chapter 1 Flashcards
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
Managed and coordinated
involving management hierarchy in decision-making
Social entity
people interacting with each other
Identifiable boundary
distinguishing members from non-members
interaction patterns
have to be coordinated and the results of that interaction have to be monitoring
Organizational structure
the degree of complexity, formalization and centralization in an
organization
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
eans where the responsibility for decision-making authority lies
centralized
just a few executives, or even one person, make the relevant
decisions
decentralized
a greater number of people are involved in decision-making
Organization Theory
he discipline that studies the structure and design of organization
Organization design
the construction and change of an organization structure to achieve
the goals
Organisational behaviour
the study of the way in which individuals and teams behave in
the workplace
System
a set of interrelated and interdependent parts which interact to produce a unified
outcome
closed system
is self-contained system that has no interaction with its environment
do closed system exist
Doesn’t exist solely closed-system organization apart from utopian communities or self-
contained religious groups. Even those are only temporarily closed
open system
is a dynamic system that interacts with and responds to the
environment
Characteristics of an open system:
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)
- 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
Organizational life cycle
the pattern of predictable change through which the organization
moves from start-up to dissolution
Life cycle stages:
Entrepreneurial stage
Collectivity stage
Formalization-and-control stage
Elaboration-of-structure stage
Decline stage
Entrepreneurial stage
uncertain goals
- high creativity and managerial input
- maintaining a steady supply of resources such as capital and labour
Collectivity stage
he 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
Formalization-and-control stage:
stabilization of the operation of the organization
- formal rules and procedures are introduced
- decision-making is clarified
- efficiency and stability become more important
