A company believes that employees should be grouped according to the tasks they perform in the organization. Which type of organizational design does…

A functional organizational design groups jobs and employees based on similarity in their functions, skills, and the tasks they perform. In this structure, all individuals involved in a specific function, such as marketing, finance, or operations, are grouped into a common department. This approach promotes specialization and efficiency within each functional area, as employees with similar expertise work together, facilitating knowledge sharing and skill development. The company's belief in grouping employees by the tasks they perform is the defining characteristic of a functional structure.

A. Directional: This is not a recognized or standard type of organizational design in management theory; it is likely included as a distractor.

B. Virtual: A virtual organization outsources major business functions and exists as a small core connected to external partners, rather than grouping internal employees by task.

C. Divisional: This structure groups employees into divisions based on products, services, customer segments, or geographic regions, not by the common tasks they perform.

1. Carpenter

M.

Bauer

T.

& Erdogan

B. (2012). Management Principles

v. 1.1. Flat World Knowledge. Chapter 7

Section 7.2: Organizational Structure. Retrieved from https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/s11-02-organizational-structure.html. The text states

"In organizations using functional structures

jobs are grouped based on similarity in functions... such as marketing

manufacturing

finance

accounting

human resources

and information technology."

2. Robbins

S. P.

& Coulter

M. (2018). Management (14th ed.). Pearson. Chapter 11: Designing Organizational Structure. In the section on "Common Organizational Designs

" a functional structure is defined as "an organizational design that groups similar or related occupational specialties together."

3. Daft

R. L. (2016). Organization Theory and Design (12th ed.). Cengage Learning. Chapter 3: Fundamentals of Organization Structure. This chapter describes the functional structure as one where "activities are grouped together by common function from the bottom to the top of the organization." (p. 96). It contrasts this with the divisional structure

which groups based on organizational outputs.