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Chapter 6 – Organizational Structure and Design
6-113
Copyright ©2015 Pearson Education, Inc.
CHAPTER
6
ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE AND
DESIGN
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After reading this chapter students should be able to:
1. Describe 6 key elements in organizational design.
2. Identify the contingency factors that favor the mechanistic model or the organic model.
3. Compare and contrast traditional and contemporary organizational designs.
4. Discuss the design challenges faced by today’s organizations.
Management Myth
MYTH: Bureaucracies are inefficient.
TRUTH: Bureaucratic organizations are still alive and well and continue to dominate most
medium-sized and large organization.
SUMMARY
This chapter discusses the key concepts and their components and how managers create a
structured environment where employees can work efficiently and effectively. Once the
organization’s goals, plans, and strategies are in place, managers must develop a structure that
will best facilitate the attainment of those goals.

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I. WHAT ARE THE SIX KEY ELEMENTS IN ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN?
Learning Catalytics Question: Instructor Directions and Follow-Up
Question
Type
Question Answer/Response For the Instructor
Word
Cloud
What are the six
key elements in
organizational
design?
Options: work
specialization,
departmentalization,
authority,
responsibility and
power, span of
control,
centralization and
decentralization,
and formalization
Use this at the start of class to aid
students' recall of the six key elements of
organizational design.
A. Introduction
1. Organization design decisions are typically made by senior managers.
2. Organization design applies to any type of organization.
3. Formulated by management writers such as Henri Fayol and Max Weber in the
early 1900s.
4. These principles still provide valuable insights into designing effective and
efficient organizations.
B. What Is Work Specialization?
1. Work specialization is dividing work activities into separate jobs tasks.
a) Individuals specialize in doing part of an activity.
b) Work specialization makes efficient use of the diversity of skills that workers
hold.
2. Some tasks require highly developed skills; others lower skill levels.
3. Excessive work specialization or human diseconomies, can lead to boredom,
fatigue, stress, low productivity, poor quality, increased absenteeism, and high
turnover. (See Exhibit 6-1.)
4. Today's view is that specialization is an important organizing mechanism for
employee efficiency, but it is important to recognize the economies work
specialization can provide as well as its limitations.
C. What Is Departmentalization?
1. Departmentalization is when common work activities are grouped back together so
work gets done in a coordinated and integrated way.

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2. There are five common forms of departmentalization (see Exhibit 6-2).
a) Functional Groups - employees based on work performed (e.g., engineering,
accounting, information systems, human resources)
b) Product Groups - employees based on major product areas in the corporation
(e.g., women’s footwear, men’s footwear, and apparel and accessories)
c) Customer Groups - employees based on customers’ problems and needs (e.g.,
wholesale, retail, government)
d) Geographic Groups - employees based on location served (e.g., North, South,
Midwest, East)
e) Process Groups - employees based on the basis of work or customer flow (e.g.,
testing, payment)
3. With today's focus on the customer, many companies are using cross-functional
teams, which are teams made up of individuals from various departments and that
cross traditional departmental lines.
D. What are Authority and Responsibility?
1. The chain of command is the continuous line of authority that extends from upper
organizational levels to the lowest and clarifies who reports to whom.
2. An employee who has to report to two or more bosses might have to cope with
conflicting demands or priorities.
3. Authority refers to the rights inherent in a managerial position, to give orders and
expect the orders to be obeyed.
4. Each management position has specific inherent rights that incumbents acquire
from the position’s rank or title.
a) Authority is related to one’s position and ignores personal characteristics.
5. When managers delegate authority, they must allocate commensurate
responsibility.
a) When employees are given rights, they assume a corresponding obligation to
perform and should be held accountable for that performance.
b) Allocating authority without responsibility creates opportunities for abuse.
c) No one should be held responsible for something over which he or she has no
authority.
6. What are the different types of authority relationships?
a) The early management writers distinguished between two forms of authority.
(1) Line authority entitles a manager to direct the work of an employee.
(a) It is the employer-employee authority relationship that extends from
top to bottom.

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(b) See Exhibit 6-3.
(c) A line manager has the right to direct the work of employees and make
certain decisions without consulting anyone.
(d) Sometimes the term “line” is used to differentiate line managers from
staff managers.
(e) Line emphasizes managers whose organizational function contributes
directly to the achievement of organizational objectives (e.g.,
production and sales).
(2) Staff managers have staff authority (e.g., human resources and payroll).
(a) A manager’s function is classified as line or staff based on the
organization’s objectives.
(b) As organizations get larger and more complex, line managers find that
they do not have the time, expertise, or resources to get their jobs done
effectively.
(c) They create staff authority functions to support, assist, advice, and
generally reduce some of their informational burdens.
(d) Exhibit 6-4 illustrates line and staff authority.
7. What is Unity of Command?
a) The chain of command is the continuous line of authority that extends from
upper organizational levels to the lowest and clarifies who reports to whom.
b) An employee who has to report to two or more bosses might have to cope with
conflicting demands or priorities.
c) Therefore, the early management writers argued that an employee should have
only one superior (Unity of command).
d) If the chain of command had to be violated, early management writers always
explicitly designated that there be a clear separation of activities and a
supervisor responsible for each.
e) The unity of command concept was logical when organizations were
comparatively simple.
f) There are instances today when strict adherence to the unity of command
creates a degree of inflexibility that hinders an organization’s performance.
8. How does the contemporary view of authority and responsibility differ from the
historical view?
a) The early management writers assumed that the rights inherent in one’s formal
position in an organization were the sole source of influence.
b) This might have been true 30 or 60 years ago.
c) It is now recognized that you do not have to be a manager to have power, and
that power is not perfectly correlated with one’s level in the organization.

6-117
d) Authority is but one element in the larger concept of power.
9. How do authority and power differ?
a) Authority and power are frequently confused.
b) Authority is a right, the legitimacy of which is based on the authority figure’s
position in the organization.
(1) Authority goes with the job.
c) Power refers to an individual’s capacity to influence decisions.
(1) Authority is part of the larger concept of power.
(2) Exhibit 6-5 visually depicts the difference.
d) Power is a three-dimensional concept.
(1) It includes not only the functional and hierarchical dimensions but also
centrality.
(2) While authority is defined by one’s vertical position in the hierarchy, power is
made up of both one’s vertical position and one’s distance from the
organization’s power core, or center.
e) Think of the cone in Exhibit 6-5 as an organization.
(1) The closer you are to the power core, the more influence you have on
decisions.
(2) The existence of a power core is the only difference between A and B in
Exhibit 6-5.
f) The cone analogy explicitly acknowledges two facts:
(1) The higher one moves in an organization (an increase in authority), the closer
one moves to the power core.
(2) It is not necessary to have authority in order to wield power because one can
move horizontally inward toward the power core without moving up.
(a) Example, administrative assistants, “powerful” as gatekeepers with
little authority.
(3) Low-ranking employees with contacts in high places might be close to the
power core.
(4) So, too, are employees with scarce and important skills.
(a) The lowly production engineer with twenty years of experience might
be the only one in the firm who knows the inner workings of all the old
production machinery.
g) Power can come from different areas.
(1) John French and Bertram Raven have identified five sources, or bases, of
power.
(a) See Exhibit 6-6.

6-118
(b) Coercive power -based on fear; Reward power - based on the ability
to distribute something that others value; Legitimate power - based on
one’s position in the formal hierarchy; Expert power - based on one’s
expertise, special skill, or knowledge; Referent power -based on
identification with a person who has desirable resources.
E. What is Span of Control?
1. How many employees can a manager efficiently and effectively direct?
2. This question received a great deal of attention from early management writers.
3. There was no consensus on a specific number but early writers favored small spans
of less than six to maintain close control.
4. Level in the organization is a contingency variable.
a) Top managers need a smaller span than do middle managers, and middle
managers require a smaller span than do supervisors.
5. There is some change in theories about effective spans of control.
6. Many organizations are increasing their spans of control.
7. The span of control is increasingly being determined by contingency variables.
a) The more training and experience employees have, the less direct supervision
needed.
8. Other contingency variables should also be considered; similarity of employee
tasks, the task complexity, the physical proximity of employees, the degree of
standardization, the sophistication of the organization’s management information
system, the strength of the organization’s value system, the preferred managing
style of the manager, etc.
A Question of Ethics
A small percentage of companies are revealing to employees details about everything from
financials to staff performance reviews. Advocates of this approach say it is a good way to build
trust and allow employees to see how they are making contributions to the company. Critics say
open management can be expensive and time consuming. As work becomes more collaborative
the sharing of details may become inevitable.
Questions for students to consider:
• What ethical issues they see in the case?
• What are the implications for (a) managers and (b) employees?

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F. How Do Centralization and Decentralization Differ?
1. Centralization is a function of how much decision-making authority is pushed
down to lower levels in the organization.
2. Centralization-decentralization is a degree phenomenon.
3. By that, we mean that no organization is completely centralized or completely
decentralized.
4. Early management writers felt that centralization in an organization depended on
the situation.
a) Their objective was the optimum and efficient use of employees.
b) Traditional organizations were structured in a pyramid, with power and
authority concentrated near the top of the organization.
c) Given this structure, historically, centralized decisions were the most
prominent.
5. Organizations today are more complex and are responding to dynamic changes.
a) Many managers believe that decisions need to be made by those closest to the
problem.
6. Today, managers often choose the amount of centralization or decentralization that
will allow them to best implement their decisions and achieve organizational goals.
7. One of the central themes of empowering employees was to delegate to them the
authority to make decisions on those things that affect their work.
a) That’s the issue of decentralization at work.
b) It doesn’t imply that senior management no longer makes decisions.
G. What is Formalization?
1. Formalization refers to how standardized an organization’s jobs are and the extent
to which employee behavior is guided by rules and procedures.
2. Early management writers expected organizations to be fairly formalized, as
formalization went hand-in-hand with bureaucratic-style organizations.
3. Today, organizations rely less on strict rules and standardization to guide and
regulate employee behavior.

6-120
II. WHAT CONTINGENCY VARIABLES AFFECT STRUCTURAL CHOICE?
Learning Catalytics Question: Instructor Directions and Follow-Up
Question
Type
Question Answer/Response For the Instructor
Region Families are
organizations that
function best when
roles and
responsibilities are
clearly defined.
Was your family
more mechanistic
or organic?
There is no correct
answer.
Use the structure of the college/university
to explain how organizations function.
A. Introduction
1. The most appropriate structure to use will depend on contingency factors.
2. The more popular contingency variables are strategy, size, technology, and
environment.
B. How Is a Mechanistic Organization Different from an Organic Organization?
1. Exhibit 6-7 describes two organizational forms.
2. The mechanistic organization (or bureaucracy) was the natural result of combining
the six elements of structure.
a) The chain-of-command principle ensured the existence of a formal hierarchy of
authority.
b) Keeping the span of control small created tall, impersonal structures.
(1) Top management increasingly imposed rules and regulations.
c) The high degree of work specialization created simple, routine, and
standardized jobs.
d) Departmentalization increased impersonality and the need for multiple layers
of management.
3. The organic form is a highly adaptive form that is a direct contrast to the
mechanistic one.
a) The organic organization’s loose structure allows it to change rapidly as needs
require.
(1) Employees tend to be professionals who are technically proficient and trained
to handle diverse problems.

6-121
(2) They need very few formal rules and little direct supervision.
b) The organic organization is low in centralization.
4. When each of these two models is appropriate depends on several contingency
variables.
C. How Does Strategy Affect Structure?
1. An organization’s structure should facilitate goal achievement.
a) Strategy and structure should be closely linked.
b) Certain structural designs work best with different organizational strategies.
2. Accordingly, organizational structure should follow strategy. If management
makes a significant change in strategy, it needs to modify its structure as well.
D. How Does Size Affect Structure?
1. There is historical evidence that an organization’s size significantly affects its
structure.
2. Large organizations—employing 2,000 or more employees—tend to have more
work specialization, horizontal and vertical differentiation, and rules and
regulations than do small organizations.
3. The relationship is not linear; the impact of size becomes less important as an
organization expands.
a) Example, once an organization has around 2,000 employees, it is already fairly
mechanistic—an additional 500 employees will not have much effect.
b) Adding 500 employees to an organization that has only 300 members is likely
to result in a shift toward a more mechanistic structure.
E. How Does Technology Affect Structure?
1. Every organization uses some form of technology to convert its inputs into outputs.
2. To attain its objectives, the organization uses equipment, materials, knowledge,
and experienced individuals and puts them together into certain types and patterns
of activities.
a) For example, your tablet or smartphone has a standardized assembly line.
b) For example, your resume is custom design and print.
c) For example, your bottle of Ibuprofen was manufactured using a continuous
flow production line by the pharmaceutical company.
From the Past to the Present
Joan Woodward (British scholar) found that distinct relationships exist between size of
production runs and the structure of the firm. The effectiveness of organizations was related to
“fit” between technology and structure. Most studies focused on the processes or methods that
transform inputs into outputs and how they differ by their degree of routine.
Three categories, representing three distinct technologies, had increasing levels of complexity

6-122
and sophistication. Unit production described the production of items in units or small batches.
Mass production described large batch manufacturing. The most technically complex group,
process production, included continuous-process production. The more routine the technology,
the more standardized and mechanistic the structure can be. Organizations with more non-routine
technology are more likely to have organic structures. See Exhibit 6-8.
Discuss This:
• Why is (a) mechanistic structure more appropriate for an organization with routine
technology and (b) organic structure more appropriate for an organization with
nonroutine technology?
• Does Woodward’s framework still apply to today’s organizations? Why or why not?
F. How Does Environment Affect Structure?
1. Mechanistic organizations are most effective in stable environments.
2. Organic organizations are best matched with dynamic and uncertain environments.
3. The environment-structure relationship is why so many managers have
restructured their organizations to be lean, fast, and flexible.
III. WHAT ARE SOME COMMON ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGNS?
A. The main designs are simple, functional and divisional.
1. See Exhibit 6-9.
B. What Is a Simple Structure?
1. Most organizations start as an entrepreneurial venture with a simple structure.
2. There is low departmentalization, wide spans of control, authority centralized in a
single person, and little formalization.
3. The simple structure is most widely used in smaller businesses.
4. The strengths of the simple structure are that it is fast, flexible, and inexpensive to
maintain, and accountability is clear.
5. Major weaknesses.
a) It is effective only in small organizations.
b) It becomes increasingly inadequate as an organization grows; its few policies
or rules to guide operations and its high centralization result in information
overload at the top.
c) As size increases, decision making becomes slower and can eventually stop.
d) It is risky since everything depends on one person.
C. What is the functional structure?
1. Many organizations do not remain simple structures because structural
contingency factors dictate it.

6-123
2. As the number of employees rises, informal work rules of the simple structure give
way to more formal rules.
3. Rules and regulations are implemented; departments are created, and levels of
management are added to coordinate the activities of departmental people.
4. At this point, a bureaucracy is formed.
5. Two of the most popular bureaucratic design options are called the functional and
divisional structures.
6. Why do companies implement functional structures?
a) The functional structure merely expands the functional orientation.
b) The strength of the functional structure lies in work specialization.
(1) Economies of scale, minimizes duplication of personnel and equipment,
makes employees comfortable and satisfied.
c) The weakness of the functional structure is that the organization frequently
loses sight of its best interests in the pursuit of functional goals.
D. What is the divisional structure?
1. An organization design made up of self-contained units or divisions.
2. Health care giant Johnson & Johnson, for example, has three divisions:
pharmaceuticals, medical devices and diagnostics, and consumer products.
3. The chief advantage of the divisional structure is that it focuses on results.
a) Division managers have full responsibility for a product or service.
b) It also frees the headquarters from concern with day-to-day operating details.
4. The major disadvantage is duplication of activities and resources.
a) The duplication of functions increases the organization’s costs and reduces
efficiency.
E. What Contemporary Organizational Designs Can Managers Use?
1. See Exhibit 6-10 for the three contemporary organization designs.
a) Team structure is when the entire organization consists of work groups or
teams.
b) Team members have the authority to make decisions that affect them, because
there is no rigid chain of command.
c) Companies such as Amazon, Boeing, Hewlett-Packard, Louis Vuitton,
Motorola, and Xerox extensively use employee teams to improve productivity.
d) In these teams, Employees must be trained to work on teams, receive cross-
functional skills training, and be compensated accordingly.
2. The matrix structure assigns specialists from different functional departments to
work on projects led by a project manager.

6-124
a) Exhibit 6-11 illustrates the matrix structure of a firm.
b) The unique characteristic of the matrix is that employees in this structure have
at least two bosses, a dual chain of command: their functional departmental
manager and their product or project managers.
c) Project managers have authority over the functional members who are part of
that manager’s team.
d) Authority is shared between the two managers.
(1) Typically, the project manager is given authority over project employees
relative to the project’s goals.
(2) Decisions such as promotions, salary recommendations, and annual reviews
remain the functional manager’s responsibility.
e) To work effectively, project, and functional managers must communicate and
coordinate.
f) The primary strength of the matrix is that it can facilitate coordination of a
multiple set of complex and interdependent projects while still retaining the
economies that result from keeping functional specialists grouped together.
g) The major disadvantages of the matrix are in the confusion it creates and its
propensity to foster power struggles.
3. Project structure - is when employees continuously work on projects.
a) Tends to be more flexible
b) The major advantages of that are that employees can be deployed rapidly to
respond to environmental changes, no ridged hierarchical structure to slow
down decision-making, managers serve as facilitators, mentors, and coaches to
eliminate or minimize organizational obstacles.
c) The two major disadvantages of the project structure are the complexity of
assigning people to projects and the inevitable task and personality conflicts
that arise.
4. What is a boundaryless Organization?
a) A boundaryless organization, coined by former GE CEO, Jack Welch, is not
defined or limited by boundaries or categories imposed by traditional
structures.
b) It blurs the historical boundaries surrounding an organization by increasing its
interdependence with its environment.
c) There are two types of boundaries:
(1) Internal—the horizontal ones imposed by work specialization and
departmentalization and the vertical ones that separate employees into
organizational levels and hierarchies.
(2) External—the boundaries that separate the organization from its customers,
suppliers, and other stakeholders.

6-125
5. A virtual organization consists of a small core of full-time employees and outside
specialists temporarily hired as needed to work on projects.
6. A network organization - is one that uses its own employees to do some work
activities and networks of outside suppliers to provide other needed product
components or work processes. Also called a modular organization by
manufacturing firms.
Technology and the Manager’s Job - The Changing World of Work
It is almost cliché to say that technology has had a dramatic impact on how people work. Mobile
communication and technology has allowed organizations to stay connected. Hand-held devices,
cellular phones, webcams, etc. allow employees to work virtually. Information technology
continues to grow and become an integral part of the way business is conducted. However, one
challenges caused by some the high level of integrated technology is security. Software and other
disabling devices have helped in this arena and many companies are developing creative
applications for their workforce.
Discuss This:
• What benefits do you see with being able to do work anywhere, anytime? (Think in terms of
benefits for an organization and for its human resources.)
• What other issues, besides security, do you see with being able to do work anywhere,
anytime? (Again, think about thisfor an organization and for itsemployees.)
IV. WHAT ARE TODAY'S ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN CHALLENGES?
A. How Do You Keep Employees Connected?
1. Choosing a design that will best support and facilitate employees doing their work
efficiently and effectively, creates challenges.
2. A major structural design challenge for managers is finding a way to keep widely
dispersed and mobile employees connected to the organization.
B. How Do Global Differences Affect Organizational Structure?
1. Researchers have concluded that the structures and strategies of organizations
worldwide are similar, “while the behavior within them is maintaining its cultural
uniqueness.”
2. When designing or changing structure, managers may need to think about the
cultural implications of certain design elements, such as rules and bureaucratic
mechanisms.
C. How Do You Build a Learning Organization?
1. Building a learning organization is a mindset in which the learning organization
has developed the capacity to continuously adapt and change because all members
take an active role in identifying and resolving work-related issues.

6-126
2. Employees are practicing knowledge management.
a) Continually acquiring and sharing new knowledge.
b) Willing to apply that knowledge in making decisions or performing their work.
3. According to some organizational design theorists, an organization’s ability to
learn and to apply that learning may be the only sustainable source of competitive
advantage.
See Exhibit 6-12 for characteristics of a learning organization.
a) Members share information and collaborate on work activities throughout the
entire organization.
b) Minimize or eliminate existing structural and physical boundaries.
(1) Employees are free to work together and to collaborate.
(2) Teams tend to be an important feature of the structural design.
(3) Managers serve as facilitators, supporters, and advocates.
c) For a learning organization to "learn" information is shared openly, in a timely
manner, and as accurately as possible.
d) Leadership creates a shared vision for the organization’s future and keeps
organizational members working toward that vision.
(1) Leaders should support and encourage the collaborative environment.
e) A learning organization’s culture is one in which everyone agrees on a shared
vision and everyone recognizes the inherent interrelationships among the
organization’s processes, activities, functions, and external environment.
f) There is a strong sense of community, caring for each other, and trust.
(1) Employees feel free to openly communicate, share, experiment, and learn
without fear of criticism or punishment.
g) Organizational culture is an important aspect of being a learning organization.
A learning organization’s culture is one in which everyone agrees on a shared
vision and everyone recognizes the inherent interrelationships among the
organization’s processes, activities, functions, and external environment.
D. How Can Managers Design Efficient and Effective Flexible Work Arrangements?
1. As organizations adapt their structural designs to fit a diverse workforce, growing
competition, customer demands and new technology, we see more of them adopting
flexible working arrangements.
2. Such arrangements not only exploit the power of technology, but give organizations
the flexibility to deploy employees when and where needed.
3. Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees work at home and are
linked to the workplace by their computer.

6-127
a) Telecommuting provides the company a way to grow without having to incur
any additional fixed costs such as office buildings, equipment, or parking lots.
b) Some companies view the arrangement as a way to combat high gas prices and
to attract talented employees who want more freedom and control.
c) Some managers are reluctant to have their employees become “laptop hobos”
wasting time surfing the Internet or playing online games instead of working.
d) Employees often express concerns about being isolated.
e) Managing the telecommuters then becomes a matter of keeping employees
feeling like they’re connected and engaged, a topic we delve into at the end of
the chapter as we look at today’s organizational design challenges.
4.Compressed workweek, which is a workweek where employees work longer hours
per day but fewer days per week.
a) Flextime (also known as flexible work hours), which is a scheduling system in
which employees are required to work a specific number of hours a week but
are free to vary those hours within certain limits.
b) Job sharing—the practice of having two or more people split a full-time job.
5. Contingent Workers are temporary, freelance, or contract workers whose
employment is contingent upon demand for their services.
a) As organizations eliminate full-time jobs through downsizing and other means
of organizational restructuring, they often rely on a contingent workforce to fill
in as needed.
b) One of the main issues businesses face with their contingent workers,
especially those who are independent contractors or freelancers, is classifying
who actually qualifies as one.
REVIEW AND APPLICATIONS
CHAPTER SUMMARY
1 Describe six key elements in organizational design. The first element, work
specialization, refers to dividing work activities into separate job tasks. The
second, departmentalization, is how jobs are grouped together, which can be one
of five types: functional, product, customer, geographic, or process. The third—
authority, responsibility, and power—all have to do with getting work done in an
organization. Authority refers to the rights inherent in a managerial position to
give orders and expect those orders to be obeyed. Responsibility refers to the
obligation to perform when authority has been delegated. Power is the capacity of

6-128
an individual to influence decisions and is not the same as authority. The fourth,
span of control, refers to the number of employees a manager can efficiently and
effectively manage. The fifth, centralization and decentralization, deals with
where the majority of decisions are made—at upper organizational levels or
pushed down to lower-level managers. The sixth, formalization, describes how
standardized an organization’s jobs are and the extent to which employees’
behavior is guided by rules and procedures.
2 Identify the contingency factors that favor the mechanistic model or the
organic model. A mechanistic organizational design is quite bureaucratic
whereas an organic organizational design is more fluid and flexible. The strategy-
determines structure factor says that as organizational strategies move from single
product to product diversification, the structure will move from organic to
mechanistic. As an organization’s size increases, so does the need for a more
mechanistic structure. The more non-routine the technology, the more organic a
structure should be. Finally, stable environments are better matched with
mechanistic structures, but dynamic ones fit better with organic structures.
3 Compare and contrast traditional and contemporary organizational designs.
Traditional structural designs include simple, functional, and divisional. A simple
structure is one with low departmentalization, wide spans of control, authority
centralized in a single person, and little formalization. A functional structure is
one that groups similar or related occupational specialties together. A divisional
structure is one made up of separate business units or divisions. Contemporary
structural designs include team-based structures (the entire organization is made
up of work teams); matrix and project structures (where employees work on
projects for short periods of time or continuously); and boundaryless
organizations (where the structural design is free of imposed boundaries). A
boundaryless organization can either be a virtual or a network organization.
4 Discuss the design challenges faced by today’s organizations. One design
challenge lies in keeping employees connected, which can be accomplished
through using information technology. Another challenge is understanding the
global differences that affect organizational structure. Although structures and
strategies of organizations worldwide are similar, the behavior within them
differs, which can influence certain design elements. Another challenge is
designing a structure around the mind-set of being a learning organization.
Finally, managers are looking for organizational designs with efficient and
effective flexible work arrangements. They’re using options such as
telecommuting, compressed workweeks, flextime, job sharing, and contingent
workers.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
6-1 Describe what is meant by the term organizational design.
Answer: Once decisions regarding corporate strategies are made, an effective structure must
be implemented to facilitate the attainment of those goals. When managers develop or change
the organization’s structure, they are engaging in organization design. Organization design

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decisions are typically made by senior managers. Organization design applies to any type of
organization.
6-2 Discuss the traditional and contemporary views of each of the six key elements of
organizational design.
Answer: Traditionally, work specialization was viewed as a way to divide work activities
into separate job tasks. Today’s view is that it is an important organizing mechanism but it
can lead to problems. The chain of command and its companion concepts—authority,
responsibility, and unity of command—were viewed as important ways of maintaining
control in organizations. The contemporary view is that they are less relevant in today’s
organizations. The traditional view of span of control was that managers should directly
supervise no more than five to six individuals. The contemporary view is that the span of
control depends on the skills and abilities of the manager and the employees and on the
characteristics of the situation.
6-3 Can an organization’s structure be changed quickly? Why or why not? Should it be
changed quickly? Why or why not?
Answer: No, it takes time and a lot of planning and communication. Cultures usually evolve
based initially on the founder's values. Whether or not it should be changed quickly is
dependent upon the competition, its efficiency and success and its financial viability. A
boundaryless organization provides the flexibility and fluid structure that facilitates quick
movements to capitalize on opportunities. An organic structure versus a bureaucracy could
adapt more quickly to changes.
6-4 “An organization can have no structure.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement?
Explain.
Answer: A boundaryless or virtual organization is not without structure, structure is
minimized but not eliminated. There is always some degree of reporting relations, some type
of division of labor, some need for the management of processes, etc. Boundaryless
organizations are not merely flatter organizations. They attempt to eliminate vertical,
horizontal, and inter-organizational barriers.
6-5 Contrast mechanistic and organic organizations.
Answer: A mechanistic organization is a rigid and tightly controlled structure. An organic
organization is highly adaptive and flexible. See Exhibit 6-7 for additional differences.
6-6 Explain the contingency factors that affect organizational design.
Answer: An organization’s structure should support the strategy. If the strategy changes the
structure also should change. An organization’s size can affect its structure up to a certain
point. Once an organization reaches a certain size (usually around 2,000 employees), it’s
fairly mechanistic. An organization’s technology can affect its structure. An organic structure
is most effective with unit production and process production technology. A mechanistic
structure is most effective with mass production technology. The more uncertain an
organization’s environment, the more it needs the flexibility of an organic design.

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6-7 With the availability of advanced information technology that allows an organization’s
work to be done anywhere at any time, is organizing still an important managerial
function? Why or why not?
Answer: Although an organization’s work may be done anywhere at any time, organizing
remains a vital managerial function because the work that must be accomplished still must be
divided, grouped, and coordinated. Regardless of where employees work, there are basic
managerial functions that must be served, such as scheduling of work, setting goals, and
maintaining employee morale.
6-8 Researchers are now saying that efforts to simplify work tasks actually have negative
results for both companies and their employees. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Answer: Student responses may vary based on their respective opinion. Simplifying tasks
may result in monotony and boredom, even turnover. The 21st century workforce is smarter,
more independent, better educated and more trustworthy employees, so they will demand
more challenging work. They will work with more individual authority and less direct
supervision.
6-9 The boundaryless organization has the potential to create a major shift in the way we
work. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Explain.
Answer: Students’ responses to this will vary with most students focusing on the topics of
flexibility at work. Some organizations that adopt a boundaryless design also implement
flextime and flexplace work arrangements for their employees. This question could serve as
an interesting springboard for a class debate. Students could break into teams, with each team
taking the opposite position in the debate. Give students an opportunity to discuss their
strategy as a team before presenting their viewpoints to the class.
6-10 Draw an organization chart of an organization with which you’re familiar (where
you work, a student organization to which you belong, your college or university, etc.).
Be very careful in showing the departments (or groups) and especially be careful to get
the chain of command correct. Be prepared to share your chart with the class.
Answer: Student answers will depend on the organization that they choose.
Management Skill Builder: Increasing Your Power
One of the more difficult aspects of power is acquiring it. For managers, the more power they
have the more effective they are at influencing others. What can one do to develop power? In this
section students will learn about their power orientation in relation to Machiavellianism.
Students will also practice skills based on French and Raven’s Five Bases of power.
Teaching Tips:
Personal Insights
When most people hear the name Machiavelli they automatically associate it with
something negative. The Machiavellianism personality inventory is much the same way.
High-Machs are described as likely to manipulate more, win more, are persuaded less,

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and persuade others more than do low-Machs. But historians emphasize that several of
Machiavelli’s ideas on leadership have been taken out of context, such as “it is better to
be feared, than loved.” When discussing this assessment with students ask if some of
these traits are necessary for management. Take for example, question 8, “There is no
excuse for lying to someone else.” Discuss with students if it is acceptable for managers
to not disclose the entire truth in certain situations.
Skill Basics
This section reviews seven sources of power.
• Coercive
• Reward
• Authority
• Information
• Expert
• Reward
• Charismatic
Skill Application
Margaret, like most employees, engaged in impression management to strengthen her
position and power base in the organization. By volunteering to undertake the project, she
is putting herself out in front of other employees in the hopes that this will give her added
leverage in the future. According to the case, Margaret has also increased her expert
power by becoming knowledgeable and taking addition training in areas important to the
organization. Is there anything she should have done differently? Most students will point
out that blaming the delay on someone else was not ethical (if it didn’t happen).
However, this is a common tactic in impression management so that employees will not
lose face. Be prepared for students to complain that there isn’t enough information
regarding how she built a power base to evaluate her skill. Brainstorm with students what
things she should do, specifically in this type of business, to build a power base.
Skill Practice
6-20 What can you do to improve your Mach score? Create a specific one-year plan to
implement a program that will lead to an improved score.
6-21 Identify someone—a boss, coworker, friend, parent, sibling, significant other—
with whom you would like to increase your power. Determine what tactic(s) might work,
then cautiously practice your tactic(s).
Experiential Exercise
Ontario Electronics Ltd.
To: Claude Fortier, Special Assistant to the President
From: Ian Campbell, President
Subject: Learning Organizations
It is important for organizations to be responsive to customer and marketplace needs. One of the

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approaches discussed is becoming a learning organization. Recent information convinced him
that his company’s future may well depend on how well we’re able to “learn.”
Ian would like you to find some current information on learning organizations.
Teaching Tip: There are two good books that I would suggest for student:
1. Senge, P.M. 1990. The Fifth Discipline. London: Century Business
2. Argyris, C. 1999. On Organizational Learning. 2nd Ed. Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing
Students should also be encouraged to use their library’s on-line database to search
articles for the learning organization. Students may find summaries of Senge’s ideas on
some internet sites of companies that specialize in organizational development
Case Application 1: A New Kind of Structure
Discussion Questions
6-22 Describe and evaluate what Pfizer is doing with its PfizerWorks.
Pfizer has outsourced menial tasks to another company allowing employees to focus on
the most important parts of their job. According to the case this seems to be working
great and Pfizer employees are pleased with the outcomes.
6-23 What structural implications – good and bad – does this approach have? (Think
in terms of the six organizational design elements.)
Work specialization – the case clearly shows how the outsourcing of menial tasks is
allowing employees to focus more on the specific jobs they were hired to do that they
have expertise in rather than spending time on less important tasks.
Departmentalization – Does not really apply here.
Authority and responsibility – Authority does not seem to be altered in this case but the
responsibilities or each employee may be different now since they can shift some of the
work-load to the outsourcing firm.
Span of control – this may different because manager may be able to widen their span of
control with since they may have more time to focus on the support/management aspects
of their jobs as opposed to spending that time competing reports, etc.
Centralization/decentralization – the case seems to demonstrate some decentralization
where individual employees make decisions about what work they want to outsource or
not.
Formalization – The case describes evidence of low formalization because employees can
chose what work to outsource so they have more control of how and when work gets
done.
6-24 Do you think this arrangement would work for other types of organizations? Why
or why not? What types of organizations might it also work for?

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content

MY RÔLE AS A CONSPIRATOR
Baron von Ringheim did not observe my profound consternation at
hearing that he had a bomb in his possession, and he appeared to
regard it only as a useful thing to carry about in a dressing-bag. He
was indeed engrossed by his own shrewdness in keeping it by him
so as to prevent its use at the wrong moment.
I believe that he interpreted my dismay rather as a tribute to his
admirable caution. That I should object to have such a thing in my
house did not occur to him.
For some moments I was at a loss what line to take. Of course I
had to get possession of the bomb at any cost. If he were arrested
and it were to be found there, we should all find ourselves in prison
and called on to face a charge involving heavy punishment.
"I have done you an injustice, Baron," I said, changing my tone
for one of profound admiration. "You are a wonderful leader."
He accepted this with something of a return to his former
dignified bearing. "You have greatly wronged me, Herr Bastable," he
said with dignity.
I played up to this at once. "For the future you will have no
more devoted follower than myself. I crave your pardon for my
bluntness; but you shall know the truth. I was told that you had
ceased to lead the movement, and it was essential that I should
satisfy myself. My life is at stake in this cause. But I shall doubt no
more."
"Then you are with us?"
"With you, Baron, heart and soul. I raised my voice against it all
at the time; I protested against the shame of doubting you; I used

every means in my power to convince the others. But all was in vain.
They insisted; and I was but one against all the rest."
He was as much bewildered at this as I had intended. "I don't
understand," he said.
I replied with a passionate harangue against the wickedness of
any attempt to undermine his authority, and talked until his poor
half-crazed wits were in a whirl of perplexity. Then with dramatic
earnestness I cried: "You have been shamefully betrayed and
deceived."
"What do you mean?" he stammered.
"That," I exclaimed indignantly, pointing at the bag. "But I will
see that all is made right. The bomb you have there is a sham, a
fraud, a trick. The real one is in the hands of those who mean to use
it when and how they please. Your counsels of humanity have been
set at naught, and the lives of hundreds are in peril."
"It is impossible," he protested weakly.
"Show it to me and I will prove my words; aye, and do more
than that. I will see that the real one is placed in your possession."
The look he cast at me was almost piteous in its appealing
trustfulness; and after a second's pause, he unfastened the bag, and
with fingers which trembled so violently that I feared he would drop
it, he handed me the bomb.
That I took it with intense relief may well be imagined, and I
handled it with the utmost caution and no little dread. Whether it
was really the terrible engine of destruction that he believed, I did
not know; but with an assumption of confidence I was very far from
feeling, I pointed to some mark on it. "I knew it," I cried. "See that.

The proof of the betrayal; shame! shame!" and with that I slipped it
into a large inner pocket of my jacket.
"What are you going to do?" he asked as I turned to the door.
"I am on fire until this has been righted. When I return I shall
have something to tell you. From this moment you, and you only,
are my leader."
He was going to protest, but I gave him no time. My one
thought was to get rid of the thing at once. But how to do so
perplexed me sorely.
I was consumedly uncomfortable and intensely scared. I felt
that my life was in danger every second the confounded thing was in
my possession. Every time it moved ever so slightly as I walked I
feared that it would explode, and I drew my first deep breath of
relief the instant I was out of the house.
But the streets had even more potential terrors. When any one
approached me on the side where I was carrying it, I was afraid they
would knock against it and blow me and half Berlin with me into
eternity.
Every policeman I met was an object of dread; and when one
turned to gaze after me, I jumped to the conclusion that he knew
what I was carrying and was about to arrest me.
I left the house with no definite purpose or plan for getting rid
of it, and I walked on at first aimlessly, wondering vaguely whether I
should hide it or bury it somewhere without being observed.
With this thought I made for the Thiergarten, and I had reached
the west end of Unter den Linden when it occurred to me that the
best and simplest course would be to drop it over the Marschall
Bridge into the river.

I walked down North Wilhelmsstrasse with much the sort of
feeling a thief might have who had the proceeds of his theft upon
him and knew that the police were close on his track. Every
harmless citizen I met became a detective, told off especially to
watch me; and when I reached the bridge and loitered along, gazing
enviously at the water below and waiting for a chance to drop the
thing over unseen, I was convinced that everybody there could tell
from my manner that I was intent upon the commission of some ill
deed and had slackened their pace to watch me.
My fingers trembled so violently as I held it in readiness that I
wonder I did not drop it on the pavement; and when a chance did
come at last, and I was alone close to the middle of the bridge and
took it out of my pocket, glancing furtively all round me the while,
the perspiration stood in great beads on my forehead.
At the last moment even I had a horrible and almost paralysing
fear that when dropped from such a height it might be exploded by
contact with the water; and when at last I did succeed in letting it
go, I watched its fall with bated breath and a sort of dread that the
end of all things for me was at hand.
But it disappeared from sight and nothing happened, and I drew
one deep, deep breath of fierce exultant joy, and then leaned
against the parapet with the helpless inertness of a drunken man.
It was some time before I could rally myself sufficiently to set
about finding something which I could take back with me to the
Baron as the real bomb. How to manage this puzzled me not a little.
I searched the shop windows for some kind of hollow metal
ball; my intention being to fill it with shot and other things so as to
be of about the same weight as the thing I had thrown into the river.

I hunted in vain for this until a man in an ironmonger's shop
suggested a ball-cock.
I had invented a little story about wanting it for some private
theatricals. He was an ingenious fellow and became quite interested
in helping me. He hunted up one of the size I wished, filed off the
long handle, drilled a hole and stuffed in some cotton waste and
enough shot to give it the required weight, and succeeded in making
up a very passable counterfeit of an actual bomb.
At a gunsmith's I bought some blank revolver cartridges for the
Baron's revolver, in case he should object to hand that over to me;
and thus prepared I turned homewards very much easier in mind.
Close to the house I met Herr Feldermann, and he stopped me.
"I have just come from your house, Herr Bastable--about the Ziegler
murder, you know."
"Have you found the men, then?" I asked as unconcernedly as I
could.
"Not yet; but of course we shall find them. We have such a
close description."
"I shall certainly know them again."
"There is a somewhat curious thing about it," he said slowly,
and then with a sudden penetrating glance: "Have you ever seen the
Baron von Ringheim?"
There was nothing for it but a lie, so I lied. "No. You don't mean
that he has anything to do with this?"
"Dormund swears that your description fits him like a glove."
I managed to smile. "Isn't the Baron something of a red rag to
Dormund? He gave me that impression that day at the station."

"There's something in that, perhaps. But he's a very shrewd
fellow. You don't think there's anything in the idea, then?"
"My dear Feldermann, how on earth should I know? If I had
seen him I could tell in a second."
"His daughter is with your sister; do you happen to know if the
father is really in Berlin?"
"I can ask her if you like."
"Of course if you find out anything about his movements you'll
tell us?"
"Of course. It would make a rattling good newspaper story,
wouldn't it? By the way, I suppose you'll want my evidence. Don't
bother me unless it's necessary."
"I came to tell you that we shall not have to trouble you yet,
and perhaps not at all if you can help us in the way I've suggested.
And I think you'll be able to, if you wish."
With this uncomfortably suggestive hint he left me.
Did he know already that the Baron was with me? One never
could get to the bottom of his thoughts. If he did know anything,
why had he not arrested the man whom the description appeared to
fit so exactly?
Ah well, it was no use to seek trouble. Plenty of complications
were coming my way unsought. I was fast getting into the mood of
a fatalist. If everything was destined to go smash, smash it would
go; and nothing I could do could prevent it.
As soon as I reached home I had a long interview with the
Baron. It was very much of a burlesque. I made up a story about the
manner in which I had secured the deadly bomb which I placed in
his hands; succeeded in substituting blank cartridges for those in his

weapon; and, what was of even more importance, got from him the
particulars of the contemplated destruction of the war-ship.
This was after I had thoroughly convinced him that I was heart
and hand in the cause of which he believed himself to be the leader,
and had told him that Althea should be taken fully into our
confidence.
I saw her alone first, however, and gave her an account of all
that had passed. She was deeply moved by the story.
"They are merely making a tool of him, Mr. Bastable; and they
must have given him that awful thing because they were afraid of
the results to themselves should it be discovered in their possession.
My poor father!"
"If you will take the line I have already taken with him, I think it
may be possible to stop any further mischief at least," I said. "But he
must be made to feel that unless he trusts to me he can do nothing.
Then we can see about getting him away from the city."
"But the danger to you. We have no right to place you in such a
position. I intended to take him away somewhere to-day."
"Bessie told me something about that. But it is impracticable.
You had better remain here. You forget that you promised Herr
Feldermann to let him know wherever you were," I reminded her.
"What can we do then?"
"I am still confident that all will come right if we can only get
time enough. And time we must have at any risk and cost."
"There is always one way open," she said hesitatingly. "At least
I presume so. Do you think if I were to agree to do what Herr von
Felsen requires, that he could still obtain my father's pardon?"
"Would you do it, if I did think so?"

"What else can I do?" she cried distractedly.
"For one thing--keep a stout heart and have patience. I do not
pretend that your father's arrival here and his visit to the Jew's
house has not seriously complicated matters; but you may still have
a little grain of trust in me."
"As if I had not! But the thought of the danger you are----" She
broke off as if she had been about to say something that might have
been embarrassing. "Of course I trust you," she added after the
pause.
"That is all I ask--at present, at all events, until that last
resource you spoke of need no longer be contemplated. And now, let
us have this talk with your father."
She put out her hand impulsively, and as I pressed it our eyes
met. No other word was spoken, but I think she understood much of
what I should have said had not my lips been sealed.
The interview with the Baron was a curious mixture of pathos
and burlesque. The pain which I could see Althea was suffering cut
me to the quick, and I sought to shorten the conversation as much
as possible. But her father was so full of his own importance, so
talkative about his wrongs, so insistent upon my complete obedience
to his orders, so obviously unable to take a rational view of any part
of the subject, and so incapable of understanding the risks and
dangers of the position, that it was a long time before we could
drive it home upon him that the only hope of success lay in his
leaving everything to me.
"But your very presence in Berlin is a danger," said Althea more
than once when we were attempting to persuade him to leave the
city.

"No one knows of it, child. And I have not done anything if they
did. Beside, would you have me, the leader of the whole movement,
shirk the danger now that the hour has come?"
"It may get to be known that you were at Herr Ziegler's house
last night."
"I went to prevent violence, child. That is surely no crime."
"And you are placing Herr Bastable in danger by remaining
here."
"Is it not his duty to run risks in the cause? Is he to be the only
man to venture nothing for our country? Danger, indeed," he cried
indignantly. "Have we not all suffered? What of my own sufferings?"
and he was off again on his favourite topic when I interrupted him.
"Have you any commands in regard to the forthcoming attack?"
"Ah, that will be a stroke; and it is my own conception"; and as
the wind will turn a straw, he went off to the fresh subject and
spoke at length about it.
It appeared that a new cruiser, the Wundervoll, had just been
launched; and the intention was to wreck her as she lay waiting to
be taken to be fitted up. The bomb which, thank Heaven, lay at the
bottom of the Spree was to do the mischief, and the exact details of
the plan as to time and means were to be discussed and settled at a
forthcoming meeting of some of the more reckless men of the party.
A very little ingenuity succeeded in extracting from him the
place of the meeting--a house on the riverside which had been taken
by them, ostensibly for some business purposes. But the time of the
meeting he did not appear to know.
"I shall learn that in due course. They cannot move without me;
for I trust no one but myself with the means. But it will not be yet

for some days."
"Do you mean then, father, that some one else knows you are
here?" asked Althea in a tone of alarm, with a glance in my
direction.
"Could I lead them without their being able to communicate
with me? You are foolish, Althea. Did they not prepare this shelter
for me?"
"Oh, it is terrible," she murmured with a deep sigh.
"It will be glorious, you should say rather, child," he replied, with
a wild look in his eyes. "The greatest blow which we have yet been
able to strike at the oppressors of our country!"
"I will go and see what is doing," I put in as I rose. "I will report
to you the results of my inquiries, and you will of course do nothing
without first hearing them, and without my aid. You would not rob
me of my share in the coming victory?"
"Bring me word instantly," he said in a tone of sharp command.
"And I wish to see Sudermann and Bolinsk to consult with them. See
them and bring them here to me at once."
"It would not be safe for them to be seen coming here. My
house is too well known for them to take such a risk."
"See them then and tell them---- Wait, I will write you a letter."
He turned aside and wrote rapidly, and in the meantime Althea
looked at me with an expression of such pain and concern that I was
almost ashamed of the deception I was practising.
"Here is the note. 'The bearer, Herr Bastable, has my fullest
confidence and knows my wishes. Consult with him freely.' That will
satisfy them, if they should have any doubt about speaking frankly
to you."

"Oh, but they will not," I answered confidently; and with that I
left the room.
As I went downstairs I was about to tear up the letter, when it
occurred to me as a possibility that it might be of use in any future
case of emergency, so I put it carefully away.
Then I set to work to think out some means of inducing the
Baron to leave Berlin, by using my supposed influence in the party. If
I could tell him a plausible story to the effect that the attempt had
had to be postponed for a few weeks and that the authorities had
got wind of it, he might go. And for Althea's sake, as well as for our
own, I was intensely anxious to get him away.
As I sat planning this a letter was brought to me from Herr
Borsen.
"MY DEAR BASTABLE,--
"Can you come and see me? I understand that you have
another visitor in your house, and it is about that I should like a few
words with you. I wish to be able to contradict a strange report
which has reached me concerning him; since, if uncontradictcd, it
might be a somewhat serious matter for you. Any time to-morrow
will do, but not later.
"Yours as ever."
If I had been wishful for the Baron to go before, the letter turned
the wish into a strenuous anxiety.
It looked very much like the beginning of the end.

CHAPTER XVII
"W. MISCHEN'S" WAREHOUSE
When I read Borsen's letter through the second time, I thought I
could detect a little more in it than appeared on the surface. "Any
time to-morrow will do, but not later," he wrote; and he had dated
his note "midday."
I judged therefore that he was really stretching a point in order
to give me time to get my visitor away, and so be able to "contradict
the report." There was plenty of time for him to have seen me that
afternoon: the obvious course in the case of a matter so really
serious. But he had given me the interval to afford me the time to
free myself from suspicion.
He was a very good fellow, and had at one time been very
friendly with me; but there was something besides friendship behind
his present step. I had convinced him in Chalice's matter that I was
likely to succeed as well with Althea; and being a negotiator with a
preference for the path of least resistance, he preferred that I should
have the time to pull that chestnut out of the fire for him rather than
that he should have to do it himself.
There was a still further reason. The presence of Baron von
Ringheim in Berlin was likely to be more than a little embarrassing to
Count von Felsen's scheme for his son. They knew perfectly well that
he would only venture to come to the capital for some such purpose
as that which had actually brought him; and if he were to be taken
at such a juncture and under such suspicious circumstances, the
Kaiser's promise of a pardon was pretty sure to be withdrawn.

Borsen was thus turning the screw on me to force me to take
the steps which they greatly desired and could not take for
themselves.
I determined to put this to the test at once, therefore, with a
little bluff, I scribbled a hasty line to the effect that I could go round
immediately, if he wished; but that on the following day I should
probably be going on a journey with a friend.
I intended him to infer that I should be taking the Baron out of
the city. He read the letter in that light; and sent back word that he
was going away at once, and that under the circumstances the next
day but one would do well enough for the purpose.
I had a respite of twenty-four hours. I told Althea what had
passed, and that I could not possibly face Borsen unless in the
meanwhile we could prevail upon her father to leave the city, and I
described my rough idea of getting him away by a fairy-tale about
the discovery of the plot.
Partly with the object of being able to give colour to the story,
and partly out of a desire to ascertain something more about the
doings of the Baron's associates, I went down to the riverside to
have a look at their headquarters.
I was extremely anxious about his account of the intended
attempt to wreck the Wundervoll, and resolved of course to prevent
it. The whole Empire was in one of those flushes of feeling about the
navy which the Emperor's policy had created; and I knew that such
an outrage would incense the authorities, and that the punishment
meted out would be in proportion to their wrath.
Directly or indirectly, some of that demand for vengeance would
fall on Althea as well as on myself--if it became generally known that

I had sheltered one of the chief perpetrators--and I had to find the
means of secretly preventing so disastrous a result.
The riverside premises looked harmless enough. The name, "W.
Mischen," had been newly painted up, and a suggestion that a corn
business was being carried on there was evidenced by some sacks of
grain.
The office was open, and I could see one man inside, lounging
idly at a desk, obviously with nothing to do. But the moment he
heard my step and caught sight of me, he began to work on a big
ledger with over-acted activity.
I resolved to risk going in. The adjoining premises were to let,
so I used that as an excuse and asked him if he could tell me
anything about them. A very few questions convinced me that he
was a Berliner who had probably been engaged as a clerk to give a
cover to the fictitious business.
Under the pretext of a desire to see whether the water front
would suit my purposes--I was a wharfinger for the moment--I got
him to show me over the premises. I found, of course, that the place
would not suit me.
"Some one appears to be very busy over there," I said, pointing
a little way down the river where a number of men in boats were at
work.
"They are dockyard men laying down moorings. They have all
but finished now. I believe the Wundervoll is to be moored there for
a while. Have you seen her? A splendid ship she'll be when she's
fitted. I am a big navy man. We shall never be safe until we have a
fleet as big as England's."

"It will come in time," I replied; and we went inside again. I saw
the reason for the wharf now; and wondered how they had
succeeded in getting wind of the Government's intention so early.
"I am really very much obliged to you," I said as we stood again
in the office. "You seem rather short-handed too, so I mustn't take
up your time."
"Oh, I haven't much to do yet. The firm is only just starting
here. This is to be only the Berlin branch; the business is at
Hamburg, you know. I wish I had more to do; but of course it takes
a lot of time to get things going."
I thanked him again and left. I was well repaid for the visit. The
scheme had been shrewdly planned. When the vessel lay within so
short a distance of the wharf, the attack would be comparatively
easy, and success quite attainable. A bomb with a time fuse attached
could easily be thrown on board her.
How could I prevent it? That was the rub. I went up to the
Press Club thinking this out.
If I could have been certain that the bomb which I had thrown
into the river was really that which was to be used, I should almost
have been willing to let the matter rest where it was, for I had
already prevented disaster.
But a little further consideration almost made my flesh creep.
The bomb I had given the Baron would do no harm to the vessel,
but it might very well blow me into prison. It would be found, of
course; inquiries would follow, and the obliging young man who had
made it for me, "for private theatricals," would give a description of
me and an account of the transaction which I should be unable to
explain away; while the agreeable fellow at the wharf would be able

to tell how I had gone down to "inquire about the untenanted
premises."
That wouldn't do; so with a curse at the Baron and all his
works--except paternity of Althea--I turned to think of some other
plan.
There was only one way. I must get such information to the
authorities as would induce them to choose some other moorings for
the warship. And I must do it at once.
My old press connexions must find the means. There were
plenty of German newspaper men who would have given their ears
for such a story as I could tell them; but I could not trust them to
hold their tongues as to the source of the information. And that was
of course essential.
The story must come from London, or better, from Paris; and
the only man I dared to trust in the matter was Bassett--the
correspondent who had taken my place. I telephoned him to come
to me at the club, and when he arrived I told him as much of the
case as was necessary.
I explained that I had stumbled on the information by chance,
but in a manner which rendered it impossible for my name to be
mentioned. He was anxious enough to get a "scoop," and readily
promised to keep my connexion absolutely secret. Together we drew
up such a paragraph as would set the ball rolling, and he agreed to
warn the naval authorities in his own name that the object of attack
was the Wundervoll, and that her safety depended upon her not
being taken to the proposed moorings.
It was a common enough thing for newspaper men to get hold
of information a long way ahead of the authorities, and for the

sources of it to be kept secret.
"I'll hold my tongue about you, of course," he said as we were
parting. "And I'm awfully obliged to you. It's just what I want, as a
matter of fact. The navy people here have been awfully close with
me and standoffish, and this will put matters on just the footing I
need."
I went home in a well satisfied mood. One of the many tangles
was unravelled. There would be no outrage of any sort; and for my
own protection I must get that bogus bomb back into my own hands
as soon as possible. That was almost as essential as getting the
Baron away.
But I found trouble waiting for me at home. The Baron had
gone to bed ill, and Althea was at her wits-end to know whether she
dared call in a doctor. I went up with her to his room, and found him
apparently very bad indeed. He looked very ill, and had been
complaining of intense pain.
To move him was clearly impossible, even if he had been willing
to go away.
"For his own sake we must do without a doctor if we can," I told
her.
"I thought he was going to die a little time ago, but he appears
to be easier now. I did not know what to do for the best," she
replied as she bent over him and smoothed his pillows and kissed
him.
"After Borsen's letter I meant to get him to leave the city. Every
hour after to-morrow will be one of danger for him."
Unfortunately he heard this, and between his gasps and groans
of pain he abused me for a traitor and ordered me out of the room. I

did not pay any heed at first, but it soon became evident that my
presence excited him so much that Althea begged me to go.
His illness was checkmate so far as getting him out of the house
for the present was concerned; and as that was all important, I
deemed it best to take the additional risk of having a doctor to get
him well enough to travel.
While I was still considering this, Althea came down, and I told
her.
"Not yet," she said decidedly. "I think he is better again. He
raved almost deliriously after you had left the room; that you and all
of us in fact were bent upon betraying the cause, and that if any
attempt were made to get him out of the city he would---- Oh, he
talked most wildly. What can we do, Mr. Bastable? I am so grieved
that I have brought all this on you."
"I told you before that we would not go out to look for trouble.
After all, it may end in nothing serious. We have all to-morrow; and
it will be quite time enough if he goes then."
"You try to make so light of it, but----" She broke off and threw
up her hands.
"We shall have plenty of time to worry when the need comes, if
it is to come," I answered with a smile. "You will be ill yourself if you
are not more careful."
"The excitement has worn him out so that he is sleeping a little
now," she said. "I dare not leave him for long; but I felt I must come
down to you for a minute."
"It may be the beginning of an improvement. Of course there is
one way in which we might venture to move him."
"How?"

"A sleeping draught, and take him away as an invalid."
But she shook her head vigorously at the suggestion.
"I dare not. His heart is so weak, he might die under it."
"That closes that door then"; and I endeavoured to make her
feel that I refused to take things too seriously.
There was a slight pause during which she glanced at me twice
nervously and said hesitatingly: "There is another way if you will
take it."
"Not the last resource, yet. It has not come to that by a long
way."
"No. I--I mean--you ought to think of Bessie. I wish that. You
must."
"Do you mean she should go away? I am afraid she would not
care to go. I wish she would."
"But you--you might take her."
"Althea!" The Christian name slipped from me unwittingly in my
quick protest against the suggestion that I should desert her. I
stopped in confusion, and the colour rushed to her face. We were
both embarrassed by the blunder.
Presently she raised her eyes to mine. "Please do it. I wish it,"
she urged in a low, intensely earnest tone.
"Do you believe it possible?"
"If you care at all for what I say or wish, you will do it."
"Then I am afraid we must take it that I do not," I answered,
smiling.
"But if Bessie were only safely away, I should not mind so
much."

"She is not in any serious danger. They would not do anything
to her."
"You know what I mean," she cried quickly. "Why force me to
say it? I cannot bear the thought of bringing you into this danger.
The fear of what may happen haunts me every moment, day and
night. You must go."
"You are letting your fears exaggerate the danger. I cannot go."
"You must. I insist." Quite vehemently uttered, this.
"Don't force me to the discourtesy of a flat refusal."
Her earnestness was only magnified. "You shall go. I am quite
determined. You shall go or----" Her eyes were flashing and her
features set with resolve.
"I am just as determined as you."
She paused and then said very deliberately, but with lips that
quivered: "If you do not, I shall go to Herr von Felsen and accept his
terms. I will not accept the sacrifice which you are intent on making
for me."
There was a pause while we looked one at the other, every line
of her lovely face eloquent of her purpose; and before I could reply,
we were face to face with another crisis that drove everything else
out of our thoughts for the moment.
Believing that I was alone, Ellen opened the door and
announced Herr Dormund.
I had just time to whisper to Althea, "You had better be Bessie,
remember," when he came in bristling with importance. He paused
on seeing that I was not alone, and I went forward and offered him
my hand. "Come in, Herr Dormund. It is only my sister. Then you'll

see to that for me, Bessie; and don't let me have to bother again
about it."
Dormund had bowed when I referred to her and then turned to
me with a very significant look. "I have not yet had the pleasure of
being presented to--your sister."
"I clean forgot. Pardon. Bessie, Herr Dormund. You have often
heard me speak of him."
She was close to the door and turned to give him a gracious
bow. Would he let her go? I watched him very anxiously.
"I have had the pleasure of meeting you once before, Fräulein--
at the station a day or two ago," he said. "I am delighted to see you
again."
She was at a loss for a reply, so I cut in: "Run and see to that at
once, Bess; and then perhaps when Herr Dormund has finished his
business you can return."
He did let her go; so I gathered that Feldermann had passed on
to him the instructions from Borsen.
And very fortunate it was. For just as the door closed behind
her, I heard Bessie's voice calling loudly and with some alarm:
"Althea! Althea!" followed by the voices of the two as they met.
"Then you have two sisters, Herr Bastable?" said Dormund very
drily as he turned with a very meaning look. "It is a coincidence that
the name of one of them should be Althea."
"'Tis odd, isn't it?" and forcing a smile, as though it was a
coincidence and nothing more, I motioned him to a chair, sat down,
and pushed the cigar-box across to him.
It should be his move first at any rate.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE LUCK TURNS
My assumption of indifference appealed to what little sense of
humour the German police routine training had allowed Dormund to
retain, for he burst into a quite human laugh as he lighted a cigar.
"Need we pretend any longer, Herr Bastable?" he asked.
"Not unless you like," I replied, as grave as a judge. "But what
about?"
"The very charming young lady who has just left us."
"Bessie? My sister, I mean," I said, as if genuinely perplexed.
He waved his hand impatiently. "Ah, her name is von Ringheim.
We know that."
I clapped my hands to the arms of my chair and started forward
as if intensely surprised. "Do you mean that my sister has got
married without my knowledge? For Heaven's sake, what are you
saying?"
He gave me a dry look. "You are overdoing it, Herr Bastable. I
mean that the lady who has just gone out is Fräulein Korper,
otherwise von Ringheim. Is that clear?"
"Oh," I said with a sigh of relief. "Is that all? Then why the devil
didn't you arrest her?"
The blunt question drew another laugh out of him. "I need not
tell you, for you know. So long as we are certain where to find her---
- But Herr Feldermann told you. I have not come on her affairs,
however; nor to refer to what happened the other day at the
station."

"I am always delighted to see you--provided of course you don't
come to arrest me."
"I trust I shall never have to do that, but you will do well to be
cautious in your hospitality."
"Not with you, I hope," I laughed. "At all events unofficially."
"I am here unofficially now, and will go so far as to warn you
that an official visit from one of us has been very seriously
considered. Berlin, and indeed the whole of Germany, is considered
very unhealthy for some foreigners at this season, you know."
"I appreciate your friendship, Dormund; but I shan't bolt. I shall
be found here whenever I'm wanted. I shall stick it out."
"It is more serious than you think perhaps; but it is of course for
you to decide. Well, now, I have come to-day to act the part of a
mutual friend, Heir Bastable; from Lieutenant von Bernhoff. He feels
very deeply the breach that has occurred."
"I think I would rather you did not say any more about that," I
broke in.
"Bear with me a moment. He is devotedly attached to your
sister and he has a genuine regard for you yourself; he has
empowered me to offer you an unqualified apology for what passed
when he was last here, and to assure you that you placed quite the
wrong interpretation on what he said. He is very unhappy."
"Do you know what passed?"
"It was very unfortunate," he replied with a gesture of regret.
"But remember, please, the feelings of a man who sees himself
about to lose what he prizes more than anything else on earth. A
man in love, you know!"
"But my sister does not return his regard."

Fundamentals of Management Essential Concepts and Applications 14th Edition Robbins Solutions Manual

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