You Can Take That to the Bank (Scenario)
Changes in banking regulations, a series of loan defaults by dotcom customers and a decline inthe California real estate market have forced Western Bank, a large regional West Coast bank,to downsize in an effort to improve profitability and bolster its declining stock prices. Susan, aregional branch supervisor for the Sacramento district, has been tasked with preparing amanagement report concerning how these cuts are affecting bank operations and customerservice. Susan believes that the most important problem that has emerged concerns span ofcontrol and decision-making authority within the bank. In the past, bank policy indicated thatno manager should supervise more than six subordinates and only managers could makedecisions for their individual units. However, with many of the middle managers being laid-off,upper management has increased its span of control while still insisting on retaining control ondecision making at the unit level. The result is that upper managers spend all of their timeputting out fires and subordinates feel they are getting answers too slowly. Lower-levelemployees are requesting greater authority to make decisions on their own. However, they arenot as experienced at making decisions as upper-level managers. Susan believes that structuralchanges must be made to help Western Bank deal with the new situation effectively.

 33. Susan believes that Western Bank should be more adaptive and flexible. Which of the followingorganizational structures is she likely to prefer?
(A) centralized
(B) organic
(C) formalized
(D) mechanistic