Organization

For other uses, seeOrganization (disambiguation),Organizing,andOrg (disambiguation).

Structure of theUnited Nationsorganization

Anorganizationororganisation(Commonwealth English;see spelling differences), is anentity—such as acompany,an institution (formal organization), or anassociation—comprising one or morepeopleand having a particular purpose.

The word is derived from the Greek wordorganon,which means tool or instrument, musical instrument, andorgan.

Types

There are a variety of legal types of organizations, includingcorporations,governments,non-governmental organizations,political organizations,international organizations,armed forces,charities,not-for-profit corporations,partnerships,cooperatives,andeducational institutions,etc.

Ahybrid organizationis a body that operates in both thepublic sectorand theprivate sectorsimultaneously, fulfilling public duties and developing commercial market activities.

Avoluntary associationis an organization consisting of volunteers. Such organizations may be able to operate without legal formalities, depending on jurisdiction, including informalclubsor coordinating bodies with a goal in mind which they may express in the form of anmanifesto,mission statement,or implicitly through the organization's actions.

Organizations may also operate secretly or illegally in the case ofsecret societies,criminal organizations,andresistance movements.And in some cases may have obstacles from other organizations (e.g.:MLK's organization).

What makes an organization recognized by the government is either filling outincorporationor recognition in the form of either societal pressure (e.g.:Advocacy group), causing concerns (e.g.:Resistance movement) or being considered the spokesperson of a group of people subject to negotiation (e.g.: thePolisario Front being recognized as the sole representative of the Sahrawi people and forming a partially recognized state.)

Compare the concept ofsocial groups,which may include non-organizations.

Organizations andinstitutionscan be synonymous, butJack Knightwrites that organizations are a narrow version of institutions or represent a cluster of institutions; the two are distinct in the sense that organizationscontaininternal institutions (that govern interactions between the members of the organizations).

Structures

Diagram of the Federal Government and American Union,1862

Main article:Organizational structure

The study of organizations includes a focus on optimisingorganizational structure.According tomanagement science,mosthumanorganizations fall roughly into four types:

• Committeesorjuries
• Ecologies
• Matrixorganizations
• Pyramidsorhierarchies

Committees or juries

These consist of a group of peers whodecideas a group, perhaps by voting. The difference between ajuryand acommitteeis 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. Incommon lawcountries, 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 among local notables.

Committees are often the most reliable way to make decisions.Condorcet's jury theoremproved 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 subsequentlyworsethan a roll of dice, the committee's decisions grow worse, not better; therefore, staffing is crucial.

Parliamentaryprocedure, such asRobert's Rules of Order,helps prevent committees from engaging in lengthy discussions without reaching decisions.

Ecologies

This organizational structure promotes internalcompetition.Inefficient components of the organization starve, while effective ones get more work. Everybody is paid for what they actually do, and so runs a tiny business that has to show aprofit,or they are fired.

Companies that utilize this organization type reflect a rather one-sided view of what goes on inecology.It is also the case that a naturalecosystemhas a natural border –ecoregionsdo not, in general, compete with one another in any way, but are very autonomous.

Thepharmaceutical companyGlaxoSmithKlinetalks about functioning as this type of organization inthis external articlefromThe Guardian. By:Bastian Batac De Leon.

Matrix organization

See also:Matrix management

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

As an example, a company might have an individual with overall responsibility for products X and Y, and another individual with overall responsibility for engineering, quality control, etc. Therefore, subordinates responsible for quality control of project X will have two reporting lines. The United States aerospace industries were the first to officially use this organizational structure after it emerged in the early 1960s.

Pyramids or hierarchical

Ahierarchyexemplifies an arrangement with aleaderwho leads other individual members of the organization. This arrangement is often associated with the basis that there are enough to imagine a real pyramid, if there are not enough stone blocks to hold up the higher ones, gravity would irrevocably bring down the monumental structure. So one can imagine that if the leader does not have the support of his subordinates, the entire structure will collapse. Hierarchies weresatirizedinThe Peter Principle(1969), a book that introducedhierarchiologyand the saying that "in a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence."

Theories

See also:Organizational theory

In the social sciences, organizations are the object of analysis for a number of disciplines, such associology,economics,political science,psychology,management,andorganizational communication.The broader analysis of organizations is commonly referred to asorganizational structure,organizational studies,organizational behavior,or organization analysis. A number of different perspectives exist, some of which are compatible:

• From a functional perspective, the focus is on how entities like businesses or state authorities are used.
• From an institutional perspective, an organization is viewed as a purposeful structure within a social context.
• From a process-related perspective, an organization is viewed as an entity being (re-)organized, and the focus is on the organization as a set of tasks or actions.

Sociology can be defined as the science of theinstitutionsofmodernity;specific institutionsserve a function,akin to the individual organs of a coherent body. In the social and political sciences in general, an "organization" may be more loosely understood as the planned, coordinated, and purposeful action of human beings working through collective action to reach a common goal or construct a tangibleproduct.This action is usually framed by formal membership and form (institutional rules). Sociology distinguishes the term organization into planned formal and unplanned informal (i.e. spontaneously formed) organizations. Sociology analyses organizations in the first line from an institutional perspective. In this sense, the organization is an enduring arrangement of elements. These elements and their actions are determined by rules so that a certain task can be fulfilled through a system of coordinateddivision of labor.

Economic approaches to organizations also take thedivision of laboras a starting point. The division of labor allows for (economies of)specialization.Increasing specialization necessitates coordination. From an economic point of view, markets and organizations are alternative coordination mechanisms for the execution oftransactions.

An organization is defined by the elements that are part of it (who belongs to the organization and who does not?), itscommunication(which elements communicate and how do they communicate?), its autonomy (which changes are executed autonomously by the organization or its elements?), and its rules of action compared to outside events (what causes an organization to act as a collective actor?).

By coordinated and planned cooperation of the elements, the organization is able to solve tasks that lie beyond the abilities of the single element. The price paid by the elements is the limitation of thedegrees of freedomof the elements. Advantages of organizations are enhancement (more of the same), addition (combination of different features), and extension. Disadvantages can be inertness (through coordination) and loss ofinteraction.

Among the theories that are or have been influential are:

• Activity theoryis the major theoretical influence, acknowledged by deClodomir Santos de Moraisin the development ofOrganization Workshopmethod.
• Actor–network theory,an approach to social theory and research, originating in the field of science studies, which treats objects as part of social networks.
• Complexity theory and organizations,the use ofcomplexity theoryin the field ofstrategic managementand organizational studies.
• Contingency theory,a class of behavioral theories that claim that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions.
• Critical management studies,a loose but extensive grouping of theoretically informed critiques of management, business, and organization, grounded originally in acritical theoryperspective
• Economic sociology,studies both the social effects and the social causes of various economic phenomena.
• Enterprise architecture,the conceptual model that defines the coalescence of organizational structure and organizational behavior.
• Garbage Can Model,describes a model which disconnects problems, solutions, and decision-makers from each other.
• Principal–agent problem,concerns the difficulties in motivating one party (the "agent" ), to act in the best interests of another (the "principal" ) rather than in his or her own interests
• Scientific management(mainly followingFrederick W. Taylor), a theory ofmanagementthat analyses and synthesizesworkflows.
• Social entrepreneurship,the process of pursuing innovative solutions to social problems.
• Transaction cost theory,the idea that people begin to organize their production in firms when the transaction cost of coordinating production through the market exchange, given imperfect information, is greater than within the firm.
• Weber's Ideal of Bureaucracy(refer toMax Weber's chapter on "Bureaucracy" in his bookEconomy and Society)

Leadership

Main article:Leadership

Aleaderin a formal,hierarchical organization,is appointed to a managerial position and has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue of the authority of his position. However, he must possess adequate personal attributes to match his authority, because authority is only potentially available to him. In the absence of sufficient personal competence, a manager may be confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge his role in the organization and reduce it to that of a figurehead. However, only the authority of position has the backing of formal sanctions. It follows that whoever wields personal influence and power canlegitimizethis only by gaining a formal position in the hierarchy, with commensurate authority.

Formal organizations

An organization that is established as a means for achieving definedobjectiveshas been referred to as aformal organization.Its design specifies how goals are subdivided and reflected in subdivisions of the organization. Divisions, departments, sections, positions,jobs,and tasks make up this workstructure.Thus, the formal organization is expected to behave impersonally in regard to relationships with clients or with its members. According to Weber's definition, entry and subsequent advancement is by merit or seniority. Each employee receives a salary and enjoys a degree of tenure that safeguards him from the arbitrary influence of superiors or of powerful clients. The higher his position in the hierarchy, the greater his presumed expertise in adjudicating problems that may arise in the course of the work carried out at lower levels of the organization. It is this bureaucratic structure that forms the basis for the appointment of heads or chiefs of administrative subdivisions in the organization and endows them with the authority attached to their position.

Informal organizations

In contrast to the appointed head or chief of an administrative unit, a leader emerges within the context of theinformal organizationthat underlies the formal structure. The informal organization expresses the personalobjectivesandgoalsof the individualmembership.Their objectives and goals may or may not coincide with those of the formal organization. The informal organization represents an extension of the social structures that generally characterize human life – the spontaneous emergence of groups and organizations as ends in themselves.

In prehistoric times, man was preoccupied with his personal security, maintenance, protection, and survival. Now man spends a major portion of his waking hours working for organizations. His need to identify with a community that provides security, protection, maintenance, and a feeling of belonging continues unchanged from prehistoric times. This need is met by the informal organization and its emergent, or unofficial, leaders.

Leaders emerge from within the structure of the informal organization. Their personal qualities, the demands of the situation, or a combination of these and other factors attract followers who accept their leadership within one or several overlay structures. Instead of the authority of position held by an appointed head or chief, the emergent leader wields influence or power. Influence is the ability of a person to gain cooperation from others by means of persuasion or control over rewards. Power is a stronger form of influence because it reflects a person's ability to enforce action through the control of a means of punishment.

The interplay between formal and informal organizations

As most organizations operate through a mix of formal and informal mechanisms, organization science scholars have paid attention to the type of interplay between formal and informal organizations. On the one hand, some have argued that formal and informal organizations operate as substitutes as one type of organization would decrease the advantages of using the other one. For instance, if parties trust each other the use of a formal contract is unnecessary or even detrimental to the relationship.On the other hand, other scholars have suggested that formal and informal organizations can complement each other. For instance, formal mechanisms of control can pave the way for the development of relational norms.

See also

• Affinity group
• Anticipatory socialization
• Business organization
• Coalition
• Collective
• Decentralized autonomous organization
• History of organizations
• List of designated terrorist organizations
• List of environmental organizations
• List of general fraternities
• List of international professional associations
• List of trade unions
• Maturity model
• Multidimensional organization
• Mutual organization
• Organizational psychology
• Organization Workshop
• Pacifist organization
• Requisite organization
• Service club
• Size of groups, organizations, and communities
• Umbrella organization
• Voluntary association

Further reading

• Baligh, Helmy H. (2006).Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription.Springer New York.ISBN978-0387258478.
• Coase, Ronald(1937). "The Nature of the Firm"Economica,4(16), pp. 386–405.
• Handy, Charles(1990).Inside Organizations: 21 Ideas for Managers.London: BBC Books.ISBN978-0-563-20830-3.
• Handy, Charles(2005).Understanding Organizations(4th ed.). London: Penguin Books.ISBN978-0-14-015603-4.
• Hewlett, Roderic. (2006). The Cognitive leader. Rowman & Littlefield Pub Inc.
• Johnson, Richard Arvid (1976).Management, systems, and society: an introduction.Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear Pub. Co.ISBN0-87620-540-6.OCLC2299496.
• Katz, Daniel; Kahn, Robert Louis (1966).The social psychology of organizations.New York: Wiley.OCLC255184.
• March, James G.; Simon, Herbert A. (1958).Organizations.New York: Wiley.ISBN0-471-56793-0.OCLC1329335.
• Marshak, Thomas (1987). "organization theory",The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics,v. 3, pp. 757–60.
• Mintzberg, Henry (1981). "Organization Design: Fashion or Fit"Harvard Business Review(January February)
• Morgenstern, Julie (1998).Organizing from the Inside Out.Owl BooksISBN0-8050-5649-1
• Peter, Laurence J.andRaymond Hull.The Peter PrinciplePan Books 1970ISBN0-330-02519-8
• Rogers, Carl R.; Roethlisberger, Fritz Jules (1990).Barriers and gateways to communication.Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Review.OCLC154085959.
• Samson, D., Daft, R. (2005). Management: second Pacific Rim edition. Melbourne, Victoria: Thomson
• Satir, Virginia (1967).Conjoint family therapy; a guide to theory and technique.Palo Alto, Calif: Science and Behavior Books.OCLC187068.
• Scott, William Richard(2008).Institutions and Organizations(3rd ed.). London: Sage Publications Ltd.ISBN978-1-4129-5090-9.

External links

• Research on Organizations: Bibliography Database and Maps
• TheTransitioner.org:a site dedicated tocollective intelligenceand structure of organizations