13 Organizational Behavior core concepts Organizational Design: How a Structure Connects Employees and Tasks 13-2 McGraw-Hill/Irwin Organizational Behavior, Core Concepts Copyright © 2008 by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc All rights reserved Learning Objectives • Define organizations and their basic dimensions • Explain commonly used metaphors for organizations as closed or open systems, military/mechanical bureaucracies, and biological and cognitive systems • Describe basic criteria for organizational effectiveness 13-3 Learning Objectives • Summarize what is involved in the contingency approach to organizational design • Discuss new-style and old-style organizations, including virtual organizations 13-4 What is an Organization? • Organization – system of consciously coordinated activities of two or more people 13-5 What is an Organization? • Four common denominators – Coordination of effort – Common goal – Division of labor – Hierarchy of authority 13-6 Designing Effective Teams See an article from Administrative Science Quarterly on designing effective teams 13-7 What is an Organization? • Unity of command principle – each employee should report to a single manager 13-8 Organization Charts • Organization chart – boxes-and-lines illustration showing chain of formal authority and division of labor 13-9 Sample Organization Chart for a Hospital 13-10 Figure 13-1 Organizations as Military/Mechanical Bureaucracies • Bureaucracy – Max Weber’s idea of the most rationally efficient form of organization • Weber’s Bureaucracy – Division of labor – A hierarchy of authority – A framework of rules – Administrative personality 13-14 Organizations as Biological Systems • The complex organization is a set of interdependent parts which together make up a whole because each contributes something and receives something from the whole, which in turn is interdependent with some larger environment 13-15 The Organization as an Open System: The Biological Model 13-16 Figure 13-2 Organizations as Cognitive Systems • Organizations have mechanisms to interpret ambiguous events and to provide meaning and direction for participants 13-17 Question? Which effectiveness criteria is the most widely used? A Goal accomplishment B Resource acquisition C Internal processes D Strategic constituencies satisfaction 13-18 Generic Effectiveness Criteria • Goal accomplishment – most widely used effectiveness criteria, measured by comparing key organizational results with previously stated goals • Resource acquisition – organization is effective if it acquires necessary factors of production 13-19 Generic Effectiveness Criteria • Internal processes – healthy system if information flows smoothly and if employee loyalty, commitment, job satisfaction prevail • Strategic constituencies satisfaction – Strategic constituency: any group of people with a stake in the organization’s operation or success 13-20 Mixing Effectiveness Criteria: Practical Guidelines • Goal accomplishment – approach is appropriate when goals are clear, consensual, time-bounded, and measurable • Resource acquisition – approach is appropriate when inputs have a traceable effect on results or output 13-21 Mixing Effectiveness Criteria: Practical Guidelines • Internal processes – appropriate when organizational performance is strongly influenced by specific processes • Strategic constituencies – appropriate when powerful stakeholders can significantly benefit or harm the organization 13-22 The Contingency Approach to Designing Organizations • Contingency approach to organization design – creating an effective organizationenvironment fit 13-23 Mechanistic versus Organic Organizations • Mechanistic organizations – Rigid bureaucracies with strict rules, narrowly defined tasks, and top-down communication • Organic organizations – Flexible networks of multitalented individuals who perform a variety of tasks 13-24 Question? In what type of decision making top managers make all key decisions? A Centralized B Decentralized C Fundamental D Primary 13-25 Approaches to Decision Making • Centralized decision making – top managers make all key decisions • Decentralized decision making – lower-level managers are empowered to make important decisions 13-26 New-Style versus Old-Style Organizations 13-27 Table 13-1 Virtual Organizations • Virtual Organizations – modern information technology allows people to get something accomplished despite being geographically dispersed 13-28 ...13 Organizational Behavior core concepts Organizational Design: How a Structure Connects Employees and Tasks 13-2 McGraw-Hill/Irwin Organizational Behavior, Core Concepts Copyright © 2008 by. .. systems • Describe basic criteria for organizational effectiveness 13-3 Learning Objectives • Summarize what is involved in the contingency approach to organizational design • Discuss new-style... Effectiveness Criteria • Goal accomplishment – most widely used effectiveness criteria, measured by comparing key organizational results with previously stated goals • Resource acquisition – organization