Chapter 5 Flashcards
The organisational principle of work structuring
The structuring of work on a bureaucratic, administrative or ‘formal organisation’ basis
Work organisations
Social and technical arrangements in which a number of people come together in a formalised and contractual relationship where the actions of some are directed by others towards achievement of work tasks carried out in the organisation’s name
Productive co-operation
the achievement in the light of tendency of people involved in organisations to have their own projects, interests and priorities of a degree of working together that ensures that tasks carried out in the organisation’s name are fulfilled to sufficient a level to enable the organisation to continue in existence
Reification
Where a non-concrete entity is treated as a thing
Personification
Where a non-human entity is treated as a person
Organisational structure
The regular or persisting patterns of action that give shape and a degree of predictability to an organisation
Organisational culture
The set of meanings and values shared by members of an organisation that defines the appropriate ways for people to think and behave with regard to the organisation
The official control apparatus of an organisation
The set of roles, rules, value statements, cultural symbols, rituals and procedures managerially designed to coordinate and control work activities
Bureacracy
The control and coordination of work tasks through a hierarchy of appropriately qualified office holders, whose authority derives from their expertise
Classical administrative principles
Universally applicable rules of organisational design - structural and cultural - widely taught and applied
A basic paradox of organising
The tendency for the means adopted by organisational officials to achieve particular goals to fail to achieve these goals since these ‘means’ involve human beings who have goals of their own which may not be congruent with those of the officials or ‘managers’
Dysfunctions of bureacracy
A dysfunctional aspect of any system being some aspect of it which undermines the overall functioning of that system (Merton)
Virtual or networked organisations
Sets of work arrangements in which those undertaking tasks carried under a corporate name largely relate to each other through electronic communications rather than through face-to-face interaction (post-bureaucratic organisations)
Entrepreneurial action
The making of adventurous, creative of innovative exchanges (or deals) between the entrepreneurial actor’s home ‘enterprise’ and other parties with which the enterprise trades
Contingencies
Circumstances which influence the ways in which organisations are structured
Power
The capacity of an individual or group to affect the outcome of any situation so that access is achieved to whatever resources are scarce and desired within a society or part of a society
Micropolitics
The political processes which occur within organisations as individuals, groups or organisational ‘sub-units’ compete for access to scarce and valued material and symbolic resources
Ambiguity
A state in which the meaning of a situation or an event is unclear or confused and is therefore open to a variety of interpretations
Bounded rationality
Human reasoning and decision-making is restricted in its scope by the fact that human beings have both perceptual and information-processing limits
The occupational principle of work structuring
The structuring of work on the basis of the type
of work that people do
Indulgency pattern
A management style in which the manager makes certain concessions to subordinates, rather than strictly enforcing every rule
