Organization

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An organization or organisation (read more about -ize vs -ise) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment. The word itself is derived from the Greek word ὄργανον (organon) meaning tool. The term is used in both daily and scientific English in multiple ways.

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

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

Contents

[edit] Organization in sociology

In sociology "organization" is understood as planned, coordinated and purposeful action of human beings 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 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, organization 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 coordinated division of labour.

An organization is defined by the elements that are part of it (who belongs to the organization and who does 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 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 elements. The price paid by the elements is the limitation of the degrees of freedom of the elements. Advantages of organizations are enhancement (more of the same), addition (combination of different features), and extension. Disadvantages can be inertness (through co-ordination) and loss of interaction.

[edit] Organizations in virtual worlds

In a virtual World (such as Second Life) "organization[s]" is understood as planned, coordinated and purposeful action of human beings and computer AIs in order to construct and/or compile a common intangible product or service to its community. Just as "an organization in sociology" this action is usually framed by formal membership and form (institutional rules). As in Second Life an organization is usually used for making money (i.e. Power Products inc. - or like in World Of Warcraft: the clan Farmers Organization-) and security, some are also wicked and evil organizations- usually called griefer/troller groups/organizations such as the Pirates of Tibia that roams Tibia. Many fail to realize that Wikipedia is a wiki, and thus subject to the review and editing of others, and also that they will be aware of any slander put upon them in this medium. These would not be classified as organizations in the "real world" because they are not truly "alive". Some organizations in Virtual Worlds have a very important roles in Real Life activities.

Some of these "clans" exist between virtual worlds, sometimes migrating between them, as newer versions of software come out, or games better suited to the system of clans. Some games, such as the aforementioned World of Warcraft and Dungeon Siege have extensive clan systems, consisting of hundreds of members. This gives rise to entire "mini societies", where you can buy and sell equipment, using real world or virtual money. This is a good example of how societies can form.

[edit] Organization in management and organizational studies

Main article: Organizational studies

Management is interested in organization mainly from an instrumental point of view. For a company organization is a means to an end to achieve its goals.

[edit] Organization theories

Among the theories that are or have been most influential are:

[edit] Organizational structures

Main article: Organizational structure

The study of organizations includes a focus on optimizing organizational structure. According to management science, most human organizations fall roughly into four types:

[edit] Pyramids or hierarchies

A hierarchy exemplifies an arrangement with a leader who leads leaders. This arrangement is often associated with bureaucracy. Hierarchies were satirized in The Peter Principle (1969), a book that introduced 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 organization is exemplified by Führerprinzip.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Staff organization 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.

[edit] 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 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 regions, customer types, or some other schema.

[edit] Ecologies

This organization has intense competition. Bad parts of the organization 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 utilize this organization 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 organization in this external article from The Guardian.

[edit] "Chaordic" organizations

The chaordic model of organizing human endeavours emerged in the 1990s, 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 organizations to evolve from the increasingly nonviable hierarchical, command-and-control models.

Similarly,emergent organizations, and the principle of self-organization. See also group entity for an anarchist perspective on human organizations.

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

[edit] See also

[edit] Related lists

[edit] References

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