The Formal Organization
Legal
-A form of social power derived from the legal foundations of formal organizations (Rational)
Theories X
-Humans motivated by external factors; need to be controlled and manipulated by rewards to perform -People avoid work when possible; requires directive oversight -Workers regarded as outside the organization and are used for conversion process only
Theory Z:
-Japanese model : Organization develops worker loyalty by assuring lifetime employment - identity and morale improve -Workers are an integral part of the system, their welfare is an internal factor
Legal Traditional Charismatic
-These should be treated as distinct analytical models for examining authority as it pertains to organizational behavior. -It should also be noted that each type of authority tends to be associated with different types of social structures.
Formal Organization
-Third, a governance structure is created. •Formalization: establishes how authority is exercised and how work is divided and conducted •Public organization: Governance structure specified in the law •Nonpublic agency: Governance will be delineated in its legal charter
Authority
-Weber definition: the probability that a specific command will be obeyed. The notion of authority is developed in the context of legitimacy, which means an acceptance on the part of those being commanded that the person commanding possesses that right. In other words, the person has the legal authority to tell a subordinate what to do
•Theory Y:
-Workers are intrinsically motivated; managers can tap worker's self-control and harness it for the job. -Organic to organization and their welfare is part of system outcome •Theory Z:
German sociologist Max Weber
-Writings are the foundations to administrative theory (management of organizations) -processes of formalization (based in law) and legitimization -organizational theories referred to as the "machine school of organizational theory"
The organization is viewed as a system of interdependent roles
-breaks down a given task or function into its component parts •then assigning persons to perform one or more subtasks as opposed to the total task (building a house). -Assignment of the work to be performed (division of labor) and assignment of authority to see that the work is performed is always made to a position, not to an individual -In a bureaucracy, this process results in •specification of the knowledge, skills, and authority required to carry out each of the various organizational roles •The specification is used to select individuals with the qualifications
The central point: vertical chain of legally based authority
-reaches from the top of the structure to the bottom -thereby affecting every person employed in the agency -the structure connects every position with every other position in the organization, thereby coordinating the work of the organizations various parts
Charismatic
A form of social power derived power from personal characteristics perceived to be possessed by the person exercising the power
•In this sense, the organization was seen as possessing both a formal administrative (rational) structure and an informal (natural) social structure •It was therefore deemed necessary to consider both structures and their respective needs to understand organizational behaviors and their outcomes
Human Relations Theory 2
Authority
the expression of social power; the ability of a person to influence the actions and thoughts of others
administrators
the helping role is as an implementer, developer/ manager in a formal organization rather than as a counselor
Acceptance
of the order by those affected legitimizes the authority the person accepts the order because he or she believes the person issuing it has the right to do so and that he or she has the corresponding responsibility to accept and comply.
Hierarchical Structure
refers to this organization of legal authority in formal organizations
Division of LaborFrom the rationalists' position
the breakdown of work into the component parts and the assignment of the work to different people in work units
Organizational Theory & Practice Formal Organization
•A form of social organization deliberately and formally created to achieve relatively specific and delimited goals and in which logical actions dominate. -A deliberate action is taken to create the organization as a recognized social and legal entity •Usually created under state law as a public entity or through the filing of legal papers -A written statement sets forth the general purposes and sphere of activity of the organization, for example, the private organization created as either for- profit or not-for- profit
Charismatic Authority
•Authority vested in a person because of personal qualities possessed by the person -not because of the office or tradition. •The tie between leader and followers is a personal one -the office held is incidental; the tie is to the person The war hero or human rights leader, the prophet, or the demagogue is each an example of a charismatic leader i.e. Joan of Arc, Napoleon, Gandhi, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jane Addams
Decision Making
•Authority vested in the position -not in a person -The notion also includes the principle of the •delimitation of authority •right to appeal a decision to a higher authority the areas within the bureaucracy in which authority is exercised are not open ended but are limited to a given and known jurisdictional area
Total Quality Management
•Based on Humanistic philosophy: -People are innately Good -People want to do a good job -People deserve respect •Requires systems perspective vs. personal perspective •Major contributions to Social Systems Theory -Quality pertains to organization's output -Quality is defined by customers/clients (not organization) -Quality of product/service results from conversion process -Process is never perfected; process improvement continuous -Commitment by all to quality through focused organizational purpose and data-driven feedback
Standardization of Role Performance
•Everyone in the organization performing the same role should enact that role in the same manner •A best method for role performance exists -everyone doing what, when, how and for how long....the standardized way... result sin efficiency •These highly prescribed procedures becomes a method of quality control -every product produced in a given classification is identical with every other product in that same classification •Theoretically, -If all knowledge, skill, personal features of applicants were known -If all the role requirements of jobs within an agency were known -Then....it would be possible to design a perfect fit between the individual and the organizational role
-Formal organizations represent one of the major ways in which we
•Formally band together to perform functions •Solve problems that may not be accomplished/solved solved through individual efforts.
Input
•Legal authority---is the most stable. -governing body is either elected or appointed -rule- making procedures are formalized -established procedures for the change or modification of rules •Traditional authority is vested in the sacredness of the social order itself -appointed or assume a recognized role in this order -their actions are vested in the sacredness of the order itself •Charismatic authority is vested in an individual—least stable -the person exercising the authority has much greater leeway for action and less personal accountability. -the loss of confidence in the legitimacy of the person is far more serious in traditional and charismatic authority than it is in legal authority.
Human Relations Viewpoint
•Men as mere cogs neglected the Gemeinschaft nature of relationships -Humans effect life within organizations
Organizational Theory & Social Work
•Organizational theory as it applies to social work falls in the administration category -Administration is a form of professional practice involving the management of formal organizations -the practice involves the coordination of the work of others and focuses on achieving the purposes of the organization in an efficient and effective manner •This was emergent in social work like with the rest of scholarly activity. -In 1959 administration was added to our practice methods -This was timely as our human services organizations grew to massive sizes -This is vastly important for the military social worker
Depersonalization of Position
•Removal of personal considerations -assignment of duties --work performance -- evaluation of performance •People are hired into jobs based on job requirements -not on personal characteristics. •Weber: saw positions requiring full-time attention of individual in work role -Roles in the organization are depersonalized •relationships pertaining to the authority structure and functional distribution of work are guided by work ( Gesellschaft), not personal ( Gemeinschaft) determinants. -Supervisor would not make preferential assignments because of personal feelings about a specific caseworker
•Traditional Authority
•Sacredness of the social order •Compliance to expectations of behavior being rooted in piety -purest form, power is lodged in one person, with all others being dependent on that person in all matters -In a problem mode, the parent who physically abuses a child may feel justified in this behavior in terms of traditional authority. -Here children are viewed as essentially without legal rights, and what takes place between the parent and child is a private family matter
Applied Organizational Theory
•Simultaneously a less abstract and more applied line a theories of organizations was sought. -Assist with challenges in management -Established initial management theory
Human Relations Theory
•Studies revealed a presence of an informal organization within the formal organization -Researchers felt that the rational model was incomplete and misleading in its portrayal of organizational and human behavior. •Human relationists emerged turning focus to the individual as a member of a work group -the social norms that developed within the work group were key determinants of individual behavior in the work environment •The work group was critically importance in understanding the behavior of the total organization -This attention to the work group led in turn to explorations into worker motivation and the influence of leadership on a groups behavior
Rationalist position and social systems theory:
1.Social systems theory (SST) focuses on the needs of individuals serving in bureaucracies rather than the bureaucracy itself 2.Rationalist view offers "closed-system" view while SST views bureaucracies as "open-systems" interacting both internally and with the environment as a "suprasystem" 3.Rationalist position relies heavily on the exercise of legal authority; SST views power from an Exchange Theory perspective - complete with dynamic negotiations and interactions (Labor Unions)
Traditional
A form of social power vested in the sacredness of the social order
•As productivity grew, employee should be compensated -Win/win -Employees motivated through economic incentives -Reward productivity with raises
Applied Organizational Theory
Weberian Bureaucracy The Rationalist Perspective
German sociologist Max WeberFather of modern organizational sociology
•Workers not motivated by economic gain alone -and did not relate to the work situation only as individuals -but as members of a work group •the organization was seen as possessing both a formal administrative (rational) structure and an informal (natural) social structure. •Must consider both structures and their respective needs to understand organizational behaviors and their outcomes. •Human relationist perspective views worker satisfaction as both social and economic in nature -One needs to consider both in order to create an optimum organizational environment
Human Relations Theory
Weber identified three pure types of authority
Legal Traditional Charismatic
The generalist may find
badly needed service does not exist in the community. In such a situation, she or he needs to know how to go about establishing the need for such a service and creating an agency to offer such services
•Relative independence of the person and the position -the bureaucracy is a contrived pattern of behavior composed of vertically and horizontally linked offices, not persons a system of roles, not individuals -in Weber's formulation, humans are the temporary occupants of roles, with the determinants of who should occupy a given role based on organizational, not personal, conditions
Decision Making
Hawthorne Effect
Employees, pleased with the interests by the researchers and managers, worked harder
Weberian Rationalist View
•The formal organization—the bureaucracy -- •largely a twentieth century phenomenon •The work was relevant largely due to rapid industrialization discussed earlier •He noted the weaknesses as well: •Men become mere cogs in the machine •Like Frankenstein, human creations can harm the creators
Human Relations Theory 2
•The human relations argument was not against the thesis of organizational rationality in its most fundamental sense -But was against some of the assumptions pertaining to the role of humans •rationalist view of the worker and human motivation was incomplete and misleading •workers were not motivated primarily by economic gain and did not relate to the work situation only as individuals -but rather as members of a work group as well.
Formal Organization Generalist Practice
•The organization is a human creation - a tool that can relieve social problems -promote human well-being The generalist practitioner must have some sense of organizational and inter-organizational behaviors in order to practice competently
Bureaucracy
•The rationalist conceptualization of the formal organization characterized by a hierarchically organized social structure -Legal authority is the means of control over the organizational component -Legal authority formally links the parts of the organization together systematically -Through use of legal authority the parts are coordinated in pursuit of organizations goals -Structurally the bureaucracy is organized around two axes vertical/horizontal -Authority is delegated downward •vertical axis are organized by levels of graded, legally based authority -with people located in higher offices exercising legal authority over lower office workers -the of authority is typically referred to as the chain of command -within the chain of command, the number of positions (persons) being supervised by a given supervisor is generally referred to as the span of control. •horizontal axis represents a division of labor
Bureaucracy Hierarchical Structure
•There is a supervisor for every office (every position) •The top office (agency director) typically reports to an elected or appointed board of directors - in some cases an individual who is either elected/appointed. -i.e. human services state director reporting to the governor
The formal organization
•a prototype of a secondary group a distinct social entity -Separate from the individuals who may comprise -People come and go.....positions remain
Right of person
•in position/ office to give a particular order
