Contents
1. Discuss the Organizational structure as illustrated in the movie by referring to the Antz Colony structure and the Insectopia structure. 2 The Antz Colony 2 What type of structure does the Antz colony have and what are the positive/negative effects of such a structure? 3 Insectopia 4 What type of structure does Insectopia have and what are the positive/negative effects of such a structure? 4
2. Discuss the job designs of the workers in the Antz movie and indicate the implications of the job designs on the motivation of the workers. 5 Job design elements defined 5 Job design elements in the Antz colony 5 How can job satisfaction among the ants be improved? 6 Job redesign 6 Alternative work arrangements 7
There are only two known leaders in the Ants colony, which are General Mandible, who is the manager of the soldier ants and seems to be the overall second in charge after the Queen, and the Foreman who is the manager of the workers. The latter is the only one spoken to, when the workers fail to perform accordingly because the ball was dropped by Z. The Queen is the first in charge of the colony but only has the General who reports to her.
The Antz colony has a highly centralised structure, which means, “decision making is concentrated at a single point in an organization” [5] (Robbins & Judge, 2011). This becomes clear, when throughout the movie, most decisions are made by the General. He decides to send the army to war, he gives orders to make the workers dig and he has the decision to make a “pure colony” (Darnell & Johnson, 1998). All the ideas and decisions are run by the Queen and she has the final word. So decision making is mostly done by the General with the permission of the Queen.
The workers have a routine job; they dig each day. The soldiers also have a routine; they work out and fight each day. There is no variation about the different jobs, no one does two different tasks, and everybody does what they are appointed to do. “The jobs within this organisation are organised and standardised” [6] (Robbins & Judge, 2011), which means, the Antz colony is greatly formalised.
What type of structure does the Antz colony have and