Session:10 Organizational Structure and Change
Key Terms
Principles of Management | Leadership Development – Micro-Learning Session
Rice University 2020 | Michael Laverty, Colorado State University Global Chris Littel, North Carolina State University| https://openstax.org/details/books/principles-management
- abundance-based change
- Leaders assume that employees will change if they can be inspired to aim for greater degrees of excellence in their work.
- appreciative conversations
- Intense, positively framed discussions that help people to develop common ground as they work together to cocreate a positive vision of an ideal future for their organization.
- Appreciative Inquiry model
- A model specifically designed as an abundance-based, bottom-up, positive approach.
- boundary conditions
- Define the degree of discretion that is available to employees for self-directed action.
- bureaucratic model
- Max Weber’s model that states that organizations will find efficiencies when they divide the duties of labor, allow people to specialize, and create structure for coordinating their differentiated efforts within a hierarchy of responsibility.
- centralization
- The concentration of control of an activity or organization under a single authority.
- change agents
- People in the organization who view themselves as agents who have discretion to act.
- change management
- The process of designing and implementing change.
- command-and-control
- The way in which people report to one another or connect to coordinate their efforts in accomplishing the work of the organization.
- Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS)
- A model that views organizations as constantly developing and adapting to their environment, much like a living organism.
- conventional mindset
- Leaders assume that most people are inclined to resist change and therefore need to be managed in a way that encourages them to accept change.
- culture change
- Involves reshaping and reimagining the core identity of the organization.
- deficit-based change
- Leaders assume that employees will change if they know they will otherwise face negative consequences.
- differentiation
- The process of organizing employees into groups that focus on specific functions in the organization.
- disturbances
- Can cause tension amongst employees, but can also be positive and a catalyst for change.
- emergent or bottom-up approach
- Organizations exist as socially constructed systems in which people are constantly making sense of and enacting an organizational reality as they interact with others in a system.
- entrepreneurship
- The process of designing, launching, and running a new business.
- flat organization
- A horizontal organizational structure in which many individuals across the whole system are empowered to make organizational decisions.
- formal organization
- A fixed set of rules of organizational procedures and structures.
- formalization
- The process of making a status formal for the practice of formal acceptance.
- geographic structures
- Occur when organizations are set up to deliver a range of products within a geographic area or region.
- group-level change
- Centers on the relationships between people and focuses on helping people to work more effectively together.
- horizontal organizational structure
- Flat organizational structure in which many individuals across the whole system are empowered to make organizational decisions.
- incremental change
- Small refinements in current organizational practices or routines that do not challenge, but rather build on or improve, existing aspects and practices within the organization.
- individual-level change
- Focuses on how to help employees to improve some active aspect of their performance or the knowledge they need to continue to contribute to the organization in an effective manner.
- informal organization
- The connecting social structure in organizations that denotes the evolving network of interactions among its employees, unrelated to the firm’s formal authority structure.
- intentionality
- The degree to which the change is intentionally designed or purposefully implemented.
- Kotter’s change model
- An overall framework for designing a long-term change process.
- level of organization
- The breadth of the systems that need to be changed within an organization.
- Lewin’s change model
- Explains a very basic process that accompanies most organizational changes.
- managed change
- How leaders in an organization intentionally shape shifts that occur in the organization when market conditions shift, supply sources change, or adaptations are introduced in the processes for accomplishing work over time.
- matrix structure
- An organizational structure that groups people by function and by product team simultaneously.
- mechanistic bureaucratic structure
- Describes organizations characterized by (1) centralized authority, (2) formalized procedures and practices, and (3) specialized functions. They are usually resistant to change.
- OD consultant
- Someone who has expertise in change management processes.
- organic bureaucratic structure
- Used in organizations that face unstable and dynamic environments and need to quickly adapt to change.
- organization development (OD)
- Techniques and methods that managers can use to increase the adaptability of their organization.
- organization-level change
- A change that affects an entire organizational system or several of its units.
- Organizational change
- The movement that organizations take as they move from one state to a future state.
- organizational design
- The process by which managers define organizational structure and culture so that the organization can achieve its goals.
- organizational development (OD)
- Specialized field that focuses on how to design and manage change.
- organizational structure
- The system of task and reporting relationships that control and motivate colleagues to achieve organizational goals.
- participatory management
- Includes employees in deliberations about key business decisions.
- planned change
- An intentional activity or set of intentional activities that are designed to create movement toward a specific goal or end.
- positive or appreciative mindset
- Leaders assume that people are inclined to embrace change when they are respected as individuals with intrinsic worth, agency, and capability.
- Product structures
- Occurs when businesses organize their employees according to product lines or lines of business.
- scope of change
- The degree to which the required change will disrupt current patterns and routines.
- span of control
- The scope of the work that any one person in the organization will be accountable for.
- specialization
- The degree to which people are organized into subunits according to their expertise—for example, human resources, finance, marketing, or manufacturing.
- strategic change
- A change, either incremental or transformational, that helps align an organization’s operations with its strategic mission and objectives.
- structural change
- Changes in the overall formal relationships, or the architecture of relationships, within an organization.
- technological change
- Implementation of new technologies often forces organizations to change.
- top-down change
- Relies on mechanistic assumptions about the nature of an organization.
- transformational change
- Significant shifts in an organizational system that may cause significant disruption to some underlying aspect of the organization, its processes, or its structures.
- unplanned change
- An unintentional activity that is usually the result of informal organizing.
- vertical organizational structure
- Organizational structures found in large mechanistic organizations; also called “tall” structures due to the presence of many levels of management.