Reference no: EM133064871

Chapter 10. Organization Size, Life Cycle, and Decline.

Overview:

Chapter 10 explores the question of large versus small organizations and how size relates to structure and control. Organization size is a major contingency that influences organization design and functioning, just as technology, environment, and goals do. The first section looks at the advantages of large versus small size. Then, the organization's life cycle is considered and the structural characteristics at each stage. Next, the chapter examines the need for bureaucracy to control large organizations and compares bureaucratic control to other control strategies. Finally, the chapter looks at the causes of organizational decline. It should become clear when bureaucratic control can make an organization effective and when other types of control are more appropriate.

1. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of large organization size.

2. Describe how an organization progresses through four stages of the organizational life cycle.

3. Define the characteristics of bureaucracy.

4. Compare large organizations and small organizations along the dimensions of formalization, centralization, and personnel ratios.

5. Identify approaches to reducing bureaucracy in large organizations.

6. Contrast market and clan control with bureaucratic control.

7. Describe the model of decline stages.

8. Look through several recent issues of a business magazine such as Fortune, BusinessWeek, or Fast Company and find examples of two companies that are using approaches to busting bureaucracy. Discuss the techniques these companies are applying.

9. Apply the concept of life cycle to an organization with which you are familiar, such as a local business. What stage is the organization in now? How did the organization handle or pass through its life cycle crises?