Organization Theories and Concepts

According to Michael Mattson & John Ivancevich, the key factors influencing the differences in human behavior patterns are demographic factors, perception, ability and skills, personality and attitudes as follows:

1. Demographic factors: Demographic factors depend on someone Education, background, age, nationality, race, gender, etc. Organizations prefer those individuals who promote good socio-economic background, etc. and who are educated & young people as they can better perform tasks. The young and dynamic professionals with good knowledge and communication skills are perfect and always in high demand by organizations. The study of demographic factors is important because it helps managers to select the qualified candidate for a job.

2. Ability & skills: Ability can be defined as the physical capacity of a person to do something. And Skills can be defined as the ability to act in such a way that allows a person to do a good job perfectly. Individual behavior and performance is strongly influenced by the level of skills and competencies. A person can show good results in the organization if his or her abilities and skills match with the work requirement.

The manager has a very important role in the selection and assignment of individuals with particular job.

3. Perception: Perception is a process by which an individual reaches the sensory awareness or understand the information. The “perception” comes from the Latin word perceptio, percipio, which means “receiving & collecting.”

There are many factors that affect the perception of an individual. The study of the perception plays a vital role for managers, as they know how to create a favorable atmosphere for work so that employees perceive them in a better way. Employees will probably give better results if they perceive it in a positive and proper way.

4. Attitude: According to psychologists, the attitude can be defined as the tendency to react positively or negatively to certain people, objects or situations. Factors such as family, culture, society and organizational factors influence attitude formation. Employees can do better for the organization if it is a positive attitude. It contributes to business growth and development

5. Personality: Personality comes from the Greek word “persona”which means “mask” is defined as the study of personality characteristics and distinctive personality traits, the relationship between them, and how a person reacts and adapts to other people and situations. There are a number of factors that influence the personality of the individual i.e family, heredity, society, culture and situation. It’s a fact that people differ in their way, responding to the organizational environment. Personality can also be termed as the most difficult aspect of human beings, which affects their behavior in a big way. It is shown that the study of personality traits offers an opportunity to understand peoples. This helps them to properly channel their efforts and motivate them to complete the organizational goals. Each organization requires a certain type of behavior from its employees and such behavior can be detected by monitoring, training, education, exposure, etc.

Task for P4

Organization theory refers to the study of the phenomena of organizational functioning and performance & of the behavior of individuals and groups working in them.The main theories to study the organization are as follows:-

Classical theory:

Efficiency & productivity can be enhanced by improving the efficiency of the workers. F.W.Taylor is considered as the father of scientific management. According to him men are like machines, as good maintained machines production is more likewise healthy men can work more. He assumed there is one best method for every job. He introduced standardization of tasks, division of labour, analysis of work & time measurement. He introduced the concept of fair day wages for fair days.

According to him production is improved by teamwork and not by conflict. The goal is maximization of output and not limitation. The best means of doing a job needs for appropriate tools, motivation and fair wages.

Bureaucratic theory: Organization designed to carry out large scale administrative tasks by thoroughly coordinating the work of many individuals. A German sociologist Max Weber introduced the idea of Bureaucracy.

Salient features

A person is said to have power or authority, If within the social framework his will can be imposed on others despite resistance for structuring human groups, becomes a special instance of power called “authority” or domination.

Systems theory: Organization is as a system in which coordinated personal activities of two or more persons, held together by the potential for creating a common purpose, by willingness on the part of its members to participate in its processes and effective communication.

Contingency theory

It is a class of behavioral theory that claims that there is no best way to organize a corporation, to make decisions or to lead a company. Instead, the optimal course of action is dependent upon the internal and external situations. It is also called a situational theory.

Functions of Management:

Planning: This is the first tool function in the management process. The difference between successful and unsuccessful manager is within the planning process. Planning is the logical thinking through the goals and decision making on what needs to be done to achieve organizational goals.

Organizing: The manager must know their subordinates and that they are able to arrange the most valuable company resources, ie its employees. This is achieved through proper management of personnel of the division, the acquisition of resources, establishment of training and organization of work groups in a productive and creative team.

Leading: organizational success is determined by the quality of leadership. “A leader can be a manager but the manager is not necessarily a leader,” says Allen, Gemmy. Leadership is the power of influence of one person over another, to encourage action aimed at achieving the objectives of the company.

Controlling: A process that ensures plans are implemented correctly and precisely. As said by Gemmy Allen’s Controlling is the last link in the chain of functional management activities and brings management cycle full circle.

Managerial Roles:

According to Henry Mintzberg there are ten managerial roles which are briefly developed here:

FIGUREHEAD: The manager performs ceremonial & symbolic duties as head of the organisation.

LEADER: To develop an appropriate working atmosphere and motivating and developing subordinates.

LIASION: Develops & maintains a network of external contacts to gather information.

MONITOR: Collects internal & external information relevant to the company.

Distributor: Pass a realistic and important information to their subordinates.

SPOKESPERSON: communicates with the outsiders on the performance & policies.

OWNER: Designs and initiates changes in the company.

VIOLATIONS handler: Deals with unexpected events and operational failures.

RESOURCES distributor: Management and allows the use of organizational resources.

NEGOTIATOR: Participates in negotiation activities with other individuals and organisations.

Managerial authority:

Managerial authority is the position that empowers a manager to exercise command and control over those individuals placed under him for realization of the assigned role in an organisation. Originally, the overall authority is centrally given in person of the manager. However, it is quite hard for a man to effectively execute and monitor each and every task. Therefore, various functions with a suitable authority are devolved downwards to concerned low levels for better output. The practice also provides a foundation for ‘organisational tree’ specifying various powers and responsibilities in both vertical and horizontal hierarchy.