Introduction: The way an organization is structured depends on many different factors and is really only meaningful within its particular situation, as this chapter has described. This exercise will help you understand the relationships among these factors.
Internet Assignment: Using the same information and web sites you used for the Internet assignment in Chapter 16, see if you can categorize each of those organization structures in terms of the types of structures discussed in this chapter. Then, see if you can find more information about the environment, technology, size, strategy, and managerial factors for each of the four companies you used in that exercise. You may have to use additional web sites or search engines to find out more about the companies.
Follow-up: Review each of the web sites you have used in the Internet assignments for this chapter and Chapter 16. Write a brief analysis of the different types of information found in each. Finally, respond to the following questions:
- To what extent did the organization structure of each organization seem to fit with the other information you found on each organization?
- Do you think that the official web sites of companies should include all of the information you found? Why or why not?
- Were the web sites easy to use to find the information you needed?
