Contents
Organisations and Their Environments
Rationale
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 – institutional: an entity is an organization (organization as an actual purposeful structure within a social context)
- Organization in sociology
- Organizations in virtual worlds
- Organization in management and organizational studies
- Organization theories
- Organizational structures
- Pyramids or hierarchies
- Committees or juries
- Staff organization or cross-functional team
- Matrix organization
- Ecologies
- "Chaordic" organizations
- Links to other Wikipedia articles
- Affinity group
- Bureaucracy
- Business organization
- Charitable trust
- Coalition
- Collective
- International organization
- Mutual organization
- Non-governmental organization
- Organizational development
- Pacifist organization
- Requisite organization
- Service organization
- Size of groups, organizations, and communities
- Strategic Management
- Strategic Organization
- Terrorist organizations
- Virtual organization
- Voluntary association
- Related lists
- References
External links
Today's Videos
- Connect with us on http://www.youtube.com/finntrack
- Google's Playlists
Teaching and Learning Resources
Introduction to Organizations
- Organizations and Organization Theory
- From Modernist to Postmodern Perspectives on Organisations
- Work and Organisation
Organizational studies, organizational behavior1, and organizational theory are related terms for the academic study of organizations, examining them using the methods of economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology. Related practical disciplines include human resources (HR) and industrial and organizational psychology.
- Overview of the field
- History
- Current state of the field
- Methods used in Organizational Studies
- Academic journals in organizational studies
- Notes
- Links to other Wikipedia articles
- References
Activities
Organizational Purpose and Design
Systems Theory is an interdisciplinary/multiperspectual field of inquiry that studies the theoretical and actual properties of systems as a process by looking at it in terms of relationships from which emerge new properties of wholes.
It was established as a science by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, Anatol Rapoport, Kenneth E. Boulding, William Ross Ashby, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson and others in the 1950s , particularly during discussions at the Macy conferences. Systems theory, in its multidisciplinary role, brings together theoretical principles and concepts from ontology, philosophy of science, physics, biology and engineering. Applications are found in numerous fields including geography, sociology, political science, organizational theory, management, psychotherapy (within family systems therapy) and economics among others. Cybernetics, as a particular kind of system, is a onter-related field. In recent times systems science, systemics and complex systems have been used as synonyms. These have branched out into the complexity sciences.
- Principia Cybernetica Web
- International Society for the System Sciences
- Autopoiesis at the ACM website
- Systems theory
- Le Village Systémique
- Portland State University Systems Science Ph.D. Program
- The Swedish Morphological Society
- New England Complex Systems Institute
- UCLA Human Complex Systems Program
- Un-annotated external links
- Strategic Management incl. Case Studies
- Scientific Management Ingenious, Calculated Solutions to Organisational Problems
- Organisational Decision Making
- Industry Analysis - Industry Structure, The Porter 5-Force Model, Success Factors
- Competitive
Analysis: Hypercompetition
Background, Hypercompetition, Strategic Competitive Advantage, Competing to Provide Value, The Move Towards Offering Ultimate Value, The Cycle of Price-Quality Competition - MovingUp the Escalation Ladder, Cycle of Timing / Know-How Competition, The First Dynamic Strategic Interaction: Capturing First Mover Advantages, The Second Dynamic Strategic Interaction: Imitation & Improvement by Followers, The Third Dynamic Strategic Interaction: Creating Impediments to Imitation, The Fourth Dynamic Strategic Interaction: Overcoming the Impediments, The Fifth Dynamic Strategic Interaction: Transformation or Leapfrogging, The Sixth Dynamic Strategic Interaction: Downstream Vertical Integration, Strongholds and Entry Barriers, Strongholds and Entry Barriers, Management Challenges, Cycle of Deep Pockets Competition, Limitations of the Hypercompetition Perspective, How can the game be changed?
Open System Design Elements
Tutorials
- The External Environment
- Interorganizational Relationships
- Designing Organizations for the International Environment
Readings
Environmental Scanning. For a company to gain or maintain a sustainable competitive advantage, it must be ever vigilant, watching for changes in the business environment. It must also be agile enough to alter its strategies and plans when the need arises.
See also
- Marketing
- Marketing management
- Industry or market research
- Marketing research
- PEST analysis
- Porter 5 forces analysis
- Marketing plan
- SWOT Analysis
- Competitor analysis
- Environmental analysis
PEST, Industry/Competitor Analysis, Key Success Factors.
Internal Design Elements
Tutorials
- Manufacturing and Service Technologies
- Information Technology and Control
- Organization Size, Life Cycle and Decline
Readings
Managing Dynamic Processes
Tutorials
- Organizational Culture and Ethical Values.
- Innovation and Change
- Decision-Making Processes
- Conflict, Power, and Politics
Readings
Decision making is the cognitive process leading to the selection of a course of action among alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice called a decision. It can be an action or an opinion. It begins when we need to do something but we do not know what. Therefore, decision-making is a reasoning process which can be rational or irrational, and can be based on explicit assumptions or tacit assumptions. Common examples include shopping, deciding what to eat, when to sleep, and deciding whom or what to vote for in an election or referendum. Decision making is said to be a psychological construct. This means that although we can never "see" a decision, we can infer from observable behaviour that a decision has been made. Therefore, we conclude that a psychological event that we call "decision making" has occurred. It is a construction that imputes commitment to action. That is, based on observable actions, we assume that people have made a commitment to affect the action. Structured rational decision making is an important part of all science-based professions, where specialists apply their knowledge in a given area to making informed decisions. For example, medical decision making often involves making a diagnosis and selecting an appropriate treatment. Some research using naturalistic methods shows, however, that in situations with higher time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, experts use intuitive decision making rather than structured approaches, following a recognition primed decision approach to fit a set of indicators into the expert's experience and immediately arrive at a satisfactory course of action without weighing alternatives. Due to the large number of considerations involved in many decisions, computer-based decision support systems have been developed to assist decision makers in considering the implications of various courses of thinking. They can help reduce the risk of human errors. The systems which try to realize some human/cognitive decision making functions are called Intelligent Decision Support Systems (IDSS), see for ex. "An Approach to the Intelligent Decision Advisor (IDA) for Emergency Managers, 1999".
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Sources of Power: How people make decisions, -Klein, G. (1998), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA
Society for Medical Decision Making
Emotional and Decision Making Lab, Carnegie Mellon, EDM Lab
General
Morphological Analysis: A General Method for
Non-Quantified Modelling From
the Swedish
Morphological Society
Strategic Decision Support using Computerised Morphological Analysis
Myers, I. (1962) Introduction to Type: A description of the theory and applications of the Myers-Briggs type indicator, Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto Ca., 1962.
The
de Borda Institute - Emerson, P J. Beyond
the Tyranny of the Majority, a comparison
of
the more common voting procedures used in
both decision-making and elections.
Some important research journals
Organizational
Culture and Ethical Values
Organisations,
Human Relations and Communication
Recommended Texts
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Organization
21C Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop.
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Organization Theory and Design, 8th Edition ISBN-10: 032415691X | ISBN-13: 9780324156911 Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
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Organization
Studies
An international multidisciplinary journal devoted to the study of organizations, organizing, and the organized in and between societies ISSN 0170-8406 Check
the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. |
Resources
