assigned responsibility for liaison with each program bureau.

Responsibilities
1. Each administrative liaison officer will provide, to the program bureau commissioner and other officials of the program
bureau to which assigned, assistance in the following areas:
a. Identification and definition of the administrative and operational support needs of that program bureau.
b. Determination of the relative priorities of those needs for services.
c. Identification of programmatic and operational requirements of the program bureau that may be assisted by the
enforcement of administrative regulations by the Bureau for Administration and Operations.
d. Identification of resources available within the Bureau for Administration and Operations that may be of value to the
program bureau.
e. Coordination of the delivery of services by the various divisions of the Bureau for Administration and Operations to
the program bureau.
f. Interpretation of data and information provided by the Bureau for Administration and Operations.
g. Interpretation and distribution of administrative regulations and procedures issued by the Bureau for Administration
and Operations with respect to its responsibilities under policies delineated by the secretary and the commissioners
of the Department for Human Resources.
2. Each administrative liaison officer will provide assistance to the Commissioner for Administration and Operations and
other officials of the Bureau for Administration and Operations in the following areas:
a. Development of strategies for providing the maximum possible quality and quantity of support services that can be
made available to the officer’s particular program bureau within budgetary and policy constraints.
b. Understanding of special needs and problems of respective program bureaus.
c. Identification of new procedures and systems whereby services rendered to the program bureau can result in
improved coordination between all organizational units of the Department for Human Resources.
d. Identification of inadequacies or gaps in presently available services provided by the Bureau for Administration and
Operations.
e. Direction and/or coordination of task forces and other temporary organizational units created within the Bureau for
Administration and Operations assigned to provide resources specific to the program bureau.
f. Supervision of all personnel of the Bureau for Administration and Operations that may be on a temporary duty
assignment to the program bureau to which the officer is assigned.

Operational Arrangement
1. The administrative liaison officer will be appointed to a position within the Office of the Commissioner for Administration
and Operations.
2. The assignment of an administrative liaison officer to a program bureau will require the concurrence of the commissioner
of that program bureau.
3. The Office of the Administrative Liaison Officer will be physically located within the suite of offices of the program
bureau commissioner to whom the officer is assigned.
4. The administrative liaison officer will attend all staff meetings of the commissioner of the program bureau to which
assigned and all staff meetings of the Commissioner for Administration and Operations.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Evaluate the concept of “administrative liaison offi-
cer” as a strategy for achieving integration. Is this an
example of the mutual adjustment strategy?
Experiential Exercise: Identifying and Changing Organization Design
OBJECTIVES
To increase the reader’s understanding of different orga-
nization designs.
RELATED TOPICS
Chapters 13, 14, and 15 provide the reader with sufficient
information to complete the analysis.
STARTING THE EXERCISE
The instructor will form groups of five to eight individ-
uals toward the end of a class meeting. Each group will
meet for 5 to 10 minutes and select a specific organiza-
tional unit within your college that will be the focus of
the group’s analysis. The unit can be an academic de-
partment, division, or college or a nonacademic unit
such as the athletic department, business affairs office,
student housing, or any other formally recognized cam-
pus unit.
Before the next class meeting, each group will com-
plete the six steps of the exercise and prepare a report to
present to the class.
Chapter 14 Organization Structure 427
2. How will the officers achieve integration when they
will have no authority over either the administrative
functions or the programs to be integrated?
3. What would be the most important personal character-
istics to look for in an applicant for these positions?
COMPLETING THE EXERCISE
1. What is the primary purpose of the unit? What func-
tions must be performed to accomplish the mission?
What customers does the unit serve with what prod-
ucts or services? What are the primary environments
that influence the unit’s performance?
2. Describe the unit’s primary technology, the relative
uncertainty of the primary environments, and the pri-
mary information that must be processed.
3. Describe the existing organization structure in terms
of the characteristics that distinguish between mech-
anistic and organic designs.
4. Which organization design more accurately describes
the existing organization structure?
5. If the organization structure were changed to be
more mechanistic or organic, what would be the
effects on jobs, departmental bases, and delegation
of authority?
6. Is the existing organization design appropriate for
the unit, given its mission, functions, customers,
products/services, and environment? Justify your
answer.