The summary of the course 'Organization Theory', given at Ghent University, was made on the basis of the book and notes taken from the lesson.
The summary is complete and includes everything that needed to be known.
ORGANISATION THEORY
INTRODUCTION
Organisation = a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons
Different elements of operational domain of organisations:
Employee (micro-level)
Group (meso-level)
The organisation (macro-level)
Acquiring knowledge about these micro, meso and macro-levels of organisations requires: an
interdisciplinary approach = insights from different fields of study, such as organizational theory,
organizational behaviour, sociology, psychology, social psychology, economic, …
The aim is to develop a better understanding of how employees in teams and organisations can be managed
Organizational management is regard as: a horizontal discipline = organizational management has an
overarching function that transcends every job category, business function and professional specialism
The context is a crucial factor in the analysis of organisations and also has a significant impact on the three
angels of approach
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,CHAPTER 1: LOOKING BACK IN HISTORY
Concept of an organization
Organisations are diverse and have a huge impact on both man and society
Organisations share common characteristics
- Are social entities: they have goals and objectives
- Are designed as a system of consciously structured and coordinated activities
- Operate in connectedness with the external environment (Daft, 2009)
1.1 Rational Approach
1.1.1 The sociologist Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and Max Weber
First scientific approach to organisations
Founders of the modern science of the sociology:
Marx: focused on the working class
Durkheim: analysis of what he saw as the loss of solidarity in this new society
Weber: First true organizational sociologist, with his detailed studies of the operation of
organisations and the behaviour of people within them
1.1.2 The turn of the 20the century
Turning point for the organisations: several evolutions that led to the creation of new products for a new
type of customer
Steam-driven machines
Advances in scientific knowledge (chemistry) & industrial exploitation of coal mines
- Produce high-quality steel cheaply
- Better machinery & more sophisticated forms of mechanization
Improvements in the supply of electricity: electrical-driven motors
Modern oil exploitation
→ All these evolutions led to the creation of new products for a new type of consumer
1.1.3 Frederick Winslow Taylor
One of the ‘founding fathers’ of organisational behaviour
Lead 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
Studied organisations in the engineering industry → the task of the individual member and staff,
more particularly “ the factor worker”
He initiated a number of time and motion studies, on the basis of which he carried out a number of
experiments to determine the methods that would provide the most optimal return within the
organisation
The greater optimization through greater uniformity must be possible
Worked as a consultant for Henry Ford
Helped to design and later adjust the production system, so that the work could be standardised
optimally
He identified the most efficient method of working → the optimal balance between resources used
and results produced
- Divided each tasks into sub-tasks
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, - Eliminated the unnecessary and time-consuming tasks and/ or movements performed by the workforce
- And at the same time he developed more appropriate tools
Optimal method of working (= the One Best Way): was introduced as the
standardised method that all the organisation’s workers
Most famous application of the new management application: Ford Motor Company
Mass produce vehicles on a production line
The optimalisation of all tools & equipment & the interchangeability of standard parts in all Ford
models
A car that was affordable to those of middling income
Pay higher wages to his workers & introduce an eight-hour working day
Increased the purchasing power of his workforce → become bigger consumers (not Ford, but other
products)
Important consequences for organisations of Taylor’s ideas:
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 “managers must think, workers only work” philosophy
Optimisation of the tools and equipment used
Resistance of the ideas of Taylorism
Resistance came from the:
Workers
Unions who late came to represent them (resulting in a wave of strikes and social unrest)
Different strand of thinking underlying this resistance:
Ideological standpoint: the application of the scientific approach to labour by company leaders was
inspired solely by the desire to secure even greater profits by increasing the pressure on their
workforce
Other where more nuanced in their critique: fears for the ‘deskilling’ or the devaluation of human
labour, this would lead to social alienation
Taylor himself was also aware of a certain degree of resistance among the working population (but
resistance of a different kind)
He was convinced that workers deliberately worked slower, in attempt to ensure that his findings
would not result in the tempo of their work being increased → reason: lack of direct supervision
He suggested that the tasks of the foreman should be split up into different sub-tasks:
- Subtask 1: the distribution and allocation of tasks to the workers
- Subtask 2: ensuring the quality of execution
- Subtask 3: ensuring the speed of the execution
Not much communication form management about what was actually happening and why & anxious to
prove that they were working to slow
Taylor regarded the implementation of Scientific Management as a joint task between management &
workforce
Alongside physical suitability, he saw a willingness to conform to the obligatory and standardised
methods of working as one of the most important selection criteria for recruitment
He thought that it is only logical that people who agreed to participate receive a higher wage
3
, Criticism because he took no account of important aspects of the human factor in organisations
Taylor ignored the importance of professional pride and job satisfaction and the significance of forms
of reward other than the purely financial
Taylor fail to take any account of the physical and psychological make-up of the employees required
to carry out the routine work he advocated, which often led to strain and stress
Result: many subsequent researchers have questioned his exaggerated sub-division and routinization of
tasks, regarding it as:
A recipe for reducing the quality of labour → deskilling
Increasing employee alienation from work & products
Encouraging boredom as a result of the lack of any real challenge
Nevertheless, Taylor laid the foundations for further research and applications in the field!
Task division, allocation and optimisation, together with the search for the right forms of labour , both
human and technical made their entry in several sectors and organisations → to offset the disadvantages of
task specialization and short-cycle, a sufficient degree of task enrichment, task enlargement & job rotation
The situation today
Immeasurably better thanks to better workplace organisation and stronger logistical support ( cars in
multiple colors, multiple versions)
Huge evolution has taken place since the ‘prehistoric’ times of Ford and Taylor
The so-called ‘productivity gain’ is nothing compared with what we now see in
Modern industry
Most of the products have increased in complexity
Solution: far-ranging workpost
Criticism against work involving a machine-related tempo
People do not tend to work at the same constant speed
Variations both between individuals & within the same individual
If the tempo is too fast, people lose interest, concentration wavers and mistakes are made
Consequence: results in increased sickness, absence & the threat of increased industrial action
Tempo too slow also leads to loss of interest through a lock of challenged, again resulting in costly
mistakes
Consequence: service decreases if there are too few costumers & too many personnel
People need a certain degree of ‘task tension’ in order to be able to function optimally
Other thinkers who developed organizational theories that were not exclusively focused on the individual,
the labour tasks & immediate working environment, but concentrated on the aspect of management as a
separate and necessary task in every organisation
1.1.4 Henri Fayol
First person to explore the task of “management” as a separate and important function within the organisations
Was contemporary of Taylor’s
He noted that in his time managers were nearly always trained engineers. This was the only form of
training that gave access to senior positions
Wanted to change this narrow approach and his work can be regarded as a kind of management
training course
Book “General and industrial Management” finally gain access to and recognition in the wider and
more trendsetting circle of researchers and experts
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