| birth stage | The nonbureaucratic stage, the stage in which the organization is created.
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| blended value | The idea that all investments are understood to operate simultaneously in both economic and social realms.
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| centralized authority | Organizational structure in which important decisions are made by upper managers—power is concentrated at the top.
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| common purpose | A goal that unifies employees or members and gives everyone an understanding of the organization's reason for being.
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| conglomerate structure | The fourth type of organizational structure, whereby divisions are grouped around similar businesses or activities.
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| contingency design | The process of fitting the organization to its environment.
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| continuous-process technology | A highly routinized technology in which machines do all of the work, to produce highly routinized products.
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| coordinated effort | The coordination of individual efforts into a group or organization-wide effort.
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| customer division | A divisional structure in which activities are grouped around common customers or clients.
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| decentralized authority | Organizational structure in which important decisions are made by middle-level and supervisory-level managers—power is delegated throughout the organization.
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| delegation | The process of assigning managerial authority and responsibility to managers and employees lower in the hierarchy.
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| differentiation | The tendency of the parts of an organization to disperse and fragment.
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| division of labor | Also known as work specialization; arrangement of having discrete parts of a task done by different people. The work is divided into particular tasks assigned to particular workers.
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| divisional structure | The third type of organizational structure, whereby people with diverse occupational specialties are put together in formal groups according to products and/or services, customers and/or clients, or geographic regions.
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| functional structure | The second type of organizational structure, whereby people with similar occupational specialties are put together in formal groups.
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| geographic division | A divisional structure in which activities are grouped around defined regional locations.
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| hero | A person whose accomplishments embody the values of the organization.
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| hierarchy of authority | Also known as chain of command; a control mechanism for making sure the right people do the right things at the right time.
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| hybrid structure | Fifth type of organizational structure, whereby an organizational form uses functional and divisional structures in different parts of the same organization.
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| integration | The tendency of the parts of an organization to draw together to achieve a common purpose.
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| large-batch technology | Routinized products made by highly mechanized organizations; mass-production assemblyline technology.
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| line managers | Managers who have the authority to make decisions and usually have people reporting to them.
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| matrix structure | Sixth type of organizational structure, which combines functional and divisional chains of command in a grid so that there are two command structures—vertical and horizontal.
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| maturity stage | A stage when the organization becomes very bureaucratic, large, and mechanistic. The third stage in the product life cycle; period in which the product starts to fall out of favor, and sales and profits fall off.
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| mechanistic organization | Organization in which authority is centralized, tasks and rules are clearly specified, and employees are closely supervised.
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| midlife stage | A period of growth evolving into stability when the organization becomes bureaucratic.
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| network structure | Eighth type of organizational structure, whereby a central core is linked to outside independent firms by computer connections, which are used to operate as if all were a single organization.
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| organic organization | Organization in which authority is decentralized, there are fewer rules and procedures, and networks of employees are encouraged to cooperate and respond quickly to unexpected tasks.
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| organization chart | Box-and-lines illustration of the formal relationships of positions of authority and the organization's official divisions of labor.
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| organizational culture | Sometimes called corporate culture; system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members.
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| organizational life cycle | Four-stage cycle with a natural sequence of stages: birth, youth, midlife, and maturity.
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| organizational size | Measurement of a group's size according to the number of full-time employees.
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| paradigm | Generally accepted way of viewing the world.
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| product division | A divisional structure in which activities are grouped around similar products or services.
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| responsibility | The obligation one has to perform the assigned tasks.
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| rites and rituals | The activities and ceremonies, planned and unplanned, that celebrate important occasions and accomplishments in an organization's life.
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| simple structure | The first type of organizational structure, whereby an organization has authority centralized in a single person, as well as a flat hierarchy, few rules, and low work specialization.
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| small-batch technology | System in which goods are custom-made to customer specifications in small quantities.
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| span of control | The number of people reporting directly to a given manager.
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| staff personnel | Staff with advisory functions; they provide advice, recommendations, and research to line managers.
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| story | A narrative based on true events, which is repeated—and sometimes embellished upon—to emphasize a particular value.
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| symbol | An object, act, quality, or event that conveys meaning.
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| team-based structure | Seventh type of organizational structure, whereby teams or workgroups, either temporary or permanent, are used to improve horizontal relations and solve problems throughout the organization.
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| technology | All the tools and ideas for transforming material, data, or labor (inputs) into goods or services (outputs). It applies not just to computers but any machine or process that enables an organization to gain a competitive advantage in changing materials used to produce a finished product.
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| youth stage | The stage in which the organization is in a prebureaucratic phase, one of growth and expansion.
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