Question 1: Where would your university or collage department be located on Ferrow's technology framework? Should a department devoted exclusively to teaching be in a different quadrant from a department devoted exclusively to research?
Question 2: What is the difference between "reluctance to simplify" and "sensitivity to operations" in a high reliability organization?
Question 3: What is the level of interdependence among departments (finance, marketing) in a business school? What kinds of coordination mechanisms might be used to handle that interdependence?
Question 4: Why does Woodward suggest that span of control needs to decrease as technological complexity increases? Can you think of any circumstances that might change the relationship between the two?
Question 5: How do smart factories differ from other manufacturing technologies? How might the transformation to a smart factory change how a manufacturing organization hires and trains employees?
Question 6: What is a service technology? Are different types of service technologies likely to be associated with different organization designs? Explain.
Question 7: Why might administrators at a hospital such as Seattle Children's Hospital, described in this chapter, want to foster relational coordination?
Question 8: A top executive claimed that top-level management is a craft technology because the work contains intangibles, such as handling personnel issues, interpreting an ambiguous environment, and coping with unusual situations. Do you agree? What type of structure or management process is appropriate for top-level managers?
Question 9: Do you think the characteristics of a high reliability organization could be applied in non-HRO organizations? Explain.
Question 10: To what extent does the development of new technologies simplify and routinize the jobs of employees? Can you give an example? Can new technology also lead to jobs with greater variety and complexity? Discuss.