ORCOMM - THE THEORY

Theory Of organization

A team of research anthropologists once described a large, complex business composed of twenty-four divisions evenly distributed through the United States and linked together by a nine-member central governing body. Member of this business are drawn primarily from one ethnic group.

In chapter 1

We present an overview of three schools of thought on the term organization.

Our specific objectives are these:

1. To define and illustrate the term organization
2. To describe, illustrate, and list the key concepts of the following schools of thought on business organizations:
1. Classical school
2. Human relations school
3. Social systems school
3. To list the questions that each of three schools asks about organizations
4. to discuss the important theorists and their contributions to each school of thought
5. to examine the communications implications in the three school of thought

1. Overview and Definition

Have 3 part in subject:

• The classical theory of organization
• The human relations school thought
• The school of thought

The classical theory of organization asks such questions as the following: How is the work divided? How is the labor force divided? How many levels of authority and control are there? How many people are there at each level? What are the specific job functions of each person?

The human relations school of thought studies work group of people and asks such questions as the following: what roles do people assume in the organization? What status relationships result from the various roles? What are the morale and attitudes of the people? What social and psychological needs do the people have? What informal groups are there within the organization?

The third school of thought is concerned with social systems and emphasizes the relationship of the parts to the whole organization. Questions commonly asked by this approach are these: What are the key parts of the organization? How do they relate interdependently to each other? What processes in the organization? What is the relationship between the organization and its environment?

2. The classical School

Robert Townsend’s advice about organization charts in Up the organization demonstrates the existence of the classical school:

Don’t print and circulate organization charts. They mislead you and everybody else into wasting time conning one another. Anyway, you probably spend a major fraction of your time dealing directly with people who aren’t really above or below you on the chart. Don’t let yourself be side but below you on the chart, you may be tempted to ignore them. Summon them to your office, or to enlist their required support in advance, you should go to them at their convenience to explain and persuade.

The head of the mail room or the chief telephone operator may hold your destiny someday. Figure out who’s important to your effectiveness and then treat him (or her) that way:

It wouldn’t hurt to assume, in short, that every man- and woman- is a human being, not a rectangle.

We can see this picture. This is the classical theory of organization is concerned almost entirely with the structure of the formal organization.

The classical theory of organization is concerned almost entirely with the design and structure of organizations, not with people. The chief tool is the organization chart. Around World War. Classical theory evolved from the scientific management movement in which man was described as a rational, economic being who can best be motivated to work by such carrot and stick techniques as piecework systems, bonus systems, time and motion studies, and cost figuring systems.

The other example of scientific management in practice concerns the manager of an agency who requires all employees to time their interviews with clients, record the number of minutes involved in clerical work, and calculate the average length of an interview and the average time involved in written work.

Two foremost scholars of the classical school. Were Hendri Fayol and Max Weber. Others were James Mooney and Alan Reiley, Luther Gulick, And Lyndall Urwick, and Chester Barnard.

Among the recommended principles of management, Fayol included the following:

1. Division of work (specialization)
2. Authority and responsible (power)
3. Discipline (obedience)
4. Unity of command (one boss)
5. Unity of direction (one plan)
6. Subordination of individual interest to general interest (concern for the organization first)
7. Remuneration of personnel (fair pay)
8. Centralization (consolidation)
9. Scalar chain (chain of command)
10. Order (everyone has a unique position)
11. equity (firm but fair)
12. stability of tenure of personnel (low turnover)
13. Initiative (thinking out a plan)
14. Esprit de corps (high morale)

Max Weber took issue with the Fayol’s view of classical organization theory, distinguishing between inherent authority (traditional power, which may have been illegitimate) and legitimate authority (earned, respected, established by norms, rational and legal). Legitimate authority provided the foundation for what ever called “bureaucracy”. According to him. A bureaucracy is an organization having the following characteristics:

1. Continuity dependent upon adherence to rules
2. Areas of competence in which workers share the work and work toward specific goals under predetermined leaders
3. Scalar (hierarchical) principals
4. Rulers that are either norms or technical principles
5. Separation of administrative staff and ownership of production devices
6. Separation of private belongings and the organization’s equipment
7. resources free from outside control
8. structure in which no administrator ca monopolize personnel positions
9. All administrative acts, rules, policies, etc… stated in writing

Division of labor is refers to how a given amount of week is divided among the available human resources. The division can be according to the nature of the various jobs or according to the amount of responsibility and authority each person assumes.

Scalar and functional is scalar refers to the levels of the hierarchy (the chain command) in the organization. Functional refers to the specific job duties of each employee in the organization. The scalar process at a university refers to how authority is allocated among the board of regents, the university president, the vice presidents, the dcans, the department chairman, the faculty members, the administration staff, and the student.

The functional process at a university refers to how job responsibilities are assigned to faculty, clerical, maintenance, and administrative personnel.

3. The Human Relations School

Approximately ten years after the scientific managers began to publish their recommendations for organizing workers, a group of researchers from National Academy of Sciences began to study the relationship between production and lightning intensity at Western Electric Company. Their study did not find a relationship. Soon afterward another group of researchers, from the Havard Business School, under the leadership of Elton Mayo, Began a series of projects at the same plant. Their research also tested the relationship between worker output and working conditions. They also found no relationship, but they did notice one interesting phenomenon.

The human relations theory of organization states that people-oriented management is more effective that production-oriented management.

The basic logic of the human relation approach was to increase concern for workers by allowing them to participate in decision making, by being more friendly, and by calling them by their first names, which improved workers satisfaction and morale. The net outcome would be lower resistance to and improved compliance with management’s authority.

Another example of the strict human relations approach to management is offered by the manager in a small organization who practiced the following behaviors.

4. The social Systems School

This example illustrates the underlying logic inherent in the social systems school of organization: all parts affect the whole; every action has repercussions throughout the organization.

We defined an organization as an open system whose parts all related to its whole and its environment. We stated that all parts of an organization are interdependent or interlocking because all parts within the system. Called subsystems, affect and are affected by each other. This means simply that a change in any part of the system will affect all other. This means simply that a change in any part of the system will affect all other parts of the system.

The systems concept is useful because of its strong emphasis upon these interrelationships. These interrelationships are stressed as being of primary importance. The role of management is seen as the management of interrelationships. This emphasis avoids some of the pitfalls of a “components” mentality in which departments work out their own relationships in a haphazard manner.

Because of the importance of interrelationships. The “fast-track” system for determining immediately the likely success of new executives. New employees are asked to produce within one month a list of the major job objectives they consider to be included in their responsibility. Next, they must identify who in the organization (people,department,units0 both influence and are influenced by these objectives.

Finally, they must list the resources and information they will need from these other people and units and what the other people and units will need from them.

Scott likened organization theory to general systems theory because both study the following factors:

1. Paris (individuals) in aggregates and movement of individuals into and out of the system
2. Interaction of individuals with the environment of the system
3. Interactions among individuals in the systems
4. general growth and stability problems of systems

Huse and Bowditch summarized the main characteristics that define an organization as a system:

1. Composed of a number of subsystems, all of which are interdependent and interrelated
2. Open and dynamic, having inputs, outputs, operations, feedback, and boundaries.
3. Striving for balance through both positive and negative feedback
4. With a multiplicity of purpose, functions, and objectives, some of which are in conflict, which the administrator strives to balance