Business in Action: Thriving in the Digital
Enterprise
Ninth Edition
Chapter 8
Organization and
Teamwork
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
8.1 Explain the major decisions needed to design an
organization structure.
8.2 Define four major types of organization structure.
8.3 Explain how a team differs from a group, and describe
the six most common forms of teams.
8.4 Highlight the advantages and disadvantages of working
in teams, and list the characteristics of effective teams.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
8.5 Review the five stages of team development, and
explain why conflict can arise in team settings.
8.6 Explain the concept of an unstructured organization,
and identify the major benefits and challenges of taking
this approach.
8.7 Describe the use of taskbots and robotic procession
automation in contemporary business.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Designing an Effective Organization
Structure
• Organization structure
– A framework that enables managers to divide
responsibilities, ensure employee accountability, and
distribute the decision-making authority
• Organization chart
– A diagram that shows how employees and tasks are
grouped and where the lines of communication and
authority flow
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.1 Simplified Organization
Chart
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Identifying Core Competencies
• Core competencies
– Activities that a company considers central and vital to
its business
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Identifying Job Responsibilities
• Work specialization
– Specialization in or responsibility for some portion of
an organization’s overall work tasks
– Also called division of labor
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Defining the Chain of Command
• Chain of command
– A pathway for the flow of authority from one
management level to the next
• Span of management
– The number of people under one manager’s control
– Also known as span of control
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.2 Simplified Line-and-Staff
Structure
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Centralization versus Decentralization
• Centralization
– Concentration of decision-making authority at the top
of an organization
• Decentralization
– Delegation of decision-making authority to employees
in lower-level positions
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.3 Flattening an Organization
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Agile Organization
• Agile organization
– A company whose structure, policies, and capabilities
allow employees to respond quickly to customer needs
and changes in the business environment
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Organizing the Workforce (1 of 2)
• Departmentalization
– Grouping people within an organization according to
function, division, matrix, or network
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Organizing the Workforce (2 of 2)
• Functional structure
– Grouping workers according to the similarity in their
skills, resource use, and expertise
• Divisional structure
– Grouping departments according to similarities in
product, process, customers, or geography
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.4 Customer Division Structure
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Matrix Structure
• Matrix structure
– A structure in which employees are assigned to both a
functional group and a project team (thus using
functional and divisional patterns simultaneously)
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.5 Matrix Structure
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Network Structure
• Network structure
– A structure in which individual companies are
connected electronically to perform selected tasks for
a small headquarters organization
– Also called virtual organization
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Organizing in Teams
• Team
– A unit of two or more people who share a mission and
collective responsibility as they work together to
achieve a goal
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Types of Teams (1 of 3)
• Problem-solving team
– A team that meets to find ways of improving quality,
efficiency, and the work environment
• Self-managed team
– A team in which members are responsible for an
entire process or operation
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Types of Teams (2 of 3)
• Functional team
– A team whose members come from a single functional
department which is based on the organization’s
vertical structure
• Cross-functional team
– A team that draws together employees from different
functional areas
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Cross-Functional Teams
• Task force
– A team of people from several departments who are
temporarily brought together to address a specific
issue
• Committee
– A team that may become a permanent part of the
organization and is designed to deal with regularly
recurring tasks
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Types of Teams (3 of 3)
• Virtual team
– A team that uses communication technology to bring
together geographically distant employees to achieve
goals
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.6 Business Uses of Social
Networking Technology (1 of 3)
Operations Intelligence Relationships
Fostering collaboration. Understanding target Onboarding new employees.
Networks can help identify the markets. Many companies Internal networks can help new
best people to collaborate on monitor and analyze social employees navigate their way
projects and find pockets of media traffic to pick up on through the organization and
knowledge and expertise within consumer trends, complaints, find experts, mentors, and other
the organization. rumors, and other bits of important contacts.
environmental intelligence.
Recruiting employees and Monitoring company and Integrating company
business partners. Companies brand reputations. Tools for workforces. Internal social
use social networks to find sentiment analysis and networks can help companies
potential employees, short-term reputation analysis assess the grow closer, including
contractors, subject-matter reputations of companies and encouraging workforces to “gel”
experts, product and service individuals, measure the after reorganizations or mergers
suppliers, and business emotional quality of online and overcoming structural
partners. A key advantage here conversations, and identify barriers in communication
is that these introductions are outrage “hot spots” on social channels.
often made via trusted media.
connections in a professional
network.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.6 Business Uses of Social
Networking Technology (2 of 3)
Operations Intelligence Relationships
Supporting customers. Social Identifying opinion Accelerating team
customer service involves influencers. Social media development. Networks can
using social media to give influencers can sway public help members get to know one
customers a more convenient opinion, so companies try to another, identify individual areas
way to get help from the identify opinion leaders in their of expertise, and share
company and to help each markets. resources.
other.
Extending the organization. Supplementing the formal Extending professional
Social networking is also fueling communication network. networking. Social media can
the growth of networked Internal social networks can give seminar and conference
organizations, sometimes bypass the formal participants a way to meet
known as virtual communication system to collect before an event and to maintain
organizations, where and distribute information in a relationships afterward.
companies supplement the more timely fashion.
talents of their employees with
services from one or more
external partners, such as a
design lab, a manufacturing
firm, or a sales and distribution
company.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.6 Business Uses of Social
Networking Technology (3 of 3)
Operations Intelligence Relationships
Crisis communication. Finding sales prospects. Building communities.
When companies need to Salespeople on networks Social networks can bring
communicate with broad such as LinkedIn can use together communities of
audiences in a hurry, social their connections to identify practice, people who
media are ideal channels. potential buyers and ask for engage in similar work, and
introductions through those communities of interest
shared connections. Sales (sometimes called brand
networking can reduce cold communities), people who
calling, contacting potential share enthusiasm for a
customers without a prior particular product or activity.
introduction.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Advantages of Working on Teams
• Higher quality decisions
• Increased diversity of views
• Increased commitment to solutions and changes
• Lower levels of stress and destructive internal
competition
• Improved flexibility and responsiveness
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Disadvantages of Working on Teams
• Inefficiency
• Groupthink
• Diminished individual motivation
• Structural disruption
• Excessive workloads
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Characteristics of Effective Teams
• Clear sense of purpose
• Open and honest communication
• Creative thinking
• Accountability
• Focus
• Decision by consensus
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.7 Characteristics of Effective
Teams (1 of 2)
Make Effective Teamwork A Top Management Priority
• Recognize and reward group performance where appropriate
• Provide ample training opportunities for employees to develop team skills
Select Team Members Wisely
• Involve key stakeholders and decision makers
• Limit team size to the minimum number of people needed to achieve team goals
• Select members with a diversity of views
• Select creative thinkers
Build a Sense of Fairness in Decision Making
• Encourage debate and disagreement without fear of reprisal
• Allow members to communicate openly and honestly
• Consider all proposals
• Build consensus by allowing team members to examine, compare, and reconcile
differences—but don’t let a desire for 100 percent consensus bog the team down
• Avoid quick votes
• Keep everyone informed
• Present all the facts
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.7 Characteristics of Effective
Teams (2 of 2)
Manage Conflict Constructively
• Share leadership
• Encourage equal participation
• Discuss disagreements openly and calmly
• Focus on the issues, not the people
• Don’t let minor disagreements boil over into major conflicts
Stay on Track
• Make sure everyone understands the team’s purpose
• Communicate what is expected of team members
• Stay focused on the core assignment
• Develop and adhere to a schedule
• Develop rules and follow norms
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Team Development (1 of 2)
• Forming
• Storming
• Norming
• Performing
• Adjourning
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.8 Team Member Roles
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Team Development (2 of 2)
• Cohesiveness
– A measure of how committed team members are to
their team’s goals
• Norms
– Informal standards of conduct that guide team
behavior
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Team Conflict
• Constructive conflict
– Brings important issues into the open, increases the
involvement of team members, and generates creative
ideas for solving a problem
• Destructive conflict
– Diverts energy from more important issues, destroys
the morale of teams or individual team members, or
polarizes or divides the team
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.9 Sources of Team and
Workplace Conflict
Type Examples
Structural: a permanent aspect of doing Competition for opportunities, such as
business promotions into management positions
Competition for resources, such as project
budgets, equipment, or staff
Disagreements over fundamental values,
such as the company’s responsibilities to
society or its Workers
Situational: based on temporary forces Disagreements over project goals
Conflict between individual goals and team
goals
Workload and work–life imbalances
Resistance to change
Interpersonal: stemming from personal Poor communication
choices, behaviors, and personality Personality clashes
differences Unprofessional behavior
Cultural differences
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Solutions to Team Conflict
• Proactive attention
• Communication
• Openness
• Research
• Flexibility
• Fair play
• Alliance
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Managing an Unstructured
Organization
• Unstructured organization
– An organization that doesn’t have a conventional
structure but instead assembles talent as needed from
the open market; the virtual and networked
organizational concepts taken to the extreme
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.10 Benefits and Challenges of
Unstructured Organizations (1 of 3)
Potential Benefits
For Companies For Workers
• Increased agility: Companies can respond to • Performance-based evaluation: The only
or create opportunities faster and then thing that matters is getting the jobs done.
reorganize and move on when needed.
• Lower fixed costs: Fewer employees means • Freedom and flexibility: Workers have more
fewer bills to pay every month. leeway in choosing which projects they want
and how much they want to work.
• More flexible capacity management: Firms • Access to more interesting and more
can ramp capacity up and down more quickly fulfilling work: Workers can connect with
and with less trauma. opportunities that might be unreachable
otherwise.
• Access to start talent: Firms can “rent” top
talent that is too expensive to hire full time or Blank
unwilling to works full time.
• Benefiting from competitions: Firms can
stage competitions in talents markets to see
who can devise the best solutions to problems. Blank
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.10 Benefits and Challenges of
Unstructured Organizations (2 of 3)
Potential Challenges
For Companies For Workers
• Complexity and control issues: Workers • Uncertainty: Workers can’t be sure they’ll
often have competing demands on their time have work from one project to the next.
and attention, and managers lack many of the
organizational control and incentive “levers”
that a regular company has.
• Uncertainty: Without staff at the ready, • Loss of meaning and connection:
companies won’t always know if they’ll be able Independent workers don’t get the same of
to get the talent they need. working together for a larger, shared purpose
that employees get.
• Diminished loyalty: Managers have to deal • Diminished loyalty: Workers don’t have the
with a workforce that doesn’t have the same same sense employees often do that an
sense of loyalty to the organization that many organization is looking out for them and will
full-time employees do. reward sacrifices and effort above and beyond
contractual obligations.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.10 Benefits and Challenges of
Unstructured Organizations (3 of 3)
Potential Challenges
For Companies For Workers
• Management succession: Companies with • Career development: Without full-time
fewer employees will find it harder to groom employers to guide, support, and train them,
replacement managers and executives. workers are left to fend for themselves and to
keep their skills current at their own expense.
• Accountability and liability: Unstructured Blank
organizations lack the built-in accountability of
conventional structures, and the distribution of
work among multiple independent parties
could create liability concerns.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Potential Challenges of Unstructured
Organizations
• Complexity and control issues
• Uncertainty
• Loss of meaning and connection
• Diminished loyalty
• Career development
• Management succession
• Accountability and liability
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Thriving in the Digital Enterprise: Taskbots
and Robotic Process Automation
• Taskbot
– A software agent that can be assigned to complete a
variety of tasks within an app or business system
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.11 Taskbots
Bots such as TaskOnBot (show here) are now a common feature of collaboration
platforms such as Slack. They function as virtual team members and can be assigned a
variety of tasks and assign tasks to their human teammates.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Robotic Process Automation
• Robotic process automation (RPA)
– A software capability that does for knowledge work
what mechanical robots do for manufacturing and
other physical processes
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Exhibit 8.12 Robotic Process
Automation
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Applying What You’ve Learned (1 of 2)
1. Explain the major decisions needed to design an
organization structure.
2. Define four major types of organization structure.
3. Explain how a team differs from a group, and describe
the six most common forms of teams.
4. Highlight the advantages and disadvantages of working in
teams, and list the characteristics of effective teams.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Applying What You’ve Learned (2 of 2)
5. Review the five stages of team development, and explain
why conflict can arise in team settings.
6. Explain the concept of an unstructured organization, and
identify the major benefits and challenges of taking this
approach.
7. Describe the use of taskbots and robotic procession
automation in contemporary business.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright
This work is protected by United States copyright laws and is
provided solely for the use of instructors in teaching their
courses and assessing student learning. Dissemination or sale of
any part of this work (including on the World Wide Web) will
destroy the integrity of the work and is not permitted. The work
and materials from it should never be made available to students
except by instructors using the accompanying text in their
classes. All recipients of this work are expected to abide by these
restrictions and to honor the intended pedagogical purposes and
the needs of other instructors who rely on these materials.
Copyright © 2020, 2017, 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
