Organization

Organization

The term ‘organization’ is used in different ways to mean different things. The term is generally used to mean an ‘association’ or an ‘associational group’. In sociology, it is used in a wide sense to include any organization of society. In a specific sense, it represents ‘bureaucracy’ like that of a business corporation, government or industry. Sometimes, it is used in a broad sense to mean the ‘social organization’ itself. The term ‘organization’, when used liberally, may mean any organized group.

Definition of Organization

Different authors have defined organization in different ways. The main definitions of organization are as follows:

1. According to Keith Davis, “Organization may be defined as a group of individuals, large of small, that is cooperating under the direction of executive leadership in accomplishment of certain common object.”

2. According to Chester I. Barnard, “Organization is a system of co-operative activities of two or more persons.”

3. According to Louis A. Allen, “Organization is the process of identifying and grouping the work to be performed, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationship for the purpose of enabling people to work most effectively together in accomplishing objectives.”

4. According to Mooney and Railey, “Organization is the form of every human association for the attainment of a common purpose.”

5. L.H. Haney, “Organization is a harmonious adjustment of specialized parts for accomplishment of some common purpose or purposes.”

6. George Terry, “Organizing is the establishing of effective authority relationships among selected work, persons, and work places in order for the group to work together efficiently.”

7. According to H. M. Johnson, “Organization refers to an aspect of interaction systems.”

Types of Organization

The distinction between four types of organizations has dominated sociological thinking about organizations since the categories were developed by Max Weber in the first part of the twentieth century. These four types are:

1. Charismatic leadership:The underlying principle of such an organization is the charisma of the boss of an organization in the perception of those who serve there. Charismatic administration occurs whenever people in the organization believe, in respect of the particular area of activity, that “history is the lengthened shadow of man”. Such a faith in the leader develops when the leader is a man of genius and is credited with intelligence and wisdom far superior to those of others in the organization. If, for instance, a reputed scientist heads an organization in which all research activities are carried on in terms of his perception of what is to be done or what is good or bad for the organization, the organization may be said to be under a charismatic leadership. His perception alone counts, and nothing else.

2. Feudal administration: Now-a-days the dealer for a company performs a number of functions for the company. He advertises the product to the community, renders the service provided for in the warranty, sometimes arranges financing the sale of the product, and does many other things. The manufacturer assumes that the dealer would do all these in his own interest (which eventually furthers the interest of the manufacturer himself) if the dealer is given complete control of an area for his operations. The dealer, on the other hand, has some obligations to the manufacturing company which gives him dealership right over a particular area. For instance, he is not allowed to sell a similar competitive product manufactured by another company. These rights and obligations are now-a-days written into a contract. Within the framework of the contract, the dealer enjoys a good measure of autonomy, with little or no interference from the manufacturing firm.

This kind of administration concerning the manufacturer and the dealer is characterised as feudal inasmuch as it broadly follows the traditional (not contractual) pattern of relationship which prevailed among fief-holders and lords during the Middle Ages. Under feudalism, vassals held lands from lords-superior on condition of military service.

3. Bureaucratic system: Bureaucratic organization is basically a rule-centred organization. Only the rules, laid down in black and white, count. All the values and principles of the organization are embodied in these rules. The personnel of the organization from the top officials to the lowest subordinates hold office under certain conditions for which they draw a salary. All of them have to go through some kind of an indoctrination process in order to familiarise themselves with those rules. The rules may be concerned with company policies, political ideologies or religious dogmas, depending on the nature of activity of the company. Another unique feature of this kind of organization is that bureaucrats are organised on a hierarchical basis.

4. Professional type of organization: When the organizational activity is determined in terms of specialised knowledge of the trained members of the organization rather than by a charismatic leader, or by tradition, or by bureaucrats, we get a professional type of organization. The distinguishing mark of this kind of organization is that there is a wide delegation of responsibility to people who are assigned the job after their competence has been certified by a group of peers. Universities and hospitals are typical examples of this type of organization. After the competence of teachers and doctors is assessed, they are entrusted with a responsibility which is defined by the incumbents themselves. They enjoy a large measure of autonomy. It is assumed that they would make full use of their competence in their respective fields. The top echelon of authority - the Vice-Chancellor or the Principal of a Medical College - would not interfere with the job of a teacher in his classroom or laboratory. One reason, of course, is that it is not possible for anyone of them (if they do not belong to the discipline) to judge the competence of bio-physicists, political scientists, economists, etc. Consequently, extreme decentralisation of responsibility to men chosen for their competence is a distinctive feature of professional organizations.

Elements of Organization

The following are the essential elements of organization:

1. A Goal: The members of an organization are inter-related to each other for the pursuit of a common goal. They have unity of interest. In the absence of such unity they would fall apart and the organization will come to an end. In a family all the members are interrelated to each other for the realization of the family happiness. They act united and as soon as this unity is lost, the family disintegrates. A political party can survive only so long as its members are united.

2. Preparedness to accept one’s role and status: Organization is an arrangement of persons and parts. By arrangement is meant that every member of the organization has an assigned role, a position and status. In sociology these three words, role, status and position have got definite meanings.

For an example, a college includes principal, professors, clerks, teachers, students and so forth. The word ‘principal’ designates a position. He is assigned a role, that is to carry the administration of the college. Role is the behaviour expected of him. In accordance with the value of his role the principal enjoys a status, a rank in society. Man enjoys status in proportion to the social value of his role. In an organization all the members have an assigned role and status. They should be prepared to accept their role and do acts which the role assigned to them expects of them. Just as a human structure can function smoothly only when its different parts perform their roles, similarly role performance is very important in an organization.

3. Norms and mores: Every organization has its norms and mores which control its members. Norms are the socially approved ways of behaviour. The norms define the role of an individual. An organization can function smoothly if its members follow the organization norms. A college can realise its objective i.e., imparting knowledge, when its different parts, the teachers and the students follow the college norms. The students should attend the lectures regularly, the teacher should reach the class punctually, discipline should be maintained in the classroom as well as outside, are some examples of college norms. A family has its norms. The father, the mother and the children have their assigned roles and are expected to behave according to family norms. What a person is or is not supposed to do, is laid down by the norms of the group to which he belongs.

5. Sanctions: Every organization has a system of sanctions which support the norms. If a member does not follow the norms he is compelled to follow them through sanctions which may range from warning to physical punishment. A student may be expelled if he violates the college norms. A worker may be dismissed from service in case he acts against the factory norms. A child may be thrashed for coming late in the night.

It may thus be concluded that ‘organization’ incorporates the concepts of goals, norms, sanctions, roles and positions.

Nature and Characteristics of Organization

1. A definite purpose: An organization has its own definite purpose or purposes. Without any purpose or goal individual rarely come together and establish among themselves a definite pattern or system of interaction. For example, the bank as an organization has a definite purpose of facilitating the financial transactions. A College or a University has the aim of promoting education, and so on.

2. Unanimity or consensus among the members: The smooth running of an organization depends much on the mutual understanding, cooperation and consensus among its members. The family as an organization, for example, can run smoothly only when its members like the father, mother and the children, have mutual understanding, cooperation and consensus among themselves. Similarly, political parties, trade unions, business houses. corporations etc., can successfully work only when their members have mutual faith and consensus.

3. Harmony between statuses and roles: An organization is understood as a mechanism that brings different people together into a network of interaction to perform different functions. The organization assigns statuses and roles to the individuals and makes them to assume statuses and enact roles. The ‘status’ and ‘roles’ are conditioned by many factors such as birth, sex, age, race, caste, achievements, physical and mutual abilities, skill, intelligence, etc. The organization can function without any problem if there prevails harmony between the acceptance of the statuses by the members and their enactment of the related roles. The College, for example, as an organization can function well when its principal, teachers, office staff, students, peons and such other members understand the statuses assigned to them and enact their definite roles in an appropriate manner.

4. Control of the organization on the behaviour of the individuals: Organization maintains its control over the behaviour of its members and regulates their activities. It makes use of various formal as well as informal means of social control for this purpose. The failure of social organization to maintain its hold over the behaviour of the members may contribute to the process of disorganization.

Formal and Informal Organization

In order to fulfil the basic needs, stratify the multi-faceted desires and promote the diverse interests of men, a large number of organizations have come into the modern complex societies. These organizations are of two kinds: the formal organization and the informal organization.

Formal Organization

The modern industrialized, urbanized and civilized societies of the world consist of a large number of forma organizations. Due to the complexity in the growth of societies, the number and size of the formal organizations have increased. They are found in the economic, political, educational, industrial and other field. Chester I Bernard defines formal organization as, “a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons. It refers to the structure of well-defined jobs, each bearing a definite measure of authority, responsibility and accountability.”

Characteristics of Formal Organization

1. The top management lays down a Formal organization structure to achieve organizational goals.

2. Formal organization prescribes the relationships amongst the people working in the organization.

3. The organization structure is consciously designed to enable the people of the organization to work together to accomplish the common objectives of the enterprise.

4. Organization structure concentrates on the jobs to be performed and not the individuals who are to perform jobs.

5. In a formal organization, individuals are fitted into jobs and positions and work as per managerial decisions. Thus, the formal relations in the organization arise from the pattern of responsibilities that are created by the management.

6. A formal organization is bound by rules, regulations and procedures.

7. In a formal organization, the position, authority, responsibility and accountability of each level are clearly defined.

8. Organization structure is based on division of labour and specialization to achieve efficiency in operations.

9. A formal organization is deliberately impersonal. The organization does not take into consideration the sentiments of organizational members.

10. The authority and responsibility relationships created by the organization structure are to be honoured by everyone.

11. coordination proceeds according to the prescribed pattern in a formal organization.

Informal Organization:

Informal organization refers to a small group the members of which are tired to one another as persons. The group is characterized by informal and face-to-face relation, mutual aids, cooperation and companionship. These relations are not developed according to procedures and regulations laid down in the formal organization structure; generally large formal groups give rise to small informal or social groups. These groups may be based on the same taste, language, culture or other factors. For example, groups such as gangs, cliques, friendship groups, peer group bands etc., represent the informal group.

Characteristics of Informal Organization

1. Informal organization is not established by any formal authority. It is unplanned and arises spontaneously.

2. Informal organizations reflect human relationships. It arises from the personal and social relations amongst the people working in the organization.

3. Formation of informal organizations is a natural process. It is not based on rules, regulations and procedures.

4. An organization chart cannot show The inter-relations among the people in an informal organization.

5. In the case of informal organizations, the people cut across formal channels of communication and communicate amongst themselves.

6. The membership of informal organizations is voluntary. It arises spontaneously and not by deliberate or conscious efforts.

7. Membership of informal groups can be overlapping as a person may be a member of a number of informal groups.

8. Informal organizations are based on common tastes, problems, language, religion, culture, etc. It is influenced by the personal attitudes, emotions, whims, likes and dislikes etc. of the people in the organization.

Difference between Formal and Informal Organization

Formal Organization

1. A formal organization is established with the explicit aim of achieving well-defined goals.

2. Formal organization is bound together by authority relationships among members. A hierarchical structure is created, constituting top, middle, and supervisory management.

3. Formal organization recognises certain tasks and activities which are to be carried out to achieve its goals.

4. The roles and relationships of people in formal organizations are impersonally defined.

5. In formal organization, much emphasis is placed on efficiency, discipline, conformity, consistency and control.

6. In formal organizations, the social and psychological needs and interests of members of the organization get little attention.

7. The communication system in formal organization follows certain pre-determined patterns and paths.

8. Formal organization is relatively slow to respond and adapt to changing situations and realities.

Informal Organization:

1. Informal organization springs on its own. Its goals are ill-defined and intangible.

2. Informal organization is characterised by a generalised sort of power relationship. Power in informal organizations has bases other than rational legal rights.

3. Informal organization does not have any well-defined tasks.

4. In informal organization, the relationships among people are interpersonal.

5. Informal organization is characterised by relative freedom, spontaneity, homeliness and warmth.

6. In informal organizations, the socio-psychological needs, interests and aspirations of members get priority.

7. In informal organization, the communication pattern is haphazard, intricate and natural.

8. Informal organization is dynamic and very vigilant. It is sensitive to its surroundings.