Chapter 9

Symptoms of a Weak Organizational Culture

-Inward Fuzziness. -Morale problems. -Fragmentation/Inconsistency. -Ingrown Subcultures. -Warfare among subcultures. -Subculture elitism.

Barriers to Delegation

1. Belief in the fallacy expressed: If you want it done right do it yourself. 2. Lack of confidence and trust in lower level employees. 3. Low self confidence. 4. Fear of competition from those below. 5. Reluctance to take risks involved in depending on others. 6. Lack of controls that provide early warning problems with delegated duties. 7. Poor example set by bosses who not delegate.

3 Stages of Organizational Learning

1. Cognition (Learning New Concepts) 2 Behavior (Developing new skills and abilities) 3. Performance *actually getting something done).

6 Characteristics of Organizational Culture

1. Collective. Organizational cultures are social entities. 2. Emotionally Charged. People tend to find their organization's culture a comforting security. 3. Historically based. Shared experiences over extended period of time, bind groups of people together. 4. Inherently Symbolic. Actions often speak louder than words. Memorable symbolic actions are the lifeblood of organizational culture. 5. Dynamic. In the long term organizational cultures promote predicitability, conformity and stability. 6. Inherently Fuzzy. Ambiguity contradictions and hidden agendas and multiple meanings are fundamental parts of organzational cultures.

What are the characteristics of an organization?

1. Coordination of Effort 2. Common goal or purpose 3. division of labor 4. Heirarchy of authority.

3 Current Organization Trends

1. Fewer Layers. Less hierarchy. 2. Greater emphasis on teams. 3. Smallness within bigness.

5 Basic types of departmentalization

1. Functional departments 2. Product service departments 3. Geographic location departments 4. Customer Classification departments. 5. Work flow process departments

Determining Degree of Uncertainty

1. How strong is social political and economic pressure on the organization? 2. How frequent are technological breakthroughs in the industry? 3. How reliable are resources and supplies? 4. How stable is the demand for the organization's product or service?

5 Degrees of Delegation

1. Investigate and report back. 2. Investigate and recommend action. 3. Investigate and advise on action planned. 4. Investigate and take action; advise on action taken. 5. Investigate and take action.

5 Organizational Skills Needed

1. Solving Problems. 2. Experimenting 3. Learning from organizational experience and history. 4. Learning from Others 5. Transferring and Implementing

Characteristics of a Mechanistic Organization

1. Task definition fo individual contributors is narrow. 2. Relationships between individual contribution and organizational purpose is vague. 3. Low task flexibility. 4. Definition of rights is clear. 5. Reliance on heirarchical control is high. 6. Primary direction of communication is vertical top to bottom. 7. Reliance on instructions and decisions from superior is high. 8. Emphasis on loyalty and obedience is high. 9. Type of knowledge required is narrow, technical and task specific.

Characteristics of a Organic Organization

1. Task definition for an individual is broad and general. 2. Relationship between individual contribution and organization purpose is clear. 3. High task flexibility. 4. Definition of rights and obligations is vague. 5. Reliance on hierarchical control is low. 6. Primary direction of communication is lateral. 7. Reliance on instructions and decisions from superior is low. 8. Emphasis on loyalty and obedience is low. 9. Type of knowledge required is broad and professional.

Organization Chart

A visual display of an organization's positions and lines of authority. They are important because they show an organizational blueprint for deploying human resources.

Peter Senge

Author of the 1990 Best Seller The Fifth Discipline, which popularized the idea of Organizational Learning and open system thinking.

Organizational Effectiveness

Being effective, efficient, and satisfying today; adapting and developing in the intermediate future; and surviving in the long term.

James D Thompson

Believes grouping jobs by department achieved a greater degree of coordination because members of the same department work on interrelated tasks. Departmentalization idea.

Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker

British behavioral scietnists who proposed a useful typology for categorizing organzations by structural design. Mechanistic organizations and ORganic orgnizations.

Functional Departments

Categorize jobs according to activity performed. Among profit making businesses of functional product finance marketing arrangements are the most common. It is popular because it permits those with similar technical expertise to work in a coordinated subunit.

Organizational Culture

Collection of shared (stated or implied) beliefs, values, rituals, stories, myths, and specialized language that fosters a community among organization members.

Hourglass Organization

Consists of three layers with middle layer pinched. A strategic elite is responsible for formulating vision, shrunken middle management caries out function for diverse lower level. Middle Managements are generalists not specialists. Bottom layer is broad and consists of specialists.

Organization

Cooperative and coordinated social system of two or more people with a common purpose.

David A Garvin

Defined Learning organizations and clarified organizational learning. Harvard Professor.

Advantage of Delegation

Free more of their time for important chores.

Departmentalization

Grouping related jobs or processes into major organizational subunits.

Decentralization

Management's sharing of decision making authority with lower level employees

Span of Control/Mandate

Number of people who report directly to a give n manager.

Line and Staff Organization

Organization in which line managers make decisions and staff personnel provide advice and support.

Horizontal Organization

Organizations with 2 key factors working: 1. Identifying customer needs. 2. Satisfying the customer. Outward Focus as opposed to inward focus of functional departments.

Organizational Values

Shared beliefs about what the organization stands for.

Cluster Organizations

Teams are the primary structural unit of this organization. PAy for knowledge is common. Motivation is high but some complain about lack of security.

Contingency Design

The process of determining the degree of environmental uncertainty and adapting the organization and its subunits to the situation.

Organizational Socialization

The process through which outsiders are transformed into accepted insiders.

Centralization

The retention of decision making authority by top management.

Authority

The right to direct actions of others.

Organic Organizations

These tend to be quite flexible organizations in structure and adaptive to change.

Mechanistic Organizations

These tend to be rigid in design and have strong bureaucratic qualities.

Vertical Hierarchy

This establishes chain of command, or who reports to whom. The five directors all report to the president.

Horizontal Hierarchy

This establishes the division of labor in the organizational chart. For example the directors of marketing and finance/accounting have very different specialized skill sets.

Virtual Organizations

This type of organization is made up of flexible networks of value adding subcontractors linked by the internet and modern telecommunications technology.

Delegation

Various degrees of decision making authority to lower level employees.