2.2 Business Flashcards

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Bureaucracy

A highly structured organization with rigid rules, standardized procedures, and a clear hierarchy designed to maintain consistency but often resulting in slow decision-making.

Centralization

A structural setup where decision-making authority is concentrated at the top levels of management, leaving lower-level managers with little autonomy.

Chain of Command

The continuous, formal line of authority and communication that stretches from top executives down to frontline employees, showing who reports to whom.

Decentralization

A structural setup where decision-making power is distributed throughout the organization, giving lower-level employees and managers more autonomy to make choices.

Delayering

The process of removing one or more layers of hierarchy from an organizational structure, typically to cut costs and speed up communication.

Delegation

The act of passing down authority and responsibility for a specific task from a manager to a subordinate, though the manager ultimately remains accountable.

Flat Organization

An organizational structure with very few hierarchical layers and a wide span of control, encouraging quick communication and employee autonomy.

Hierarchy

A system in which members of an organization are ranked according to relative status or authority, usually resembling a pyramid shape.

Line Manager

A manager who has direct authority over employees and processes that contribute directly to producing or delivering the company's core products or services.

Matrix Structure

A flexible organizational design where employees report to multiple managers simultaneously, typically both a functional manager (e.g., Marketing) and a project or product manager.

Organizational Chart

A visual diagram that illustrates a company's internal structure, detailing roles, relationships, and the formal chain of command.

Span of Control

The specific number of subordinates or direct reports that a single manager is responsible for supervising.

Tall Organization

An organizational structure with many layers of hierarchy and narrow spans of control, resulting in a long, narrow pyramid shape.