Introduction to Organizations Lecture 1 McFarland Lectures
Dec 12, 2015
Introduction to Organizations
Lecture 1
McFarland Lectures
What is an Organization?
What is an organization?What is NOT an organization?
HospitalsSchoolsBusinessesStoresCompanies Factories
Families…Professional associations…Social movements…Friendship cliques…Random collectivities…Isolated individuals…
What makes something an organization or not?
What is an Organization?
A simple working definition: Organizations are groups whose members coordinate their behavior in order to accomplish shared goals or to put out a product.
Examples Qualities
Organizations Companies, schools, families and voluntary associations
Roles, rules, goals, recurring behaviors, clear boundaries.
Not Organizations Random collections of persons, isolated individuals
No roles, rules, goals, pattern of recurrence, or boundary.
Ambiguous Cases Street gangs, friendship groups, social movements
Less clear roles, rules, and goals, porous boundaries and fluid participants.
What is an Organization?
We can reflect on how common these organizations are. They are everywhere and extremely important!They serve many functions in society!
What is an Organization?
Organizations vary greatly.
Size Market sector Social Structure Environmental context
Organizational problems and reform They’re everywhere and complex problems arise! We feel compelled to reform organizations... But what about them do we change?
List of Educational Reforms
The teacher wrote as follows:
Course Aims and Its Value to You
The course is for advanced undergraduate, master’s students, and Ph.D.s. interested in organizations
What’s the utility of this course to policymakers and researchers? Why should you care?
You’ll better understand the problems that organizations confront.
This course exposes you to a variety of actual CASES of organizations and THEORIES that help make sense of what you have observed.
Organizations are everywhere!
Goals, tasks, coordination/implementation, input, output, participants, environmental fit
END
Analytical Features of Organizations
Lecture 2
McFarland Lectures
Organizational Elements (Scott, p. 18)
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
ENVIRONM
ENT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
McFarland Lectures
Organizational Elements: Participants
Participants
Technology Goals
Participants
McFarland Lectures
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
PARTICIPANTS: Organizational participants that make contributions to and derive benefits from the organization
Organizational Elements: Participants
Participants
Technology Goals
Participants
Boss/Employee
Faculty/Students
Organizational Elements: Participants
Participants
Technology Goals
Participants
Organizations in a field
Organizational Elements: Structures
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
McFarland Lectures
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
SOCIAL STRUCTURE:Persistent relations existing among participants in an organization
Social Structure: Different Forms
Social Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
Social Structures: Formal vs Informal
Social Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
Social Structures: “Deep” Structure
Social Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
•What principles and beliefs shape these recurring patterns?
Normative structures
Cultural-cognitive structures
Organizational Elements: Goals
Participants
Technology GoalsGoals
McFarland Lectures
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
GOALS:Desired ends that participants attempt to achieve through the performance of task activities
Organizational Elements: Goals
Technology GoalsGoals
Our goal for Citigroup is to be the most respected global financial services company. Like any other public company, we're obligated to deliver profits and growth to our shareholders. Of equal importance is to deliver those profits and generate growth responsibly.
We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing to motorcyclists and to the general public an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments.
People love our clothes and trust our company. We will market the most appealing and widely worn casual clothing in the world. We will clothe the world.
Organizational Elements: Goals
Technology GoalsGoalsAiming towards the ideal of enabling all people
to achieve maximum benefit from their educational experiences, the Stanford University School of Education seeks to continue as a world leader in ground-breaking, cross-disciplinary inquiries that shape educational practices, their conceptual underpinnings, and the professions that serve the enterprise.
The School also seeks to develop the knowledge, wisdom, and imagination of its students to enable them to take leadership positions in efforts to improve the quality of education around the globe.
Our mission is to create ideas that deepen and advance our understanding of management and with those ideas to develop innovative, principled, and insightful leaders who change the world.
Organizational Elements: Technology
Participants
Technology Goals
McFarland Lectures
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
TECHNOLOGY:Means by which organizations accomplish work or render inputs into outputs
Organizational Elements: Technology
Technology GoalsTechnology
Desired ends that participants attempt to achieve through the performance of task activities.
ORGANIZATION
McFarland Lectures
Organizational Elements: Environmental Linkages
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
ENVIRONM
ENT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
McFarland Lectures
The physical, technological, cultural, and social context in which an organization is embedded
Organizational Elements: Environment
Participants
GoalsTechnology
McFarland Lectures
Technology-environment linkage
Organizational Elements (Scott, p. 18)
ORGANIZATIONSocial Structures
Participants
Technology Goals
ENVIRONM
ENT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
McFarland Lectures
Theories: Rational, Natural, Open
How can these organizational elements work together in a system?
Rational Systems
An organization as a collectivity oriented toward the pursuit of specific goals and whose behavior exhibits a formalized structure.
Theories: Rational, Natural, Open
How can these organizational elements work together in a system?
Natural Systems
An organization as collectivities whose participants pursue multiple interests, forged in conflict and consensus, but who recognize the value of perpetuating the organization as an important resource.
Theor: Rational, Natural, Open
How can these organizational elements work together in a system?
Open Systems
Organizations are congeries of interdependent flows and activities linking shifting coalitions of participants embedded in wider material-resource and institutional environments.
Classes of Organizational Theories (Summary adapted from Scott)
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Case Application
Lecture 3
McFarland Lectures
Classes of Organizational Theories (Summary adapted from Scott)
Case Application
Case Application - Adams Avenue School New Magnet Middle School Individually Guided Education (Small
Schools) Story of how they build an positive
school culture that alleviates some of its problems of discipline and achievement.
Recounting the Case
Adams Avenue School History Parent involvement Individually Guided Education School character
Recounting the Case
Adams Avenue School The program in practice IGE Influence …
On school character On curriculum On reward structure / incentives On tasks and relationships
Recounting the Case
Adams Avenue School Physical location Faculty culture and ethos Leadership – principal Michaels
Summary
CASE: Adams School (IGE Magnet) Summary
CASE: Adams School (IGE Magnet) Summary
Case Application
Natural system perspective – the technology (small schools and IGE) and social structure (norms) coalesce, forming a more personable context. The plan wasn’t explicitly this – to form a
nurturing climate of rapport building rapport - but it happened.
Moreover, the reform / culture is never fully embraced – it is an accomplishment.
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