CourseBM402

Week5 of 16

SemesterI

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This week’s topics

Organisational structures: hierarchic, bureaucratic, matrix and flat

Hierarchic structure
Bureaucratic structure
Matrix structure
Flat structure

What you will be able to do

2.3 Compare different organisational structures.

Study materials

Further resources

Introduction to Business 2e, ch. 7.1–7.2: Organisational structures · PDF · OpenStax (2026), functional, divisional, matrix structures and org charts; pp. 219–226 · for registered students
Principles of Management, ch. 4.3: Organisational designs and structures · PDF · OpenStax (2019); pp. 84–92 · for registered students
Principles of Management, ch. 10.1: Organisational structures and design · PDF · OpenStax (2019); pp. 272–277 · for registered students
BBC 6 Minute English: No more bosses (transcript) · PDF · BBC Learning English transcript (accessible) on companies without managers – flat structures · for registered students
The Flattening Firm: Evidence on the Changing Nature of Corporate Hierarchies · Open-access article · Rajan & Wulf (2006), Review of Economics and Statistics. Large firms cut management layers and widened spans of control: flat versus tall structures in practice. · for registered students

Materials marked “for registered students” open in the student portal, which is set up as soon as you receive final acceptance.

Week 4 Week 6

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Course plan

Week 1: Business sectors: primary, secondary, tertiary and quaterna…
Week 2: Types of business: profit, not for profit, NGOs, micro, SME…
Week 3: Legal structures: sole trader, partnership, limited company…
Week 4: Business functions and how they work together
Week 5: Organisational structures: hierarchic, bureaucratic, matrix…
Week 6: How functional relationships shape structure: charts, autho…
Week 7: The internal environment of a business and why it is import…
Week 8: Midterm evaluation
Week 9: Quantifying the internal environment with SWOT/TOWS
Week 10: Assessing the internal environment: capacity assessment gri…
Week 11: The external environment of a business and why it matters
Week 12: Measuring the external environment with PESTLE
Week 13: Competition: Porter's Five Forces and the Ansoff matrix
Week 14: Assessing a business’s external environment alongside its i…
Week 15: Review and coursework completion
Week 16: Final evaluation and project assessment

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