Designing individual positions

8 important questions on Designing individual positions

A management style in which several persons with equal authority are given oversight over specific departments or tasks.For example, one manager may be assigned to human relations, a second to operations and a third to accounting. However ,no manager has authority over another. What kind of management style is described above?

Horizontal job specialization.




The worker engages in a wide variety of the tasks associated with producing products and services. What type on management style in described above?

Horizontal job enlargement.




For example, a group of workers may be given responsibility for the assembly of the motor, a natural unit of work, including the power to decide how the work will be shared and carried out. Which management style is described above?

Vertical job enlargement.
  • Higher grades + faster learning
  • Never study anything twice
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Discover Study Smart




The formalization of behavior, this parameter represents the organization's way of proscribing the discretion of its members, essentially of standardizing their work processes. Describe in what 3 ways behavior is formatized?

  1. By the position. - Specifications being attached to the job itself, as in a job description.
  2. By the workflow. -  Specifications being attached to the work, as in the case of a printing-order docket.
  3. By rules. - Specifications being issued in general, as in the various regulations—everything from dress to the use of forms—contained in so-called policy manuals.




Organizations that rely primarily on the formalization of behavior to achieve coordination are generally referred to as bureaucracies. When can we define the organization as a bureaucracy?




We can define a structure as bureaucratic to the extent that its behavior is predetermined or predictable, in effect standardized.




But if some organizations emphasize standardization, others presumably do not. They are characterized by flexible working arrangements, basing their coordination on mutual adjustment or direct supervision. How can we define organic forms of structure as described above?

We shall define the organic structure by the absence of standardization in the organization.




Socialization "refers to the process by which a new member learns the value system, the norms, and the required behavior patterns of the society, organization, or group which he is entering". Indoctrination is the label used for the design parameter by which the organization formally socializes its members for its own benefit. How can we define indoctrination?




Indoctrination is the process by which organizational norms are acquired (aangeleerd). 




It can then establish recruiting and selection procedures to screen applicants in terms of those position requirements; alternatively, it can establish its own programs to develop them in the candidates it hires. In either case, the intention is the same—to ensure that the jobholder develops the necessary behaviors before beginning work. To what does training refer to?




Training refers to the process by which job-related skills and knowledge are taught.

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

  • A unique study and practice tool
  • Never study anything twice again
  • Get the grades you hope for
  • 100% sure, 100% understanding
Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.
Trustpilot Logo