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Summary - Introduction to Organization Studies
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Introduction to Organization StudiesLecture 1
Organizations - a first glance:
2a. What are organizations?
Organizations are omni present: the way in which large societal as well as small everyday
problems are tackled is by the creation of organizations.
Organizations are:
1) Social entities which
2) are goal-directed,
3) And designed as systems of activities that ace consciously structured and coordinated,
and which
4) Are connected to the external environment.
Different types:
− Large, international organizations vs family businesses.
− Organizations for profit vs organizations for non-profit.
Organizations and the challenges they face:
− Globalization
− ‘Speed of responsiveness’
− Ethics and societal responsibility
− The virtual/digital workplace
− Diversity
Benefits of organizations:
− Bring together resources to achieve desired goals and outcomes.
− Produce goods and services efficiently.
− Facilitate innovation.
− Use modern manufacturing and information technologies.
− Adapt to and influence a changing environment.
− Create value for owners, customers and employees.
− Accommodate ongoing challenges of diversity, ethics, and the motivation and
coordination of employees.
2b. The field or Organization Studies
Organization studies is a systematic study of how people - as individuals and as groups - act
within and between organizations.
1
,2c. Is it a challenge to study organizations?
− Context (e.g., regional, cultural)
− Time (e.g., era, time span)
− Audience (e.g., customers, owners, policy makers, consultants, researchers)
o Different audiences want to know different things.
− Scope
o Level of analysis
o Open vs closed system
2d. Organizations as social systems
2d. Level of analysis
Levels of analysis the nested nature of
organizational phenomena:
Employee satisfaction of workers:
− A function of task?
− A function of the social dynamics in a
group?
− A function of the mission of the
organization?
In other words, when these factors (partially)
determine employee satisfaction, how do they
relate to one another?
→ Nestedness!!
2e. Organization Studies as a multidiscipline
Organization Studies is a multidisciplinary field:
− Several disciplines contribute to the studying of organizations and/or people in
organizations (theory/methods).
However, the disciplines:
− Stay true to their origins.
− Display incommensurable traits.
− Are ‘inert’.
2
,2e. Organization Studies as a multidisciplinary field
2f. Key questions in organization studies
1) How do organizations function in terms of internal process and structure?
2) How do organizations relate to environmental actors?
3) What is the impact of organizations on the social systems in which they are embedded?
4) How did we come to grow an organizational society?
Summary:
1) Organization studies focuses on the activities of the members of organizations (social
systems).
2) Organizations are connected to their environment: they influence and are influenced by
the environment to achieve the goals of their stakeholders (their stakeholders, i.e. social
actors).
3) This course focuses on the central decision makers in organizations and how they
attempt to develop effective structures as responsive to the changing environment,
knowing that these organizational structures are influenced by the environment.
4) There are many different types of organizations.
5) Organization Studies is a multidisciplinary field of study.
6) The way we study organizations is not straightforward: 4 sources of diversity are
“context”, “time”, “public” and “reach”.
3
, Lecture 2 Theoretical Perspectives on Organizations
(Chapter 1 - What are organizations?)
(Chapter 2 - Perspectives on organizations)
Theoretical perspectives:
1A. Open vs closed systems perspective
Closed system: perspective focuses exclusively upon the organization without considering
its dependence upon and capacity to influence (elements of) its environment.
− Organizations self-contained, sealed-off unit.
− Environment is a given.
− Managerial attention on improving internal design.
Open system: thinking pays attention to the (open) boundary between the organization
and its environment.
− Organizations engaged in exchanges with the environment.
− Environment keeps changing.
− Managers aim to develop a design that effectively manages the exchanges.
Each system is divided into 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
1B. Rational vs natural systems perspective
Difference: the way organizations are perceived as collectivities, how we expect the parts
of organization to behave in relationship to the goals or the outcomes of the organization.
Rational: the organization is considered as collectivity that is geared to a certain goal that
has been sat out by someone who design the organization. All the parts of the organization
need to fit together in a certain way (the tasks, the structures) in order to perceive that
goal.
− More fixed and lay-downed actions and structures.
Natural: the organization is considered as a collectivity in which there may be goals present
at the beginning, but it is the participance that works in the organization that determines in
what way these goals will be achieved and in which way these goals will be adjusted along
the way.
− More flexible.
4
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