Introduction to Organizations

Lecture 1

McFarland Lectures

What is an Organization?
What is an organization?
What is NOT an organization?

Hospitals
Schools
Businesses
Stores
Companies
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

Theyre 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,
masters students, and Ph.D.s. interested in
organizations
Whats the utility of this course to
policymakers and researchers? Why should
you care?
Organizations are everywhere!

Youll better understand the problems that

organizations confront.
Goals, tasks, coordination/implementation, input,
output, participants, environmental fit

This course exposes you to a variety of

actual CASES of organizations and
THEORIES that help make sense of what
you have observed.

END

Analytical Features
of Organizations
Lecture 2

McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements (Scott, p. 18)

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals

Participants

McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements: Participants

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals
Participants

PARTICIPANTS:
Technology
Goals
Organizational
participants that make
contributions
to and
Participants
Participants
derive benefits from the
organization
McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements: Participants

Faculty/Students

Participants

Boss/Employee
Technology

Participants

Goals

Organizational Elements: Participants

Organizations in a field

Participants

Technology

Goals

Participants

Organizational Elements: Structures

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals
Participants

SOCIAL STRUCTURE:
Persistent relations
existing among
participants in an
organization

McFarland Lectures

Social Structure: Different Forms

Social Structures
Technology

Goals

Participants

Social Structures: Formal vs Informal

Social Structures
Technology

Goals

Participants

Social Structures: Deep Structure

What principles and beliefs shape these
recurring patterns?
Normative structures
Social Structures

Cultural-cognitive structures
Technology

Goals

Participants

Organizational Elements: Goals

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals
Participants
Goals
GOALS:
Technology
Goals
Desired ends that
participants attempt to
achieve through
the
Participants
performance of task
activities
McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements: Goals

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.

People love our clothes and trust our

company. We will market the most appealing
and widely worn casual
clothing in the
Technology
world. We will clothe the world.
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.

Goals
Goals

Organizational Elements: Goals

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.

Aiming towards the ideal of enabling all people to

Goals
achieve maximum benefit
from their educational
Technology
Goals
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.

Organizational Elements: Technology

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals
Participants

TECHNOLOGY:
Technology

Goals

Means by which organizations

accomplish work or render inputs
into outputs
Participants

McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements: Technology

ORGANIZATION
Technology
Technology

Desired ends that

participants attempt
to achieve through
Goals
the performance of
task activities.

McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements: Environmental Linkages

The physical, technological, cultural, and social context
in which an organization is embedded

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals

Participants

McFarland Lectures

Organizational Elements: Environment

Technology
Technologyenvironment linkage
Participants

McFarland Lectures

Goals

Organizational Elements (Scott, p. 18)

ORGANIZATION
Social Structures
Technology

Goals

Participants

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 materialresource and institutional environments.

Classes of Organizational Theories (Summary adapted from Scott)

Rational
Single organization, or
administrative unit
(organization as unitary
actor)

Natural
Open
Single organization
Multiple organizations
w/multiple actors and
(organizational field)
divisions (organization as
coalition)

Actors /
Participants

Leaders, organization
(admin unit)

Participants across roles

Stakeholders, employees,
and in direct environment and even mass consumers

Social
Structure

Formal & planned /

hierarchical

Informal & emergent >

formal (external seeps
in/ norms enter)

External world permeated

internal organization
(beliefs enter)

Goals

Specific missions /
objectives

Multiple, conflicting
goals

Survival / legitimacy in
environment

Technology /
Tasks

Maximization / Decision Contingent decisions /

trees / Standard operating Unintended outcomes
procedures
(efficacy)

Less decision, more

emergence &
environmental
determinism (legitimation)

Environment

Ignored

Major role

Primary Unit
of Analysis
Organizing
Concepts

Minor role

END

Case Application
Lecture 3

McFarland Lectures

Classes of Organizational Theories (Summary adapted from Scott)

Elements
Description
Actors / Participants Organizational participants that make
contributions to and derive benefits from the
organization.
Social Structure
Persistent relations existing among
participants in an organization.
Goals
Desired ends that participants attempt to
achieve through the performance of task
activities.
Technology / Tasks Means by which organizations accomplish
work or render inputs into outputs.
Environment
The physical, technological, cultural, and
social context in which an organization is
embedded.

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

Main Story-Line (dominant pattern of inference)
Technology Structure in good way in spite of population disadvantage and potential for
divisiveness.

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 wasnt 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.

END