Summary
Summary Organizational Theory (Course + Lessons) 2020
- Course
- Institution
- Book
This summary is 56 pages long, and contains all the material covered in the book and lessons of Professor Adelien Decramer.
[Show more]
Connected book
Book Title:
Author(s):
- Edition:
- ISBN:
- Edition:
More summaries for
-
Volledige samenvatting organisatietheorie door Prof. Adelien Decramer.
-
VOLLEDIGE Samenvatting Organisatietheorie / COMPLETE Summary Organisation Theory (F000855) based on Making organisations work
Seller
Follow
elinemachtelinckx
Content preview
Organisation TheoryMaking
organisations
work
Adelien Decramer
Mei 2020
,Introduction
AN ORGANISATION = “A system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two
or more persons.”
The general purpose of the book is to give readers greater insight into the way
organisations work at three different levels
1. The organisational level
o Macro-level
2. The group level
o Meso-level
3. The individual level
o The employee
o Micro-level
The studying and understanding of organisations must always place within the
context of those organisations.
1
,Chapter 1: Looking
back in history
ORGANISATIONS are diverse and have a huge impact on both man and society.
- They are social entities, they have goals and objectives.
- They are designed as a system of consciously structured and coordinated
activities.
- They operate in connectedness with the external environment.
1.1 The rational approach
RATIONAL means that all the advantaged and disadvantages are carefully
examined and weighed so that the optimal choice can be made!
Max Weber was the first true organisational sociologist, with his detailed studies of
the operation of organisations and the behaviour of people within them.
Frederick Winslow Taylor is generally regarded as one of the ‘founding fathers’ of
Organisational Behaviour.
He laid the foundations for SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT = “A scientific approach
to management in which all tasks in organisations are in-depth analysed,
routinised, divided and standardised, instead of using rules-of-thumb.”
Taylor studied organisations in the engineering industry from the perspective of the
task of the individual member of staff and, more particularly, the factory worker.
With this in mind, he determined methods that would provide the most optimal
return within the organisation.
Tailor examined that greater optimisation through greater uniformity must be
possible. He studied every task in an organisation and divided each task into sub-
tasks. He than eliminated the unnecessary and time-consuming tasks and
movements, while at the same time developing more appropriate tools.
This allowed him to identify the most efficient methods of working, the
optimal balance between resources used and results produced, for that
organisation. In order to create the most efficient way to produce output.
One Best Way was then introduced as the standardised method that all the
organisation’s workers were obliged to use.
2
, Taylor used his knowledge to work as a consultant for Henry Ford.
Taylor’s ideas led to important consequences for organisations
- Higher return
- Standardisation of products and activities
- Greater control and predictability
- Greater sub-division and more routine tasks reduced training time and made
possible the use of unskilled labour.
- A ‘manager must think, workers only work’ philosophy
- Optimisation of the tools and equipment used
But resistance quickly grew to the ideas of Taylorism. The work the workers were
required to do was regarded by many as degrading and even capable of making
people go mad. (ex. Charlie Chaplin in ‘Modern Times’)
Many researcher have questioned his exaggerated sub-division and
routinisation of tasks, regarding it as a recipe for reducing the quality of
labour (deskilling), increasing employee alienation (vervreemding) from both
their work and the products they make, and encouraging boredom as a result
of the lack of any real challenge.
Taylor took no account of important aspects of the human factor in organisations. He
ignored the importance of professional pride and job satisfaction and the significance
of forms of reward other than the purely financial.
Instead, Henry Fayol was the first person to explore the task of management as a
separate and important function in every organisation. He wanted to change the
narrow approach where you only focus on the individual. He looked at a higher level:
management. This is why his work can be regarded as a kind of management
training course, the first ever!
Fayol introduced THE FIVE BASIC TASKS OF MANAGEMENT and their basic principles
within the different functional fields of an organisation (production, purchasing and
sales, finance, security, bookkeeping and administration).
1. PLANNING
2. ORGANISING
3. LEADING POLCC
4. CO-ORDINATING
5. CONTROLLING
Within these 5 ideas he defined 14 other principles of management: task division,
responsibility, discipline, respect for hierarchy, equity, initiative…
Frederick Taylor believed that leaders must create and that employees must simply
implement (‘managers think, workers work’). In contrast, Fayol believed that
initiative was important for success and therefore needed to be stimulated.
Further development of the rational school of organisational thought became evident
by Chester Barnard and Hubert Simon. They argued that all employees (also
3
The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:
Guaranteed quality through customer reviews
Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.
Quick and easy check-out
You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.
Focus on what matters
Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!
Frequently asked questions
What do I get when I buy this document?
You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.
Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?
Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.
Who am I buying these notes from?
Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller elinemachtelinckx. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.
Will I be stuck with a subscription?
No, you only buy these notes for $9.12. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.
Can Stuvia be trusted?
4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)
53340 documents were sold in the last 30 days
Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now