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This discussion question should raise some interesting ideas about the college’s environment. Students should carefully consider the four environmental elements, then assess whether the environment calls for more of a mechanistic or organic structure. Mechanistic structure has narrow span of control, high centralization and high formalization. Organic structure has wide span of control, decentralized decision making and low formalization. Many people discover that different parts of an organization face different environments. For example, an online learning centre would face a dynamic and hostile environment because of the rapid pace of technology and number of competitors. Here are some details about the four environments. Dynamic environments have a high rate of change, leading to novel situations, so organic structures tend to be best because employees are more flexible. For example, network and cluster structures seem to be most effective in dynamic environments. In contra

There are at least two reasons why many organizations are moving toward flatter organizational structures with a wider span of control. First, flatter structures require less overhead -- there are fewer middle managers and more people directly involved in the production of goods and/or services. Second, flatter structures are consistent with the trend toward greater autonomy and employee involvement. Managers necessarily have a wide span of control in flatter structures, and they are unable to engage in close supervision. Instead, employees (and work teams) are given more freedom to make decisions without management review. A narrow span or control would be most appropriate with a workforce that is low skilled and made up of workers with a high power distance. In such cases, the close supervision and control would be less likely to be viewed as a lack of trust among workers.

This is an open-ended question that will encourage students to question their notions of leadership. Some leadership models say charismatic leadership is essential for transformational leadership and even suggesting that charismatic leadership is the highest degree of transformational leadership. However, the emerging view is that charisma is distinct from transformational leadership. Charisma is a personal trait that provides referent power (capacity to influence others through identification with and respect for the power holder-occurs when others identify with them, like them, or otherwise respect them) over followers but doesn’t necessarily change the organization (may even result in greater focus on self-interest). Transformational leadership is a set of behaviors that engage followers to bring about change. Based on these definitions, it is clear that charismatic leaders may not be transformational, and transformational leaders are not necessarily charismatic. Is a leader who

Shared leadership is the view that leadership is a role, not a position assigned to one person, such that people within the team and organization lead each other. Emerging views of leadership support the idea that leadership needs to be developed at all levels of an organization. In a recent study, only 8 percent of executives in large firms indicated their organizations had enough leadership. Effective leaders are responsible and their success may be determined, by their ability to teach and empower employees to take leadership roles. In increasingly dynamic, team-based organizations, an organization’s competitive success may be determined by employees’ ability to understand the business environment and take action consistent with organizational goals. Characteristics associated with leadership such as self-confidence, emotional intelligence, integrity are increasingly being used by organizations to select employees for positions at all levels within an organization (not just manageme

This is purely a discussion question, but students should be able to bring out logical foundations for their arguments. The textbook points out that e-mail and other information technologies have changed the nature of grapevine communication such that social networks have expanded as employees communicate with each other around the globe, not just around the next cubicle. Public web sites have become virtual water coolers by posting anonymous comments about specific companies for all to view. This technology extends gossip to anyone, not just employees connected to social networks.  These changes do not directly mean that the amount of information flowing through the corporate grapevine has increased. However, a couple of arguments suggest that grapevine communication has increased. First, information technologies make it easier to communicate, as well as easier to communicate with more people at a larger distance. Logically, this suggests that there is less of an investment barrie

Although women also engage in report talk, they tend to communicate to build or maintain social bonds (Rapport talk). For this reason, they are less likely to give advice, will use indirect questions. Women are more willing than men to apologize. Finally, women are more sensitive than men to nonverbal cues in face-to-face meetings. The result is that women get frustrated with men because they receive impersonal and status-based advice from men when they are trying to form rapport. Men get frustrated because they can’t understand why women don’t appreciate their advice.