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Organization

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Economics

   An organization or organisation (read more about -ize vs -ise) is a
   formal group of people with one or more shared goals. 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, and management. 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)

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 or service. 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.

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.

Organization in management and 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.

Organization theories

   Among the theories that are or have been most influential are:
     * Weberian organization theory (refer to Max Weber's chapter on
       Bureaucracy in his book ' Economy and Society')
     * Marxist organization analysis
     * Scientific management (mainly following Frederick W. Taylor)
     * Human Relations Studies (going back to the Hawthorne studies,
       Maslow and Hertzberg)
     * Administrative theories (with work by e.g. Henri Fayol and Chester
       Barnard)
     * Contingency theory
     * New institutionalism and new institutional economics
     * Network analysis
     * Economic sociology
     * Organization ecology (or demography of organizations)
     * Transaction cost economics
     * Agency theory (sometimes called principal - agent theory)
     * Studies of organization culture
     * Postmodern organization studies
     * Labour Process Theory
     * Critical Management Studies
     * Complexity Theory and Organizations
     * Transaction cost theory/Transaction cost Economics (TCE)
     * Garbage can model
     * Actor-Network Theory and the ' Montreal School'

Organizational structures

   The study of organizations includes a focus on optimizing
   organizational structure. According to management science, most human
   organizations fall roughly into four types:
     * Pyramids or hierarchies
     * Committees or juries
     * Matrix organizations
     * Ecologies

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.

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.

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.

Matrix organization

   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.

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.

"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.

Links to other Wikipedia articles

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization_design

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organization"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
