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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