BU398 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Apple Inc., Railways Act 1921, Network Virtualization
Document Summary
The grouping of activities by a common function from the bottom to top of the organization. Slow response time to environment functional departments changes. May cause decisions to pile on top, development hierarchy overload. Leads to poor horizontal coordination functional goals. Is best with only one or a few products among departments. Organizations compensate for the vertical functional hierarchy by installing horizontal linkages. Managers improve horizontal coordination by using info systems, direct contact between departments, full-time integrators, task forces, or teams. For example, a horizontal linkage using teams would look like this: The structuring of the organization according to individual products, services, product groups, major projects, or profit centres. Leads to poor coordination across product responsibility and contact points are clear. Allows units to adapt to differences in products, regions, and customers. Best in large organizations with several products product lines. Makes integration and standardization across product lines difficult.
