This summary contains all the required literature for course 3.5: Organizational Psychology at Erasmus University. The summary was written in academic year .
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SUMMARY COURSE 3.5:
ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
BY ROWAN MOELIJKER
YEAR 2018/2019
POSITIVE & ORGANISATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
ERASMUS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES
,THEME 1: ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
LEARNING GOALS
Problem 1a: The birth and early life of "GORG"
What are the determinants of organisational structure?
What is the best way to structure an organisation?
What is organisational strategy?
What are the determinants of organisational strategy?
What is the interaction between structure, strategy and culture?
Problem 1b: Our sacred values
What is organisational culture?
What is the effect of organisational culture?
How does organisational culture change over time?
Problem 1c: Images of GORG
What images and metaphors can be used to describe organisations?
GENERAL LITERATURE
BOOK CHAPTER 1: JEX, S. M., & BRITT, T.W. (2014). CHAPTER 13. IN ORGANIZATIONAL
PSYCHOLOGY : A SCIENTIST-PRACTITIONER APPROACH (PP. 453–485). WILEY.
What is an organisational theory?
Organisational theory deals with different ways of organising human activity. Unfortunately, organisations
cannot be easily subjected to laboratory investigations. Given these constraints, organisational theorists have
been forced to use more indirect methods of investigation.
Metaphor: a type of figurative language; using words or phrases to communicate something other than their
literal meaning.
The metaphor of a biological organism: these organisations are in constant interaction with the environment
around them, just as any biological system must interact with the larger ecosystem in which it lives.
Organisations that ignore their larger environment (e.g. customers, public opinion) may risk extinction.
A second major implication of this metaphor is that organisations consist of a series of subsystems that must
work together in order for the organisation to function optimally.
The metaphor of a machine: like machines, organisations take environmental input, transform the input in
some fashion, and return that input, in an altered form, back into the environment. An additional implication of
the machine metaphor, is the importance of making sure that the “components” of the machine (i.e., people
and processes) are performing properly.
Although these two metaphors have the longest history, other metaphors may also be useful to organisational
theorists. Organisations can be likened to the brain, with all its complex interconnections’, and to families with
their complex relationships, and to political arenas, with all of their constituents and power dynamics.
Major organisational theories
Three general types of organisational theories have been developed over the years.
Classical organisational theories. The best known classical theories are scientific management, ideal
bureaucracy and administrative management.
, Scientific management
Those who design the work would be separate from those who actually perform the work. This implies
that there should be distinct status or hierarchical differences among employees. An organisation that
is designed from a scientific management perspective has many levels and many ways to distinguish
among those levels.
An organisation should be broken down into the smallest and simplest components possible. This
implies that an organisation should be structured such that employees performing very similar tasks
should be grouped together. An organisation should consist of a large number of departments, with
each performing a highly specialized function.
A scientifically managed organisation will have a great number of rules and procedures for employees
to follow. The underlying assumption behind this is that there is “one best way” to do any job or
accomplish any task.
Ideal bureaucracy
One of the primary assumptions behind ideal bureaucracy is that rewards should be based on one’s
contributions to the organisations, as opposed to social or familial connections. Therefore there is
strong reliance on rules and produres. Another hallmark is very close supervision of employees.
Bureaucratic organisations typically are characterized by very narrow spans of control; each supervisor
does not supervise a large number of employees. This makes it easier for supervisor to meet the needs
of their subordinates. This has led many to conclude that bureaucracy is based on the assumption that
employees wil not work unless their behaviour is tightly monitored.
Another guiding principle of ideal bureaucracy is unity of command. In a bureaucratic structure, each
employee has one (and only one) direct supervisor.
A third important principle of ideal bureaucracy is unity of direction. This means that information
flows in one direction, typically from the top of the organisation down to lower levels. This increases
predictablity and stability.
Administrative management
Developed by Fayol who sought to develop a relatively universal set of organising principles for
managers to apply in organisations. He presented them in the context of management functions.
Many principles are similar to ideal bureacracy, but 3 that are added are not: stability of personnel,
encouring people to take initiaive, and having a high level of cohesion and camaredarie among
employees.
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