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Organization Theory

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24 views

Organization Theory

Mainly helpful/useful for PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION students and respective knowledge seekers.

Uploaded by

rabindawadi977
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ORGANIZATION THEORY AS A FIELD OF STUDY

Organization Theory is the study of how and why complex organization


behaves as they do. Specifically, it is the study of formal structures, internal
processes, external constraints, and the ways organizations affect and are
affected by their members (Thompkins 2005:1).

Organizations are primary instruments through which modern societies


achieve their social, political, and economic objectives. For examples,
corporations, government agencies, hospitals, nonprofits, and most
voluntary associations fall into this category.

Government departments and agencies provide public services and


collective goods that shape the overall quality of life of the commoners. All
of the state activities, security, development, and delivery, are possible
because an organization can bring together and coordinate the human,
financial, and physical resources needed to achieve the huge tasks demanded
of them. Therefore, it is necessary to understand about organization theory,
management practice, and organizational performance to the public
administration students.

It is neither a single theory nor a unified body of knowledge. Rather, it is a


diverse, multidisciplinary field of study. Scholars from the multi fields have
contributed to build the organization theory.

The structures and processes are the main factors for effective running the
organizations. The structure arrangements (e.g., levels of hierarchy, lines of
authority, and degrees of departmentalization) and how they affected the
goals, strategies, size, technologies, and environmental constraints
(Thompkins, 2005:3).

The organizational theorists are concerned to analyze and describe internal


and external factors of the organization. Particularly, they focuses on
internal structures, functional roles, and authority relationships of
organization, and trying to discover the complex patterns of technical and
human dependency that link all organizations to their larger social
environment (Presthus 1975:121).

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES


What is Organization Theory?
Why Study Organization Theory?
What is Organizational Design?

Introduction:

Organizational theory is a formal name for the study of organization that


seeks to describe, compare, and evaluate organizations at the macro level of
analysis.

‘A formal organization is a system of coordinated activities of a group of


people working cooperatively toward a common goal under authority and
leadership’.

The study of organization theory deals with size, task, technology, and
culture of the organization that factors are more important to predict
organizational outcomes. Therefore, the theory describes and analyses these
factors.

Theory:
‘A theory is a set of interrelated constructs (concepts), definition, and
propositions that present a systematic view of phenomena by specifying
relations among variables, with the purpose of explaining and predicting the
phenomena’ (Kerlinger, 1960:ii; See also, Nigro and Nigro 1984:141).

‘The accumulation of data through acceptable techniques does not alone


give us adequate knowledge. Knowledge becomes critical and reliable as it
increases in generality and internally consistent organization, when, in short,
it is cast in the form of systematic generalized statements applicable to large
number of particular cases (Easton 1971:55).

The Role of Government in Public Organization

 Controlling externalities,
 Controlling expenditures,
 Producing goods and providing services,
 Ensuring equity,
 Creating framework for law and order, and economic stability.
Close Model Organization

The principal characteristics of close model of organization are:

 Routine tasks occur in stable conditions.

 Task specialization (i.e., a division of labor) is central.

 Means (or the proper way to do a job) are emphasized.

 Conflict within the organization is adjudicated from the top.

 Responsibility (what one is supposed to do, one’s formal job


description) is emphasized.

 One’s primary sense of responsibility and loyalty is to the


bureaucratic subunit to which one is assigned (such as, the accounting
department).

 The organization is perceived as a hierarchic structure (that is, the


structure looks like a pyramid).

 Knowledge is inclusive only at the top of the hierarchy (in other


words, only the chief executive knows everything).

 Interaction between people in the organization tends to be vertical


(that is, one takes orders from above and transmits orders below), but
not horizontal.

 The style of interaction is directed toward obedience, command, and


clear superordinate/subordinate relationships.

 Loyalty and obedience to one’s superior and the organization


generally are emphasized, sometimes at the expense of performance.
 Prestige is internalized, that is personal status in the organization is
determined largely by one’s formal office and rank.

Open Model Organization

Open model has many names. Viz. Collegial, freemarket, competitive,


informal and natural etc.

The main characteristics of open model of organization are:

 Non-routine tasks occur in unstable condition.

 Ends (or getting the job done), rather than means, are emphasized.

 Specialized knowledge contributes to common tasks (thus differing


from the closed model’s specialized task notion in that the specialized
knowledge possessed by any one member of the organization may be
applied profitably to a variety of tasks undertaken by various other
members of the organization).

 One’s sense of responsibility and loyalty is to the organization as a


whole.

 The organization is perceived as a fluidic network structure (that is,


the organization looks like an amoeba).

 Detaching of responsibility is emphasized (in other words, formal


job descriptions are discarded in favor of the contributions of all
organization members to all organizational problems).

 Conflict within the organization is adjusted by interaction with peers


rather than being adjudicated from the top.

 Interaction between people in the organization tends to be


horizontal (that is, peers interact with peers) as well as vertical.
 The style of interactions is directed toward accomplishment, ‘advice’
(rather than commands), and is characterized by a ‘myth of peerage,’
which envelops even the most obvious superordinate/subordinate
relationships.

 Task achievement and excellence of performance in accomplishing a


task are emphasized, sometimes at the expense of obedience to one’s
superiors.

 Prestige is externalized (i.e., personal status in the organization is


determined largely by one’s professional ability and reputation rather
than by office and rank).

Nature of Organizations

Organizations:
 Are purposeful, complex human collectivities;
 Are characterized by secondary (or impersonal) relationships;
 Have specialized and limited goals;
 Are characterized by sustained cooperative activities;
 Are integrated within a larger social system;
 Provide services and products to their environment, and
 Are dependent upon exchanges with their environment.

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure is formal arrangement of jobs within an


organization. The organizational structure is made for the following
purposes to:

1. divide work to be done into specific jobs and departments;


2. assign tasks and responsibilities associated with individual jobs;
3. coordinate diverse organizational tasks;
4. manage clusters jobs into unites;
5. established relationships among individuals, groups, and
departments;
6. establish formal lines of authority; and
7. allocate and deploy organizational resources.
An organization is a deliberate arrangement of purpose, people, resource,
structure and authority to accomplish some specific goals.

Organizational Processes:

An organizational process is the ways that organizational work is done.


Coordination and collaboration, technology investment, leadership,
employees, and organizational cultures and attitudes are key factors for the
successful organizational process. The organizational process has three
important aspects, viz.,

 First, better demand forecasting is necessary and possible because of


closer ties with customers and suppliers.

 Secondly, selected functions may need to be done collaboratively with


other partners, and that collaboration may even extend to sharing
employees.

 Finally, new measures are needed for evaluating performance of


various activities. The goals is meeting and exceeding citizen’s needs
and desires, managers need a better picture of how well this value is
being created and delivered to citizens.

Characteristics of the Organization


Amitai Etzioni (1964), a prominent leading theorist of organization theory,
has outlined some feature of an organization. Organizations are
characterized by:

1. division of labor, power, and communication responsibilities,


divisions which are not random or traditionally patterned, but
deliberately planned to enhance the realization of specific goals;

2. the presence of one or more power centers which control the


concerted efforts of the organization and direct them toward its goals;
these power centers also must review continuously the organization’s
performance and re-pattern its structure, where necessary, to increase
its efficiency;
3. substitution of personnel, i.e., unsatisfactory persons can be removed
and others assigned their tasks. The organization can also recombine
its personnel through transfer and promotion (Etzioni 1964:1).

Foundations of the organization:


Some grounds of the organization are the following:

1. An organization has structure, authority, purpose, resource and


people;

2. The structure of an organization affects its behavior;

3. the structure of an organization affects the behavior of its workers,


participants, and perhaps even casual members;

4. Organizational processes also affect organizational and individual


behavior;

5. Organizations can be rationally (or scientifically) designed


structurally and procedurally to achieve their goals in an effective
and efficient manner;

6. Organization can usefully be conceptualized as systems that


respond to and affect their environments and seek to gain
information about the efficacy of those responses; and

7. Organizations may have cultures that partially define how their


members conceptualize organizational activity and the
environment.

References:
Thompkins, Jonathan R. (2005). Organization Theory and Public Management, Belmont, CA : Thompson
Wadsworth.
Robbins, Stephen P., Coulter, Mary and Vohra, Neharika (2010). Management, (10th edn.), Delhi: Dorling
Kindersley (India)Pvt.Ltd. Chapter -9.
Nigro, Feliz A. and Nigro, Llyoyd G. (1984). Modern Public Administration, (6th edn.), New York:
Harper & Row Publishers.
Peter, B. Guy (2010). The Politics of Bureaucracy: An Introduction to Comparative Public Administration,
(6th edn.), London: Routledge.

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