Chapter 8: Organizational Structure Outline

Introduction
A. The Learning Goals for this chapter are to: 1. Explain the purpose of an organizational structure and how organizational structure varies among firms. 2. Explain how accountability can be achieved in an organizational structure. 3. Describe how centralized and decentralized organizational structures differ. 4. Discuss methods firms can use to obtain employee input. 5. Identify methods that can be used to departmentalize tasks. B. This chapter is concerned with the organizational structure of a business and how this structure is used to achieve the firms strategic plan. C. Each firm should have a strategic plan that identifies the future direction of its business. The responsibilities of the firms managers should be organized to achieve the strategic plan. D. An organizational structure identifies the responsibilities for each job position in the organization and the relationships among those positions. It also describes how all of the job responsibilities fit together. A well-designed organizational structure can improve efficiency and increase the value of the firm.