Ch 1: An overview

Question 1

What´s the main features of an organization?

Answer 1

• Goals have to be set
• Key areas of responsibility to achieve these goals have to be identified
• Pressures from the environment have to be identified and responded to -> subsequent changes in the organization goals
• Culture of the organization is necessary

Question 2

A organization is a consciously managed and coordinated social entity with an identifiable boundary, which functions on a continuous basis to achieve a set of goals.
What does managed and coordinated mean?
What does social entity mean?
What does identifiable boundary mean?

Answer 2

• Managed and coordinated =involving management hierarchy in decision-making
• Social entity = people interacting with each other
• Identifiable boundary = distinguishing members from non-members

Question 3

Organizational structure - the degree of complexity, formalization and centralization in an organization.
Define complexity, formalization and centralization.

Answer 3

• Complexity means the extent of differentiation within the organization, includes the degree of specialization and division of labour
• Formalisation means the degree to which an organisation relies on rules and procedures to direct the behaviour of employees
• Centralization means where the responsibility for decision-making authority lies (centralized and decentralized)

Question 4

Define organization theory

Answer 4

The discipline that studies the structure and design of organizations

Question 5

Define organization design

Answer 5

The construction and change of an organization structure to achieve the goals

Question 6

Define organizational behavior

Answer 6

The study of the way in which individuals and teams behave in the workplace

Question 7

Open system - is a dynamic system that interacts with and responds to the environment. Name some of the charateristics for an open system.

Answer 7

• Environment awareness means that the organization constantly interacts with its environment
• Feedback means that the system adjust to information from the environment
• Cyclical character (consists of cycles of events)
• Tendency towards growth
• Steady state means that the system is unchanged over long periods of time
• Movements towards growth and expansion (sophisticated system)
• Balance between maintenance and adaptive activities - subparts are in balance and able to adapt to the environment
• Equifinality is the ability to reach the same state by a variety of paths

Question 8

What´s an organizational life cycel?

Answer 8

The pattern of predictable change through which the organization moves from start-up to dissolution Life cycle stages.

Question 9

Define the entrepreneurial stage.

Answer 9

The formation stage
- uncertain goals
- high creativity and managerial input - progression to the next stage requires a steady supply of resources such as capital and labor

Question 10

Define the Collectivity stage.

Answer 10

The stage continues the innovation of earlier stage
- organization’s mission is clarified
- communication and structure within the organization remain informal
- high commitment, long hours of work
- the management is more hands-on

Question 11

Define the Formalization-and-control stage.

Answer 11

Stabilization of the operation of the organization
- predictability increases
- formal rules and procedures are introduced
- decision-making is clarified
- efficiency and stability become more important
- focus on maintaining existing investments and market position.

Question 12

Define the Elaboration-of-structure stage.

Answer 12

Reaching a large size and bureaucracy
- searching for new products and growth opportunities
- structure becomes more complex and elaborated
- decision-making is decentralized

Question 13

Define the Decline stage.

Answer 13

Demand for its products or services shrinks, as a result of poor management, new trends, technological obsolescence - new opportunities searching, higher employee turnover - conflict promoted by shortage of resources and disagreements over strategy - making decisions become more centralized - the organization ceases to exist

Question 14

Describe positivism (organization theories).

Answer 14

An assumption that the world may be known and improved by extending knowledge through research, for example increase organizational effectiveness.

Question 15

Describe normative (organization theories).

Answer 15

Developing theories which may be applied across a wide range of situations.

Question 16

Describe critical theory (organization theories).

Answer 16

An approach to studying organizations which concentrates on their perceived shortcomings and deficiencies.

Question 17

Describe postmodernism (organization theories).

Answer 17

An approach to studying organizations which emerged from European philosophical origins and rejects traditional approaches to studying organizations.