WHAT ARE ORGANIZATIONS?

Types of organizations

For-profit business vs non-profit organizations

Large, multinational corporations vs family-owned
businesses

social entities

are designed as deliberately
structured and coordinated activity systems,

that are goal-directed

linked to the external environment

:

Bring together resources to achieve desired goals and
outcomes

Produce goods and services efficiently

Facilitate innovation

Create value for owners, customers and employees

Accommodate ongoing challenges of diversity, ethics,
and the motivation and coordination of employees

Adapt to and influence a changing environment

Use modern manufacturing and information technologies

Use modern manufacturing and information technologies

Organizations have been conceived as systems that either
adapt to, or exert control over, the environment as a means
of pursuing the goals of their dominant stakeholders.

The primary focus of analysis for organization theory is
employees’ activities as organizational members

A focus of this book is how organization structures are
influenced by the wider environment, and how key decision
makers attempt to manage their environment by designing
effective structureson