Week 8 · Readings & resources

Week 8 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Business Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 8 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 58–68 minutes for everything. Each group links back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (20–22 min total)

① Drawing the organization chart

Chapter 8, Section “Draw the chart: one cart becomes two” · Session 2, Segment 8, “Count the lines into one box, not the boxes on the page” · Remember: span of control counts only the people who report directly to one manager, never everyone in the business.

Organisational Structures Explained — Two Teachers — a classroom explainer that draws three kinds of organization chart and walks through who reports to whom; watch the hierarchical and flat parts closely and treat the matrix part as extra beyond this week. (video, 8 min) (captions: creator)
Chain of command and span of control - Business Studies — Business Partner — a short animated lesson on the line of authority from the top of a chart down and on how many people one manager supervises; as you watch, count the coffee cart owner's direct reports at two carts. Later it calls fewer people under one manager a shorter chain; in this course that is a narrower span of control, while the chain of command is the line of authority from the top down, so keep the two apart. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
IB Business Review: Unit 2.2 Organizational Structure, Part 1 — IB Business Fast Review — a teacher's quick review of what an organization chart shows, its levels, span of control, chain of command, and delegation, then centralization against decentralization; watch through the centralization part, and treat its notes on bureaucracy, delayering, and the matrix structure as extra beyond this week. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)
Span of control — Wikipedia — the free encyclopedia's article on the number of people who report directly to one supervisor; read the opening and the part on what makes a span wider or narrower, and skip the theory history. Use it with the checkpoint in the Week-8 module overview. (reading, 5–7 min)
Organizational chart — Wikipedia — the encyclopedia's article on the diagram itself, with its boxes and the lines that show who reports to whom; read the overview and the limitations, and skip the history. This builds on Week 3's work with the business plan, whose organization-and-management section is where a chart like this one belongs. (reading, 3–5 min)

② Deciding who decides, and how tall

Chapter 8, Section “Decide where decisions sit and how tall the chart is” · Session 2, Segment 9, “Flat is not leaderless; handed down is not let go” · Remember: centralization keeps big decisions at the top, decentralization hands some down, and a flat chart still has a manager.

IB Business Review: Unit 2.2 Organizational Structure, Part 2 — IB Business Fast Review — the same series' review of flat and tall structures, where a wide span of control goes with few levels and a narrow span with many; watch the flat-and-tall opening, note that a flat chart still has managers, each with a wide span, and treat the product, regional, project-based, and shamrock structures as extra. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
Centralization vs Decentralization — Key Differences — a longer explainer that works an example of each arrangement and ends with a side-by-side comparison; check its comparison against the chapter's two definitions. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)
3.6 13 Tall vs Flat organisational structures — Mr Evans Business — a business teacher's walk-through of the pros and cons of tall and flat structures; listen for how levels and span of control trade off against each other. (video, 10 min) (captions: automatic)
Hierarchical organisational structure — nibusinessinfo.co.uk — a regional government business service's page on a structure with several levels of authority, a clear chain of command, and a tall, pyramid shape; read how it works and its advantages and disadvantages. (reading, 4–6 min)
Decentralised organisational structure — nibusinessinfo.co.uk — the same service's page on sharing decision-making across levels while the hierarchy remains; read how decentralization works and when it suits a business with more than one location, like a second cart. (reading, 4–6 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Plan your business: common traditional business plan sections — U.S. Small Business Administration — the federal small-business agency's guide, which this course returns to; read the organization-and-management section, which asks for an organizational chart, and skip the other plan sections. (reading, 3–5 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com