Rational, natural and open perspectives

1. Rational, natural and open perspectives Mandag 14. november 2005 Forelesning 2

2. Rational perspective • Definition: • ”Organizations are collectivities oriented to the pursuit of relatively specific goals and exhibiting relatively highly formalized social structures.”

3. Rational perspective • Focus on the organization as an instrument • Focus on designing organizations properly to achieve goals

4. Rational perspective • Goal specificity • Conceptions of desired ends • Clear preferences • Support rational behavior

5. Rational perspective • Formalization • Make behavior predictable by standardizing and regulating it. • Organizational structure an instrument to achieve specific goals. • Organizational structure can be modified to make changes.

6. Rational perspective • Theories prescribe guidelines for how to govern activity and achieve rationality • Scientific Management • Administrative principles • Bureaucracy • Administrative behavior

7. Natural perspective • Definition: • ”Organizations are collectivities whose participants are pursuing multiple interests, both disparate and common, but who recognize the value of perpetuating the organization as an important resource. The informal structure of the relations that develops among participants is more influential in guiding the behavior of participants than is the formal structure.”

8. Natural perspective • Social characteristics of organizations more important than the formal/rational • Focus on behavior • Organizations more than instruments – they are social groups attempting to survive • Organizations have irrational elements and processes

9. Natural perspective • Goal complexity • Stated vs. Real goals • Parallel goals

10. Natural perspective • Informal structures • Question the importance of formalized structures • Participants affect the formal organization • This has both negative and positive implications

11. Natural perspective • Examples: • Hawthorne effect

12. Natural perspective • “In sum, natural system analysts insist that highly centralized and formalized structures are doomed to be ineffective and irrational in that they waste the organizations most precious resource: the intelligence and initiative of its participants.”

13. Open perspective • Definition: • “Organizations are congeries of interdependent flows and activities linking shifting coalitions of participants embedded in wider material-resource and institutional environments.”

14. Open perspective • Complexity of individual parts • Individuals • Sub-groups • System boundaries seen as transitory • Primary attention to the ties that bind organizations to their environment • Cultural-cognitive dimensions important

15. Open perspective • Examples: • Loose and tight coupling • Normal accidents vs reliability • Contingency theory

16. Rational, natural and open what? • Oppgave: • Er dette ulike perspektiver på alle typer organisasjoner? • Eller er det snakk om ulike typer organisasjoner? • To og to

17. Din organisasjon • Beskriv din organisasjon i forhold til de tre perspektivene hos Scott • Rational • Natural • Open

18. Felles oppgave • Åtte frivillige personer • Dere er en organisasjon • Målet deres er å telle sammenhengende til 20