ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN Flashcards
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
In the broader sense, humans speak of organization as if they are machines (bureaucracies) and as a result expect them to operate as so-stable, reliable, routinized, efficient, and predictable.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
The organizations as machines view gives little attention to the human aspects of organization and instead views organizations as a technical problem that can best attain efficiency through adhering to principles such as decentralization, span of control, hierarchy, unity of command. Two philosophies that have contributed to the mechanic-like view of organizations are Weber’s Ideal Bureaucracy and Taylor’s Scientific Management. Weber was the first to prescribe a bureaucratic structure of organizations to routinize processes. This emphasized precision, speed, clarity, regularity, reliability, and efficiency attained through division of labor, hierarchical supervision, and detailed rules and regulations. Frederick Taylor’s Scientific Management provided guidelines for work design. He also advocated time-and-motion studies as a means of analyzing and standardizing work activities. The Weberian bureaucracy and Taylor’s Scientific Management were presented as a means by which employees could be controlled.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
Limitations of the mechanical-like view of organizations leads to limitations such as organizations have difficulty in adapting to changing circumstances can dehumanize employees, red tape, the goals of individuals within the organization can take precedence over the objectives of the organization.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 2 Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines
SIDE NOTE-Leadership in the machine-like portrayal of organizations resides in the hierarchical positions that individuals hold. Leadership is a reflection one’s legitimacy within the organization. Leadership allows one to influence the actions of others by way of the knowledge, skills, expertise, and training that one possesses.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 3 Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 3 Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms
The view of organizations as a living species began when employees began to be viewed as more than cog in the mechanic-like organization. Employees were viewed as having complex needs that need satisfying so that they may perform with the utmost efficiency and effectively. The open system view of organization (also known at contingency theory) asserts that organizations “depend on a wider environment for various kind of sustenance” (Page 38). Organizations should be keen as to what is going on in their surrounding environment. Secondly, organizations are a set of interrelated subsystems where “everything depends on everything and ways must be found to manage the relations between critical subsystems and the environment” (Page 39). A third approach is to ensure that the various systems are correctly aligned so as to eliminate possible dysfunctions.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 3 Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Morgan, Gareth. (2006). Chapter 3 Nature Intervenes: Organizations as Organisms
Organization survival depends on the availability of resources to sustain survival. Organizations also need to adapt to their environment to sustain survival. Thus, the environment is very critical in determining the success or failure of an organization. Organization adaptation becomes difficult due to inertial pressures such as established ideas and mind-sets of top management, inadequate information, difficulty of restructuring technology/personnel in unionized plants, or the force of tradition.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory (OT).
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory (OT).
HRational choice theory is predicated on the universal assumption the humans act rationality. However, this assumption does not provide a substantial description regarding people’s experiences. Rational choice theory (RCT) requires consistency (rank ordering of preferences) and transitivity. The assumption of consistency assumes that each preference must be either equal or unequal. Numerical values are not assigned to preferences, they are simply rank-ordered. Another assumption of rational choice theory is that “individuals maximize the expected value of their payoff measures on some utility scale” (Page 34).
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory (OT).
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory (OT).
Rational choice theory also establishes the assumption that there is universal applicability to all people i.e. decision making is stable across space and time. Rational choice theory only utilizes self-interest as the motive for individual actions. The use of only self-interest makes rational choice theory more parsimonious. The argument is made that rational choice among individuals is seldom this consistent. Economic theorist (including those who prescribe to rational choice theory) belief that humans naturally act due to self-serving or self-maximizing.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory (
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
Organizational theories draws from so many outside fields and perspectives that it cannot be compared to rational choice theory (which claims to be a unified field). Economic theory usurps organizational theory. European organizational theory has its roots in the work of Max Weber and American organizational theory has its roots in the writings of classical management theorists. Organizational theorist accept that there are numerous motivations for specific human behavior such as emotions, socialization, habits, and social relationships. Materialistic motives are not the sole agents for human behavior in the organizational theorist perspective. Individuals “interact with, change, and are constrained by the organizations that they create” (Page 41).
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
**Key asserts that RCT(predicated on economic models) subscribes to a fallacy of postulating self-interest as a the single motive for all human behavior. Key also states that making rationality synonymous with taking action towards maximizing a norm is also a fallacy. RCT theory fails to incorporate altruism and other normative motivations because to do so would require the use of models that account for variety in human behavior—very difficult to carry out as this would make models much more parsimonious and difficult to explain. EXAMPLE-If the behavior or some organizational members must be explained by one model and other behaviors by some other model, because some are male and others are female, or because some are managers and others are workers, then a single parsimonious model may not depict/represent the empirical world. However, in the real world, rationality is seldom monogenous across all individuals
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
Whereas RCT restricts its view of human motivation to self-interest in all cases, organizational theory (OT) allows for a fuller range of motives which compel human behavior. Organizational data must be empirical and data driven in order to get a true look at human activity. Rational choice theorist however construct predictive models and tend to overlook data that do not fit.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
RCT-Views individuals (the unit of analysis) as acting only out of rationality and independent of any group, self-serving, self-interested, greedy, utility maximizing of own preferences, instrumental (e.g. bureaucracy is instrumental rationality because it serves as a means of control), and prefer fixed hierarchy of preferences
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Zey, M. (1998). Rational Choice Theory and Organizational Theory
CHAPTER 3 Basic Characteristics of Rational Choice Models versus Organizational Theories
**Rational Choice Theory (RCT) differs from Organizational Theory
RCT-views organizations as acting rationally, organizations function efficiently, power and conflict are limited; Utility of organizations is measured in economic terms; Alternatives modes of action are measured according to their effects on financial wealth.
Organizational Theory-Views individuals as rational, emotional, habitual, normative, self- and other interested, fluid/changing preferences.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961). Mechanistic and Organic Systems
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961). Mechanistic and Organic Systems
The two polar views of organizations are organizations as mechanistic systems and organizations as organic systems. The mechanistic system is appropriate for stable conditions and is characterized by division of tasks, technical improvement, hierarchy structure, coordination, vertical/hierarchical control and interaction.
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961). Mechanistic and Organic Systems
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE AND DESIGN
Burns, T. and Stalker, G.M. (1961). Mechanistic and Organic Systems
The organic system is appropriate for changing conditions and is characterized by adjustment and continued redefinition of individual tasks, lateral (as opposed to vertical) direction of communication, communication based on information and advice rather than instructions/orders and decisions, and the spread of concerns beyond technical definitions. Both views of organizations represent a rational form of organization and are appropriate for their own specific set of conditions. No one system is superior to the other under all circumstances. There is value in both types of organizational perspectives.
