Organization

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Alternative meaning: Organisation (band).

An organisation or organization (see usage note) is a formal group of people with one or more shared goals. This topic is a broad one.

The word itself is derived from the Greek word "organon" meaning tool. The term is used in both daily and scientific English in multiple ways. Depending on where it is used different meanings are associated with it.

In the social sciences Organisations are studied by researchers from several disciplines. Most commonly in sociology, economics, political science, psychology, and management. The broad area is commonly referred to as organisation theory, organisational behaviour or organisation analysis. Therefore, a number of different theories and perspectives exist , some of which are compatible, and others that are competing.

The study of organisations includes a focus on optimising [organisational structure]. According to management science, most human organisations fall roughly into four types:

Organization Terms

process-related: an entity is being (re-) organized (organization as task or action).
functional: organization as a function of how entities like businesses or state authorities are used (organization as a permanent structure).
institutional: an entity is an organization (organization as an actual purposeful structure within a social context)

Organization in Sociology

In sociology "organisation" is understood as planned, coordinated and purposeful action of human beings in order to construct or compile a common tangible or intangible product. This action is usually framed by formal membership and form (institutional rules). Sociology distinguishes the term organisation into planned formal and unplanned informal (i.e. spontaneously formed) organisations. Sociology analyses organisations in the first line from an institutional perspective. In this sense organisation is a permanent arrangement of elements. These elements and their actions are determined by rules so that a certain task can be fulfilled through a system of co-ordinated division of labor.

An organisation is defined by its elements that are part of it (who belongs to the organisation and who not?), its communication (which elements communicate and how do they communicate?), its autonomy (Max Weber termed autonomy in this context: Autokephalie)(which changes are executed autonomously by the organisation or its elements?) and its rules of action compared to outside events (what causes an organisation to act as a collective actor?).

By coordinated and planned cooperation of the elements the organisation is able to solve tasks that lie beyond the abilities of the single elements. The price paid by the elements is the limitation of the degrees of freedom of the elements. Advantages of organisations are enhancement (more of the same), addition (combination of different features), and extension. Disadvantages can be inertness (through co-ordination) and loss of interaction.

Organization Theories

Among those that are or have been most influential are:

Weberian organisation theory (refer to Max Weber's chapter on Bureaucracy in his book 'Economy and Society')
Marxist organisation analysis
Scientific Management (mainly following Frederick W Taylor)
Human Relations Studies (going back to the Hawthorne studies, Maslow and Hertzberg)
Administrative theories (with work by e.g. Henri Fayol and Chester Barnard)
Contingency theory
New institutionalism and new institutional economics
Network analysis
Economic Sociology
Organisation ecology (or demography of organisations)
Transaction cost economics
Agency theory (sometimes called principal - agent theory)
Studies of organisation culture
Postmodern organisation studies
Labour Process Theory
Critical Management Studies
Unicist Natural Organisation
Transaction cost theory

Organisations that are legal entities: government, international organisation, non-governmental organisation, armed forces, corporation, partnership, charity, not-for-profit corporation, cooperative, university.

Organizational studies also includes research efforts to inform the effective management of organisations, and addresses organisational culture, organisational learning and managing change as major factors affecting organisational effectiveness, beyond the basics of organisational structure.

Usage

Both organisation and organization are accepted spellings in Commonwealth English, but in North American English, only organization is considered correct. Meanwhile, Commonwealth English tends to use organisation more frequently than organization, with one major exception being the Oxford English Dictionary. Etymologicaly speaking, organization is the correct spelling, with organisation having come into use as a result of French influence in the United Kingdom during the 19th century; consequently, Oxford insists on the use of organization (as well as other words such as recognize) for the primary spelling. In general, one is safer using this spelling, as again organisation is incorrect in North American English whereas organization is perfectly acceptable (though at times considered odd) in Commonwealth English

Pyramids or hierarchies

A hierarchy exemplifies an arrangement with a leader who leads leaders. This arrangement is often associated with bureaucracy. Hierarchies were satirised in The Peter Principle (1969), a book that introduced the term hierarchiology and the saying that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence".

An extremely rigid, in terms of responsibilities, type of organisation is exemplified by Führerprinzip.

Committees or juries

These consist of a group of peers who decide as a group, perhaps by voting. The difference between a jury and a committee is that the members of the committee are usually assigned to perform or lead further actions after the group comes to a decision, whereas members of a jury come to a decision. In common law countries legal juries render decisions of guilt, liability and quantify damages; juries are also used in athletic contests, book awards and similar activities. Sometimes a selection committee functions like a jury. In the middle ages juries in continental Europe were used to determine the law according to consensus amongst local notables.

Committees are often the most reliable way to make decisions. Condorcet's jury theorem proved that if the average member votes better than a roll of dice, then adding more members increases the number of majorities that can come to a correct vote (however correctness is defined). The problem is that if the average member is worse than a roll of dice, the committee's decisions grow worse, not better! Staffing is crucial.

Parliamentary procedure, such as Robert's Rules of Order, helps prevent committees from engaging in lengthy discussions without reaching decisions.

Staff organisation or cross-functional team

A staff helps an expert get all his work done. To this end, a "chief of staff" decides whether an assignment is routine or not. If it's routine, he assigns it to a staff member, who is a sort of junior expert. The chief of staff schedules the routine problems, and checks that they are completed.

If a problem is not routine, the chief of staff notices. He passes it to the expert, who solves the problem, and educates the staff -- converting the problem into a routine problem.

In a "cross functional team," like an executive committee, the boss has to be a non-expert, because so many kinds of expertise are required.

Matrix organisation

This organisational type assigns each worker to two bosses in two different hierarchies. One hierarchy is "functional" and assures that each type of expert in the organisation is well-trained, and measured by a boss who is super-expert in the same field. The other direction is "executive" and tries to get projects completed using the experts. Projects might be organised by regions, customer types, or some other schema.

See matrix management.

Ecologies

This organisation has intense competition. Bad parts of the organisation starve. Good ones get more work. Everybody is paid for what they actually do, and runs a tiny business that has to show a profit, or they are fired.

Companies who utilise this organisation type reflect a rather one-sided view of what goes on in ecology. It is also the case that a natural ecosystem has a natural border - ecoregions do not in general compete with one another in any way, but are very autonomous.

The pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline talks about functioning as this type of organisation in this external article from The Guardian.

"Chaordic" organisations

The chaordic model of organising human endeavours emerged in the [1990]s, based on a blending of chaos and order (hence "chaordic"), comes out of the work of Dee Hock and the creation of the VISA financial network. Blending democracy, complex system, consensus decision making, co-operation and competition, the chaordic approach attempts to encourage organisations to evolve from the increasingly nonviable hierarchical, command-and-control models.

Similarly, see Emergent organisations, and the principle of self-organisation. See also group entity for an anarchist perspective on human organisations.

References

Organisations by Richard Scott: ISBN 0132663546
Organisations and Institutions by Richard Scott
Understanding organisations by Charles Handy.
The Peter Principle, Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, Pan Books 1970 ISBN 0-330-02519-8
The Nature of the Firm by Ronald Coase.
Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern, Owl Books 1998 ISBN 0805056491

External links

Website of Global Dharma Center, a not-for-profit organisation offering (free) training modules, research papers, workshop exercises etc on Culture Development and Individual/Organisation Transformation