PERSPECTIVE ON WORK ORGANIZATIONS

SYARAFUN NISA ISMAIL UNISEL 03/08/2011

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1.1

CHARACTERISTIC OF ORGANIZATIONS

An organization is A collection of interacting & interdependent individuals who work toward common goals & whose relationships are determined according to a certain structure (Duncan, 1981) It is also can elaborated upon :
Organizations are human creations & fundamentally, they consist of people, rather than buildings, equipment, machinery, etc. The term organization is general and not restricted to industrial or commercial firm. Educational and medical institutions, social clubs and a wide range of other organized human activities fall within the definition. 2 Page

 People within organization must be working to common goals and coordinate their activities to this end. This does not, however, mean that everyone in the organizations has the same set of goals and priorities, nor that all the goals are explicit and clear to everyone. Although relationships between people are determined according to a certain structure, informal or unofficial groups and structures can be at least as important as the formal organization structure.

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1.2

FORMAL ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

STRUCTURE

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 The structure of an organization is often depicted with the aid of an organization chart Position higher up the chart have more power and authority than those lower down The line linking the positions in the chart show the formal channels of authority that exist within the organization

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1.2.1

ROLE NOT PEOPLE

Organization charts show the relationship between specific jobs or roles within the organization The chart is to represent the organization structure, regardless of the particular people who fill the position shown The widespread use of organizationships between factors such as organization structure and the people who work within the organization, is a theme

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1.2.2

SPECIALIZATION (DIVISION OF Involves dividing up the activities of the organization and LABOUR)
distributing tasks among people, so that different people do not find themselves doing the same collection tasks

The required specialization is achieved not only by allocating different task to individuals, but by dividing the organization into separate departments or sub-units either on a functional basis (e.g. sales, marketing, personnel), a product basis or perhaps into geographical regions A further characteristic of organization structure is span of control. The span of control of a manager or supervisor is indicated by the number of subordinates reporting directly to that person, and it usually revealed on a comprehensive organization chart

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1.2.3 BUREAUCRACY & CLASSICAL ORGANIZATION THEORY

Fayol (1930) & Weber (1947), who developed their ideas about organizations during the early 20th century Weber produced a series of publications concerned with the structure of organization, and the exercise of power & authority within them Weber also proposed the bureaucratic model of organization, where work is organized and conducted on an entirely rational basis Some of the essential features of a bureaucracy are :
Specialization or division of labour A hierarchy of authority written rules & regulations, and Rational application of rules & procedures

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1.2.4 DIMENSIONS OF ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

The major dimensions of structure by Aston team were : SPECIALIZATION STANDARDIZATION FORMALIZATION CENTRALIZATION CONFIGURATION

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 The underlying factors were summarized by Payne & Pugh (1976) : Structure of activities Concentration of authority Line control of work-flow

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1.3

STRUCTURE, TECHNOLOGY & ENVIRONMENT

Organizations can be described by using certain basic concepts of structural form. Raises the possibility that some structures will be more efficient than others. The researchers grouped the organizations into categories on the basis of the production methods (or technology) that they were using.

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 The 1. 2. 3.

organizations were categorized into 3 groups : Small batch & unit production Large batch & mass production Process production

The most important point is that successful organizations in each category had different structures The main issues of interest are the demonstration that in the sample of organizations studied :
There were no general link between organizational success and structural form; and Successful organization had different structural form, depending on the technology that were using

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1.4

ORGANIZATIONS AS COMPLEX OPEN SYSTEMS

An open system in its simplest form involves an input, a transformation process and output A closed system, by contrast does not involve inputs and outputs, and is dependent of external force Organizations that are part of the social and economic of environment in which they exist, should clearly be represented as open system

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Open system

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 Each sub-system interacts with every other sub-system, and the organization also interacts with the external environment The organization itself is merely a sub-system of other supersystem the economic system of the country Organization with aid of system concepts highlights 2 important issues : 1. interaction & interrelatedness 2. Level of analysis

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 Many work psychologist use system ideas in a fairly dilute form, often merely to indicate the interaction and interrelatedness of organizational factors, and to identify different variables and possible level of analysis Payne & Pugh (1971) for instance, made some use of systems ideas to present a framework of behavior in organizations Their framework incorporated a series of interlocking system divided into 4 different level of analysis :
1. 2. 3. 4. Organization Department or segment within organization Work team or group Individual

The main purpose of the framework is to provide an indication of the main features in organizational life, the level of analysis and interrelationships involved
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SOCIO-TECHNICAL A good demonstration of the interacting nature of social SYSTEM

1.4.1

and technological system is provided in some work carried out by the Travistock Institution of Human Relations (Trist & Bamforth, 1951) Improvement in mining technology led to the installation of new mechanical coal-cutting and removing systems Some more recent socio-technical systems research has examined the changes in quality of working life that can result from attempts to make the best possible match between social and technical systems

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1.4.2 MAJOR ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS

4 different and interrelated element of organizational dynamics have been mentioned : 1. Formal (structural) organizational characteristic 2. Technology 3. Environment 4. Social system Kotter (1978) has integrated these and other aspects into an overall framework for examining organizations DiagnosticModels.pdf

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ORGANIZATIONS AS Organization theorists have been building on the use of METAPHORS metaphors to understand the nature of organizational
behavior and life

1.5

Mogan (1986) has identified basically 8 different ways of construing organizations. Which are :
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. MACHINES ORGANISMS BRAINS CULTURES POLITICAL SYSTEMS PSYCHIC PRISONS VEHICLES FOR DOMINATION METAPHORS OF ORGANIZATION

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