Organizations: Theory and Practice (From Tyson, Chapter 3)

Organizations: Theory and Practice

• Individuals and groups function within larger organizational frameworks.
• Organizational studies are crucial for understanding their complexities, relationships with other groups, and their external environment.
• Organizational analysis considers systemic effectiveness and control. How is control maintained within the organization itself?
• Parkinson's Law describes how work expands to fill available time.
• Organizational size and complexity are common experiences.
• Individuals often identify with smaller work groups rather than the organization as a whole (mystical force).
• Postmodernism criticizes traditional, "rational" approaches to organizational studies.
• It rejects objective positivism and scientific knowledge accumulation.
• Postmodernism values diversity, symbolism, and reinterpretation of existing systems.

Organizational Structure

• Max Weber's studies of organizations form a basis for later research.
• Weber identified three main authority types: charismatic (based on individual personality); traditional (based on custom and precedent); rational-legal (hierarchy and rules).
• The rational-legal model of organization structure is bureaucratic. It describes a structured organization based on roles and procedures that transcend individual personnel.
• Amitai Etzioni also contributed to studying organization structure by defining three main organizational types: coercive, utilitarian, and normative.

Organizational Approaches

• Systems approach: Organizations are complex, interconnected systems influenced by their environment. Relationships between the organization's parts and its external environment are essential.
• Contingency approach: This approach emphasizes that there's no one best way to organize; different contexts require different structures. Internal and external factors influence organizational design. Focus on flexibility and adaptability.
• Sociotechnical system: Combines technological and social systems; interpersonal relationships affect productivity, and vice versa. The interplay of technology and organization, and the relationships between them, are central.
• Human relations: Focuses on employee needs and psychological influences on behavior within an organization. Mayo, Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg, and Argyris were influential in this perspective. Interactions, motivations, and behaviour in organizations are important.
• Open system: Organizations interact with their environment; they import resources & export products/services. This interaction is part of the organization's survival.
• Organizational design needs to take into consideration how variables in the environment impact it specifically.
• Technology and organizational design are strongly linked. Organizational forms and their effectiveness are heavily influenced by technological change.

Organizational Culture

• Organizational culture is a crucial aspect of how an organization functions and is sometimes seen as a 'glue' for companies.
• Organizational objectives and employee values matter. Employees often exhibit behaviours and organizational roles as a result.