Business Essentials, 12/e

Summary of Learning Objectives

Objective 6-1

1. Discuss the factors that influence a firm’s organizational structure.

Each organization must develop an appropriate organizational structure—the specification of the jobs to be done and the ways in which those jobs relate to one another. Most organizations change structures almost continuously. Firms prepare organization charts to clarify structure and to show employees where they fit into a firm’s operations. Each box represents a job, and solid lines define the chain of command, or reporting relationships. The charts of large firms are complex and include individuals at many levels. Because size prevents them from charting every manager, they may create single organization charts for overall ...