Organizational Architecture, Culture, and Change Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers key concepts in organizational structure (centralization, span of control), organizational culture (Schein's levels, Enron case study), and effective management of organizational change (Kotter's 8-Step Model).

Organizational structure

How tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated within an organization.

Organizational chart

A visual map of a structure that shows authority and the division of labor.

Centralization

The degree to which decision-making authority sits with senior leaders rather than frontline employees.

Formalization

The degree to which jobs, procedures, and behaviors are standardized within an organization.

Span of control

The number of people one manager is expected to effectively direct.

Tall structure

An organizational design characterized by a narrow span of control and many managerial layers.

Flat structure

An organizational design characterized by a wide span of control and fewer layers, leading to faster communication.

Departmentalization

The basis by which jobs are grouped together so that related work can be coordinated.

Organizational culture

A system of shared meaning consisting of assumptions, values, and beliefs that distinguish one organization from another.

Job satisfaction

An evaluative term describing whether people like their work, as opposed to culture which is descriptive.

Artifacts & Behavior

The visible surface level of Schein's culture model, including dress, office layout, and mission statements.

Norms & Values

The stated reasons why things are done, representing company philosophy and justifications.

Underlying Assumptions

The deepest, invisible layer of culture consisting of unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs.

Socialization

The onboarding process used to maintain culture by internalizing the organization's way of thinking in employees.

Enron

Founded in $1985$, it became the $7^{ ext{th}}$ largest U.S. company before filing for bankruptcy in December $2001$ due to fraudulent accounting.

Jeff Skilling, Ken Lay, and Andy Fastow

The top Enron executives who were sentenced to prison following the company's collapse.

Planned change

Change activities that are intentional and goal-oriented rather than reactionary.

Change agents

People who act as catalysts and assume responsibility for managing change activities.

Status quo bias

The tendency of people to prefer the current state of affairs even when change may be beneficial.

Kotter's 8-Step Model

A framework for leading change that breaks the unfreeze-change-refreeze model into detailed steps.

Step 1: Increase urgency

The first step in Kotter's model, which involves providing evidence to show the need for change.

Step 3: Get the right vision

The stage where a clear, compelling strategy is created that should be explainable within the "$1$ minute rule."

Step 6: Create short-term wins

The stage of building momentum with quick, visible successes to energize supporters and enlighten naysayers.

Step 8: Make it stick

The final stage of Kotter's model where change is embedded into the organization's culture through stories and recognition.

Failure rate of large-scale changes

The striking statistic that up to $70\%$ of large-scale organizational changes fail.

Enron's loss of pension funds

The total amount of employee and retiree pension funds lost during the Enron scandal was $\$3.2 \text{ billion}$.