Chapter 6 - 1

Chapter 6

Content Questions

01 Business

listen to a discussion in a business class. Fill in the diagram with the information that you hear.

W: OK, everyone, when you think of the traditional large company, what comes to mind?

A big office, perhaps? Lots of workers.

What about managers?

Well, some companies have a lot that manages… lots and lots of managers.

And when a company has many levels of management, that company effect to be a “tall” organization.

And can anyone guess what the opposite of the tall management structure is?

M: I’d guess a short management structure?

W: Good guess, but no, it’s a flat structure, but more on that later, OK?

Back to the issue at hand, which is tall management structures, So… you might have the company president − that’s one level.

And then you might have a vice-president.

That’s another level. And then you might have, oh, I don’t know, general managers.

And below them managers. And below them assistant managers.

And then management trainees. And then, who knows… you might have sub-assistant-manager trainees and training!

OK, I’m making a joke here, but yeah, some companies have huge management structures, called um, we call them management hierarchies.

There’s a good reason for hierarchies, of course.

And that is that when a company grows, when it gets really huge, well, you need to control the organization so you need managers telling people what to do.

But here’s the problem: problems arise, um, significant problems arise when you have vast management hierarchies, the first of which is poor communication, in particular the problem of what’s known as distortion of commands.

What do you suppose that is? John?

M: Um… same thing that happens here in class, I’d guess. I mean, you give us information in every class.

But um, as you probably figured out, we don’t always remember that information correctly on a test, right?

I mean, we get things wrong, even though you told us the answers here in class.

W: Good illustration, and yes, I certainly have figured that one out, John!

So yeah, basically, what John’s getting at is that people can interpret things differently than they’re supposed to.

Meaning can be lost through incorrect interpretation of a manager’s words.

So that’s one problem. And there’s another… it um, if you have a tall management structure, it can take a long, long time for decisions and orders to pass through the levels.

So let’s say the company president gives an order to do something… something that will affect everyone in the company.

Well, in a company with a tall structure, that order can take a long time to reach the actual workers.

This makes company slow to respond to change in the market.

Finally, managers are expensive, very expensive.

Managers have assistants, secretaries, bonuses, big salaries… you name it… they’re expensive.

Um, you’ve all heard about companies that downsize, might?

Lay off workers. Well, you know that typically, they try not to downsize the people actually making the products?

Statistically, they downsize middle managers and companies just have too many levels of management.

And if you ask me, that’s not altogether a bad thing.

I mean, if the company is going to be effective in the global market, it can’t have so many managerial levels.

1) Based on information from the discussion, indicate whether or not each statement is a disadvantage of a “tall” management structure. Place a checkmark in the correct box.