Organizations
Notes from Carter, et al
I.
II.
Introduction
a. Modern societies are organizational societies.
b. Organizations are social units (or human groups deliberately constructed
to seek specific goals.
c. Organizations are characterized by:
i. Divisions of labor, power, and communications responsibilities
ii. The presence of one or more power centers which control the
concerted efforts of the organization and direct them toward its
goals
iii. Substitution of personnel.
d. Members of organizations are not expected to exhibit their full range of
behaviors, but only those that are necessary or useful to the purposes of
the organization, that is goal achievement.
e. Persons are to perform according to their assigned roles, not according to
their personal wishes.
f. They must be differentiated, hierarchical and have some functions taking
priority over others.
g. An organization is a social system whose purpose is the achievement of
specific, explicit goals.
h. Members must confine themselves to a relatively narrow range of
behaviors intended to fulfill this purpose.
i. Members exercise power over each other in the form of authority and
hierarchical control
j. Assures compliance with the system’s goals and adherence to the
members’ prescribed roles.
Theories Of Organization
a. There are three major types of organization theory.
i. Rational systems perspective
ii. Natural systems perspective
iii. Open systems perspective
b. The rational systems perspective has the organization itself as the focal
system; in the natural systems perspective, the components (members) is
the focal system; and in the open systems perspective, both of the other
perspectives are taken, along with the organization’s relationship with the
environment: it is holonistic
c. Rational systems perspective: “Organizations are collectivities oriented to
the pursuit of relatively specific goals and exhibiting relatively highly
formalized social structures”.
d. Two Models
i. The classical model is sometimes called the machine theory
because the organization was viewed as a machine with
interchangeable parts and clearly identifiable operations and
members were treated as cogs and gears in that machine.
ii. The emphasis is on mechanical regulation, control, and rationality.
iii. Principles include division of labor; pyramid of control; and unity
of command.
iv. Decision theory is concerned with the achievement of rational
decision-making whenever possible.
v. This theory recognizes that there is a vertical hierarchy or
differentiation by “levels of decisions” that are made. This
differentiation is made on the basis of power, and distinguishes
between policymaking and policy implementation.
vi. Power consists of access to, and control of, information that is
sufficient to formulate policy, and the ability to get others to carry
out the actions necessary to implement the policy.
vii. The concept that an organization does not seek endlessly for
perfectly rational behavior but instead seeks satisfying solutions
that are “reasonably good” or “acceptable”.
viii. Decision theory recognizes the inevitability of tension and conflict;
not only over personal factors but also over organizational issues.
e. Natural systems perspective stress the behavioral structure and are more
interested in examining what is done rather than what is decided or
planned. Commitment and motivation loom as more salient variables.
f. Two varieties of natural systems theory.
i. Human relations theory stresses the informal structure and the
emotional, nonrational motivations that operate in organizations.
ii. It emphasizes such processes as communication, participation and
leadership.
iii. Adaptations of human relations theory included Maslow’s
“hierarchy of needs” to explain motivation and behavior in
organizations.
iv. Conflict theory recognizes both formal and informal structures,
and their interaction, as significant.
v. They agreed with the classical theorists that the attempt to achieve
goals through rational, impersonal structure is important; they also
recognized a necessity for the organization to meet the human,
personal needs of its components.
vi. This view stresses the importance of the work setting and the
influence of the technology that used, not the human, emotive
factors.
vii. It pictures organizations as open systems; that is, the structure of
the organization varies according to the environment and the
technology employed.
viii. The major difference from the previous theories is the conflict
theory declared that conflict within an organization is inevitable.
ix. Conflict is an inherent characteristic of organizations.
x. Bureaucratic Situation is the total environment provided by large
organizations. Not all organizations are characterized by what is
often derogatorily referred to as “bureaucracy”.
xi. Organizational structure is intended to permit and regulate the use
of power. The principles of bureaucracy are;
1. division of labor and specialization of tasks;
2. hierarchy of position
3. system of generalized rules
4. impartiality
5. secure employment
6. efficiency
7. separation of career and personal life
8. positions filled by qualified persons
9. Transactions are reported in a form that can be recorded
and properly stored.
xii. These bureaucratic principles are intended to protect the integrity
of the offices and the officeholders at all levels.
xiii. These bureaucratic prescriptions detailed the rules for interactions.
xiv. Such rationality as is demanded by rules and regulations is
unrealistic.
xv. The basic commitment to the organization is only partially rational.
xvi. It inevitably involves emotive factors such as loyalty and
sentiments about the worth of the organization and about oneself as
part of it.
xvii. They must begin in other systems, with the socialization provided
by family, school, and community: socialization toward such
qualities as reliability, commitment, sacrifice, and the ability to
subordinate oneself to larger systems.
xviii. An organization rewards the kind of personality that puts the
organization’s goals above its own.
xix. Critics point to the priority that bureaucracies give to “masculine”
virtues and values: inequality, hierarchy, impersonality,
aggressiveness, competition, and independence.
xx. These differ from “women’s values” which are egalitarian,
personalized, nurturing, and relational.
xxi. Contemporary organizations are said to be modeled on military
systems and sport teams.
xxii. The criticism may be most applicable to large, public welfare and
health bureaucracies.
xxiii. Human relations theory perceives alienation as inevitable; this is
similar to entropy.
xxiv. Both conflict and decision system theorists seem to suggest that
some degree of alienation is inevitable.
xxv. Burnout is defined as:
1. a debilitating psychological condition brought on by
unrelieved work stress, which results in:
a. depleted energy reserves
b. lowered resistance to illness
c. increased dissatisfaction and pessimism
III.
d. Increased absenteeism and inefficiency at work.
xxvi. Burnout may be considered a particular form of alienation.
xxvii. Women are susceptible to burnout because they:
1. are often placed in monotonous jobs with little opportunity
for promotion
2. have no leisure time because of domestic chores and child
care in addition to their full-time jobs
3. Have limited social contact.
xxviii. Change can come about in true systemic fashion by altering the
job, the environment, or the person’s perception of the job or of
themselves.
xxix. Efforts to humanize organizations take the form of
decentralization: less emphasis on specialization by workers,
reducing units to smaller scale, or restructuring decision-making
processes to allow employees to have more influence in
determining their own fates and that of the organization.
The Open Systems Perspective: The Systems Model
a. Organizations are viewed as a system of interdependent activities.
b. All must be continuously motivated if the organization is to exist.
c. Large organizations are similar to society as a system.
d. It agrees with decision theory that the goal is not perfection.
e. The systems model stresses a wider context of decision-making and
organizational behavior.
f. Conflict is better explained by the systems model in that it recognizes the
inevitability of conflict not only within and between components and
subsystems, but between a system and its environment.
g. Behavioral aspects of organizations
i. Communication: Organizations are information-processing
systems.
ii. In order to focus people’s attention on specific goals and activities,
organizations must monitor and set parameters for
communications.
iii. The nature of the organization is a factor in the style of
communication chosen.
iv. Probably the most common means of communication in
organizations is the infamous and universal meeting.
v. Goal Direction: goals have various functions:
1. cognitive
2. cathartic
3. symbolic
4. justification
5. evaluation
vi. An organizational goal is a particular characteristic of a steady
state that the organization attempts to realize.
vii. Two aspects of goal attainment should be distinguished:
1. effectiveness
2. efficiency
viii. Goals are not static. Goals can be displaced.
ix. Differentiation: differentiation is the prime sociological
characteristic of modernization.
x. Modern societies are societies of differentiated organizations and
these organizations differentiate internally to carry out their
purposes more effectively.
xi. Differentiation may lead to isolation of the components of an
organization.
xii. Power and Control: organizations generate power.
xiii. Organizations must ensure compliance in achieving specific,
narrow goals and therefore must apply some kind of control – the
use of power.
xiv. Force should not be taken to mean only physical force: moral force
qualifies as well.
xv. Power is the system’s potential to achieve its goals by the
application or deprivation of energy to another system or
component.
xvi. Power must be measured by its objectives, not merely by the
magnitude of its effects.
xvii. The objective of power and control is compliance, the cooperation
of a system or component in achieving the goals of the system that
applies power and control.
xviii. Leadership: leadership may be either formal or informal and it
includes power and control used to achieve organizational end and
to make means effective.
xix. Command is defined as the use of power to ensure compliance.
h. Structural Aspects of Organizations
i. Three levels of structure in organizations:
1. technical
2. managerial
3. institutional system
ii. four cultures embodied in a typical structure:
1. role culture – a bureaucracy
2. power culture – derives from a powerful person
3. task culture – matrix organization
4. Person culture – similar to power culture but decentralized.
i. Evolutionary Aspects
i. Patrimony is an alternative to bureaucracies in that control by
persons rather than laws and regulations.
ii. Other alternatives
1. autonomous work groups
2. job enrichment
3. job enlargement
4. Japanese model – lifetime employment
iii. Humanization and improving the “quality of work life” are
complex undertakings.
iv. It may require the person to give up some freedom and
independence to assume new obligations of mutuality with
management and other workers.
v. For significant organizational change to occur, there must be
modification in both internal and external aspects, especially goals.