Convenience

Exercise Overview
Conceptual skills
require you to think in the abstract. In
this exercise, you’ll use your conceptual skills in analyz-
ing organizational structure.
Exercise Background
Looking at its organization chart allows you to under-
stand a company’s structure, including its distribution
of authority, its divisional breakdown, its levels of hierar-
chy, and its reporting relationships. The reverse is also
true: When you understand the elements of a company’s
structure, you can draw up an organization chart to
reflect it. In this exercise, that’s just what you’ll do:
You’ll use the Internet to research a firm’s structure and
then draw an appropriate organization chart.
Exercise Task
1.
Alone or with a partner, go online to research a
publicly traded U.S. firm in which you’re interested.
Focus on information that will help you under-
stand the company’s structure. If you research
Ford Motor Company, for example, you should
look for information about different types of
vehicles, different regions in which Ford pro-
ducts are sold, and different functions that the
company performs. (
Hint
: The firm’s annual
report is usually available online and typically
contains a great deal of helpful information. In
particular, take a look at the section containing
an editorial message from the chairman or CEO
and the section summarizing financial informa-
tion. In many cases, “segment” data reveal a lot
about divisional structure.)
2.
Draw an organization chart based on your
research.
3.
Share your results with another group or with the
class as a whole. Be prepared to explain and justify
the decisions that you made in determining the
firm’s structure.
184
Part 3:
Organizing
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BUILDING EFFECTIVE DIAGNOSTIC SKILLS