Appendix AThe Organization Exercise

 

This exercise is designed to allow participants to experience the effects of different tasks on organization structure.

METHOD

The instructor should assign participants to groups of 3 to 7 people and have each group select a leader. The leaders are then asked to have their groups perform two different tasks, and the results are posted on a chalk-board or flipchart.

The first task is to add up a page full of random numbers and produce a total. (See Exhibit 1. The correct answer is 161,280.) The instructor should make it clear that group leaders are free to go about this assignment any way they choose and that they are competing against the other groups to obtain a reasonably close answer in the shortest time ...

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