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This article explores the impact of organization size on control mechanisms, the stages of organizational life cycle, and strategies to bust bureaucracy. It also discusses the causes and implementation of downsizing in organizations facing decline.
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0 Chapter Nine Organization Size, Life Cycle, and Decline
Organization Size: Is Bigger Better? 0 • Pressures for Growth • Companies in all industries strive for growth to acquire the size and resources needed to compete globally • Size enables companies to take risks • Dilemmas of Large Size • Large organizations are able to get back to business more quickly following a disaster • Large companies are standardized, mechanistic and complex • Small companies are flexible and can be responsive
Organization Characteristics During Four Stages of Life Cycle 0
Weber’s Dimensions of Bureaucracy and Bases of Organizational Authority 0
Size and Structural Control 0 • Formalization – rules, procedures, and written documentation • Centralization – level of hierarchy with authority to make decisions • Personnel Ratios – clerical and professional support staff ratios
Percentage of Personnel Allocated to Administrative and Support Activities 0
Bureaucracy in a Changing World 0 • Bureaucracy worked for the industrial age • The system no longer works for today’s challenges • Today bureaucracy leads to inefficiency • Organizations are creating temporary structures to respond to crisis
Approaches to Busting Bureaucracy 0 • Cutting layers of hierarchy • Maintaining light headquarter staff • Empowering lower-level workers • The increasing professionalism of employees is attacking bureaucracy
Bureaucracy versus Other Forms of Control 0 Bureaucracy • Rules, standards, hierarchy, legitimate authority Market • Prices, competition, exchange relationship Clan • Tradition, shared values and beliefs, trust
Organizational Decline 0 The decrease of an organization’s resources is caused by: • Organizational atrophy • Vulnerability • Environmental decline or competition Downsizing refers to intentionally reducing the size of a company’s workforce
Downsizing Implementation 0 • Communicate more, not less • Provide assistance to displaced workers • Help the survivors thrive
Design Essentials 0 • Organizations experience pressures to grow • Organizations evolve through the stages of the life-cycle • Larger organizations usually adopt bureaucratic characteristics • All organizations require systems for control • Many organizations experience decline