With fewer managers and more people in positions without managerial accountability, which building
block will you rely upon to ensure jobs are properly supervised?
also, If your organization evolves to have fewer positions of authority, as a top manager of that
organization, how would you ensure that the necessary control is still in place?
Differentiating among positions
Coordinating activities among jobs
Grouping jobs
Distributing authority among jobs - CORRECT ANSWER Distributing authority among jobs
Some of the jobs mentioned in the article didn't even exist a dozen years ago, and new jobs are
emerging every year. If you needed to incorporate such new roles into your organization, which basic
building block would serve as your starting point?
also, Imagine that you are the hiring manager at a corporation like GE, with businesses in the healthcare,
renewable energy, and operations data fields. Which basic building block of structure would you use as
you scale down on managerial positions and scale up on engineering positions?
Differentiating among positions
Establishing reporting relationships
Distributing authority among jobs
Designing jobs - CORRECT ANSWER Designing jobs
The logical starting point is to design jobs for the people in the organization. For jobs that don't already
exist, this will be a necessary step before the other building blocks are relevant.
There are six basic building blocks that managers can use to construct an organization: designing jobs,
grouping jobs, establishing reporting relationships between jobs, distributing authority among jobs,
coordinating activities among jobs, and differentiating among positions. Deciding what kind of jobs you
are going to have is part of the designing jobs building block.
,Projects often span jobs and departments. Which building block will you rely upon to ensure that the
project development process runs smoothly and efficiently?
Differentiating among positions
Grouping jobs
Distributing authority among jobs
Coordinating activities among jobs - CORRECT ANSWER Coordinating activities among jobs
There are six basic building blocks that managers can use to construct an organization: designing jobs,
grouping jobs, establishing reporting relationships between jobs, distributing authority among jobs,
coordinating activities among jobs, and differentiating among positions. To work together, coordinating
activities must be in place.
Which basic building block of structure would you use to build departments focused on specific products
or clients?
Grouping jobs
Establishing reporting relationships
Distributing authority among jobs
Differentiating among positions - CORRECT ANSWER Grouping jobs
There are six basic building blocks that managers can use to construct an organization: designing jobs,
grouping jobs, establishing reporting relationships between jobs, distributing authority among jobs,
coordinating activities among jobs, and differentiating among positions. Grouping jobs creates
departments.
Based on the breadth of tasks fulfilled by genealogists at Ancestry described in the article, which
alternative to job specialization has likely been used in job design to overcome the problems associated
with overly specialized jobs?
Job rotation
Work teams
, Job enlargement
Job enrichment - CORRECT ANSWER Job enlargement
Because the genealogists at Ancestry complete several types of tasks, we could conclude that the job
design included an enlargement aspect. The article does not state nor imply that job rotation, work
teams, or job enrichment programs have been used.
In your recommendations to Ancestry, you suggest the company seek to enrich the jobs of the
genealogists. Which of the following suggestions would result in job enrichment?
-The genealogist staff could be divided into those who focus on digital records and those who deal with
traditional records.
-The genealogists could learn to analyze and enter data in one unified step.
-The genealogists with the best performance could be awarded the opportunity to work on the more
interesting family histories.
-Genealogists like Crista could determine for themselves when the ancestral trail warranted the
acquisition of additional data from external sources. - CORRECT ANSWER Genealogists like Crista could
determine for themselves when the ancestral trail warranted the acquisition of additional data from
external sources.
Job enrichment attempts to increase the number of tasks and the level of control the employee feels
over the job. The correct answer points out that the genealogists could determine for themselves when
they need additional data. This self-determination is a characteristic of job enrichment. The other
possible answers do not meet the definition of job enrichment.
To align the jobs at Ancestry with the company's strategy, you've decided that the genealogist job
should be redesigned. You've also determined that taking the job characteristics approach to job design
will yield the best results. Which step will you take to enhance how valued each employee feels he or
she is?
-Give the genealogists feedback on their performance at the end of each project.
-Publicize which genealogists were involved in which completed historical projects so that the
employees feel they identify with the total job.
-Communicate the importance of the tasks performed to increase task significance.