Notes book part 2
Chapter 1: What are organizations?
Organizations are:
1. social entities that;
2. are goal-directed;
3. are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems, and;
4. are linked to the external environment
Key element: organizations are made up of people and their relationships with one another.
Organizations exit to do the following:
1. Bring together resources to achieve desired goals and outcomes
2. Produce goods and services efficiently
3. Facilitate innovation
4. Use modern manufacturing and information technologies
5. Adapt to and influence a changing environment
6. Create value for owners, customers, and employees
7. Accommodate ongoing challenges of diversity, ethics, and the motivation and
coordination of employees
Current challenges:
- Globalization
- Ethics and social responsibility
- Responsiveness
- Intense competition
- The digital workplace
- Diversity
Chapter 2: Perspectives on organizations
Closed system: Focuses exclusively upon the organization, self-contained, effectively sealed
off from the outside world.
Open system: Pays attention to the boundary between the organization and its context.
Developing a design that effectively manages the exchanges across his boundary, is an open
system perspective. This is key to survival and prosperity.
A system is a series of interconnected elements who’s input comes from her environment,
transforms those inputs and sends the output to the outside world.
Raw materials, people and information are resources that come in those combined
produce a product or service and send it to the outside world.
, Each system is understood to comprise several subsystems. These subsystems are identified
in relation to the specific functions they are conceived to perform for organizational survival.
Subsystems perform 5 essential tasks:
1. Boundary spanning
2. Production
3. Maintenance
4. Adaptation
5. Management
Organizational framework:
(Top) management:
Provides direction, strategy, goals and policies for the entire organization
Technical support: (Middle) management: Administrative support:
Scans the environment for Responsible for implementation Support functions is
problems, opportunities and coordination at the department. Responsible for the
and technical develop- level smooth operation and
ments (R&D) upkeep of the org.
Technical core:
Includes diverse support staff who do the basic work of the organization
In real-life organizations, the five parts are not readily distinguishable, and they may serve
more than one subsystem function.
Organizational dimensions fall into two types:
- Structural dimensions: provide labels to describe the internal characteristics of an
organization. They create a basis for measuring and comparing organizations.
- Contextual dimensions: characterize the whole organization, including its size, technology,
environment, and goals.
Structural Dimensions:
- Formalization the amount of written documentation in the organization
- Specialization degree to which organizational tasks are subdivided into separate
jobs. (Extensive: narrow range of tasks, low: wide range of tasks)
- Hierarchy of authority describes to who reports to whom and the span of control
for each manager (the number of employees reporting to a supervisor)
Narrow span of control: hierarchy tends to be tall. Wide span of control: hierarchy of
authority will be shorter.
- Centralization refers to the hierarchy level that has authority to make a decision.
Centralized: at the top level. Decentralized: delegated to lower organizational levels.
Chapter 1: What are organizations?
Organizations are:
1. social entities that;
2. are goal-directed;
3. are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems, and;
4. are linked to the external environment
Key element: organizations are made up of people and their relationships with one another.
Organizations exit to do the following:
1. Bring together resources to achieve desired goals and outcomes
2. Produce goods and services efficiently
3. Facilitate innovation
4. Use modern manufacturing and information technologies
5. Adapt to and influence a changing environment
6. Create value for owners, customers, and employees
7. Accommodate ongoing challenges of diversity, ethics, and the motivation and
coordination of employees
Current challenges:
- Globalization
- Ethics and social responsibility
- Responsiveness
- Intense competition
- The digital workplace
- Diversity
Chapter 2: Perspectives on organizations
Closed system: Focuses exclusively upon the organization, self-contained, effectively sealed
off from the outside world.
Open system: Pays attention to the boundary between the organization and its context.
Developing a design that effectively manages the exchanges across his boundary, is an open
system perspective. This is key to survival and prosperity.
A system is a series of interconnected elements who’s input comes from her environment,
transforms those inputs and sends the output to the outside world.
Raw materials, people and information are resources that come in those combined
produce a product or service and send it to the outside world.
, Each system is understood to comprise several subsystems. These subsystems are identified
in relation to the specific functions they are conceived to perform for organizational survival.
Subsystems perform 5 essential tasks:
1. Boundary spanning
2. Production
3. Maintenance
4. Adaptation
5. Management
Organizational framework:
(Top) management:
Provides direction, strategy, goals and policies for the entire organization
Technical support: (Middle) management: Administrative support:
Scans the environment for Responsible for implementation Support functions is
problems, opportunities and coordination at the department. Responsible for the
and technical develop- level smooth operation and
ments (R&D) upkeep of the org.
Technical core:
Includes diverse support staff who do the basic work of the organization
In real-life organizations, the five parts are not readily distinguishable, and they may serve
more than one subsystem function.
Organizational dimensions fall into two types:
- Structural dimensions: provide labels to describe the internal characteristics of an
organization. They create a basis for measuring and comparing organizations.
- Contextual dimensions: characterize the whole organization, including its size, technology,
environment, and goals.
Structural Dimensions:
- Formalization the amount of written documentation in the organization
- Specialization degree to which organizational tasks are subdivided into separate
jobs. (Extensive: narrow range of tasks, low: wide range of tasks)
- Hierarchy of authority describes to who reports to whom and the span of control
for each manager (the number of employees reporting to a supervisor)
Narrow span of control: hierarchy tends to be tall. Wide span of control: hierarchy of
authority will be shorter.
- Centralization refers to the hierarchy level that has authority to make a decision.
Centralized: at the top level. Decentralized: delegated to lower organizational levels.
