Organization theory
Overview learning material
Chapter 1 - Introduction: Definitions and Conceptions
Chapter 2 – Conceptual framework for the analysis of organizational theory
Chapter 3 – The rise of the factory system
Chapter 4 – The Human Organization
Chapter 5 – Bureaucracy, rationalization & organization theory
Chapter 7 – Emerging Organizational Paradigms: Post bureaucracy, Culture and
Knowledge
Chapter 8 – Technology and Organizational Transformation
Chapter 9 – The environment and the organization
Overview topics
- Introduction
- Scientific management
- Human relations
- Bureaucracy
- Culture
- Technology
- The environment & the organization
Chapter 1 – introduction: Definitions and Conceptions
Organizational theory = multiperspective/multiparadigmatic
What is an organization:
“An organization is a tool used by people to coordinate their actions to obtain something
they desire or value” Jones
Organizations make decisions… The organization as a whole behaves as though there existed
a central coordination and control system capable of directing the members of the
organization sufficiently to allow the meaningful imputation of purpose to the total system”
Cyert and March
Important: different theories focus on different aspects
= organization studies is a multi-perspective field of study
How can organizations be approaches and explained: (Jaffee)
1) By elements, definitions and images (Scott, Hall, Morgan)
2) By classical theories (Marx, Durkheim, Weber)
3) By contemporary social theory and organizational analysis (structural functionalism,
conflict theory, symbolic interactionism)
,Organization: Elements, definitions and images
Scott’s elements of organization:
central elements: social structure, participants, goals, technology and environment
Social structure: formal and informal
the fundamental building block of organizations
- Standard techniques, practices and methods from an organization
- Human interaction
Formal social structure: activities, relationships and interactions that take on a regular
pattern
defined in job descriptions and organizational charts
formally specified because they are designed to accomplish a particular organizational
task
Informal social structure: patterned activities and relationships that emerge naturally and
which are created by organizational members
do not exist in written documents, organizational charts or job descriptions
Participants: humans who “people” the organization
organizations depend on human labor power (physical and mental)
“participants” do not automatically exert their labor when entering an organization
organizations face the challenge of trying to figure out how to extract human energy
Goals: “conceptions of desired ends”, what the organization is trying to achieve
organization goals are human goals – Jaffee
the goals of owners may not be the goals of managers, production workers or staff
- This is problematic: organizational participants may not share the same goals
Technology: transform the raw materials of the organization into some final product
- raw materials: physical, informational or human
- final product: methods, machines, hardware, software, computers
it shapes many other aspects of the organization (labor process, social structures etc.)
Environment: all things outside the boundaries of the organization that are either
shaped by or influence a particular organization
e.g. other organizations with which the organization interacts or competes, political and
legal regulations imposed on organizations.
,Examples of the elements by Scott
Elements Examples
Social structure Decision-making process, authority structure,
relationships between workers on assembly line
Participants Line supervisors, middle managers, production
workers
Goals Low-cost assembly or high-quality modular auto
parts
Technology Team-based assembly line
Environment Suppliers of components for modular parts:
large automakers who purchase the finished
products
Three major perspectives used to analyze organizations:
1) Rational system perspective: organizations are collectivities oriented to the pursuit
of relatively specified goals and exhibiting relatively formalized social structures
Goals and formal social structures key to organizational elements
2) Natural system perspective: organizations as collectivities whose participants share a
common interest in the survival of the system and who engage in collective activities,
informally structured, to secure this end
sociological with informal activities of participants
the role participants play in creating organizational values and cultures
3) Open systems perspective: organizations are coalitions of shifting interest groups
that develop goals by negotiations.
Structure of coalitions, activities and outcomes are influenced by environmental
agents and resources
emphasis on the environmental elements denotes an organization that must
negotiate with both human participants and other organizations
Hall’s definition of organization
Hall: “an organization is a collectivity with a relatively identifiable boundary, a normative
order (rules), ranks of authority (hierarchy), communications system, and membership
coordinating systems (procedures); this collectivity exists on a relatively continuous basis in
an environment and engages in activities that are usually related to a set of goals”
Normative order implies shared beliefs and values
Suggests that the collectivity of one organization is not simply an assortment of
individuals who happen to occupy the same organizational space but a cohesive social group
with a common set of ideas
Collectivity: a group of humans who have something in common
Boundaries: who is inside and who is outside the organization common membership
There will always be some tension between the individual and the larger organizational
objective
, 3 distinct, but irrelated aspects of organizational reality:
1) Structures
- Social structure elements: boundaries, norms, hierarchy
2) Processes
- Active processes that are goal directed
3) Outcomes
- The consequence of organizational structure and process on members the
organization and society at large
Morgan: images of organization:
How we define, understand and conceptualize organizations depends on our mental images
of the essential shape and feature of organizations
Organizations as:
- Machines
- Organisms
- Brains
- Cultural systems
- Political systems
- Psychic prisons
- Instruments of domination
- Flux and transformation
Morgan: machine metaphor
Views organizations as
technical instruments (produce some outcome)
This implies that
all elements are meant to work together in a well-organized and smoothly functioning
way
hierarchy and division of labor support efficiency
role of people predetermined
= Rational perspective on organizations/widespread “classical” view
Strengths of machine metaphor and machine approach
- Fits straightforward tasks
- Fits a stable environment
- Mass production
- Focus on efficiency and precision
- Human “machine” parts are meant to fit in
Limitations of machine metaphor and machine approach
