After years of hard work, your musical instrument sales and repair business is f
ID: 392584 • Letter: A
Question
After years of hard work, your musical instrument sales and repair business is finally starting to grow rapidly. You plan to expand your customer base considerably in the next year, which will require hiring 30 employees across the company. You realize now is the time to bring some structure into the business so it can handle the challenges growth brings. You think about the four objectives to be considered when organizing a business: efficiency, control, responsiveness, and empowerment. You decide to focus on maximizing responsiveness and empowerment. You were sure the decision to tighten control would improve your business, but several months after your decision you notice that sales are down. In an attempt to determine why, you call some key customers. They say that your customer service has dropped off considerably. They also say that contact with the sales team has dropped, because the sales team isn't confident they can offer what the customers really want. You now realize that centralized decision-making damaged the morale of the staff. This move was unnecessary; your employees are all music enthusiasts and experts And customers need sales reps who are in close consultation with them so that customized solutions can be worked out. To get things back on track, you reverse your decision about dictating the agenda for department staff meetings. In addition, you wish to make another structural change. Which change would best restore the organization to your original goals of maximum responsiveness and empowerment? a. Reduce the number of managers in order to increase the span of control. b. Increase the number of managers in order to increase the span of control. c. Narrow the span of control for all of your managers so they are more closely supervising their team o d. Narrow the span of control for all of your managers in order to improve efficiency Hide Feedback IncorrectExplanation / Answer
Answer to the question:
The correct option will be 'd'. The centralization of the power had made the managers reluctant to take any decisions when handling their staff and customers. So, decentralizing the power means the managers are free to take any decision they deem fit and may accordingly, ask their team also, to attend the customers and address to their grievances in their own way and take decisions by their own wisdom. This will definitely improve the overall efficiency of all the staff. In the option 'c', the managers would closely supervise their team which could again centralize the power in their own hands and it is really avoidable in the given circumstances.