Chapter 1: Organizations and Organization Theory Flashcards
An organization is:
a social entity, that is (1) goal-directed, (2) designed as deliberately structured, (3) coordinated activity systems, and (4) linked to the external environment
Historical Perspectives
- Scientific management
- administrative principals
- bureaucratic organization
- Hawthorne studies
- contingency
Scientific management
a classical approach that claims decisions about organization and job design should be based on precise, scientific procedures.
Administrative principles
a closed system’s management perspective that focuses on the total organization and grows from the insights of practitioners
Bureaucratic organization
an organization design that emphasizes management on an impersonal, rational basis through elements such as clearly defined authority and responsibility, formal record keepings, and uniform application of standard rules.
Hawthorne Studies
a series of experiments on worker productivity begun in 1924 at the Hawthore plant of Western Electric Company in Illinois; attributed employee’s increased output to managers better treatment of them during the study
Contingency
a theory meaning one thing depends on other things; the organization’s situation dictates the correct management approach
Challenges that Organizations face
- Globalization, intense competition, sustianability of ethics, speed of responsivness, digital workplace, diversity, digital organizations and big data analystics (tech, skills, and processes for searching and examining massive sets of data to uncover hidden patterns and correlations)
Globalization
- with rapid advances in technology and communications, markets, technologies, and organizations are increasingly interconnected
Organizational Dimensions
- contextual dimensions
- structural dimensions
Contextual Dimensions
- goals and strategy
- enviornment
- culture
- size
- technology
Strucutrual Dimensions
- formalization
- specialization
- hirearchy of authority
- centralization
- professionalism
- personnel ratios
Goals and strategy:
define the purpose and competitive techniques that set it apart from other organizations
Environment
all elements outside the boundary of the organization (industry, govt, customers)
Culture
the underlying set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and norms
Size
: organizations magnitude as reflected in the number of people in the organization
Technology
tools, techniques, and actions used to transform inputs into outputs
Formalization
amount of written documentation in the organization
Specialization
degree to which organizational tasks are subdivided into separate jobs
Hierarchy of authority:
describes who reports to whom and the span of control for each manager
Centralization
refers to the hierarchical level that has authority to make a decision
Professionalism
the level of formal education and training of employees
Personnel ratios
refer to the deployment of people to various functions and departments
Open Systems
a system that must interact with the environment to survive; it both consumes resources and exports resources to the environment.
- must continuosly adapt to the environment
Open Systems - Issue
internal efficiency, the organization has to find and obtain needed resources, interpret and act on environmental changes, dispose of outputs, and control and coordinate internal activities in the face of environmental disturbances and uncertainty
system
- view the org as a system
- a set of interacting elements that acquires inputs from the environment, transforms them, and discharges outputs to the external environment
subsystems
- a system is comprised of several subsystems
- divisions of an organization that perform specific functions for the organization’s survival; organizational subsystems perform the essential functions of boundary spanning, production, maintenance, adaptation, and management
Mechanistic
- centralized structure
- specialized task
- formalized
- vertical communication
- hierarchy authority
Organic
- decentralized structure
- empowered role
- informal
- horizontal communication
- collaborative teamework
Centralized structure -
the level of hierarchy with authority to make decisions (located near the top)
Specialized task
a narrowly defined piece of work assigned to a person
Formalized
rules, regulations, and standard procedures
Vertical communication
up and down the hierarchy
Hierarchy authority
formal chain of command, little collaboration across functional departments
Decentralized structure
the decision making and communication are spread across the company
Empowered role
a part in a dynamic social system that allows an employee to use their own discretion and ability to achieve outcomes and meet goals
Informal
few rules or formal control systems
Horizontal communication
information flowing in all directions within and across departments and hierarchical levels
Collaborative teamwork
emphasizes collaborative teamwork, intrapreneurship (people across org coming up with new ideas)
Organizational Configuraton
Mintzberg’s 5 org Parts
- Technical support staff
- top managment
- middle managment
- administrative support
- technical core
Technical Support Staff
Responsible for adaptions and innovation
Top Management
Provides goals, strategy, policies, and direction
Middle Management
Responsible for implementing strategy and coordination at department level
Administrative Support
Responsible for smooth operation of the org, HR, accounting, finance, IT
Technical Core
Responsible for producing the product or service
Efficiency
- the amount of resources used to produce a unit of output
Effectiveness
- the degree to which an organization achieves its goals
- Clear and focused goals with appropriate strategies
Stakeholder approach
- also called the constituency approach, this perspective assess the satisfaction of stakeholders as an indicator of the organization’s performance
Stakeholder
any group within or outside an organization that has a stake in the organization’s performance
- Owners and SH, employees, customers, suppliers, community, union, govt, etc.
Chaos theory
a scientific theory that suggests that relationships in complex, adaptive systems are made up of numerous interconnections that create unintended effects and render the environment unpredictable
Learning organization
an organization in which everyone is engaged in identifying and solving problems, enabling the organization to continuously experiment, improve, and increase its capability
