WHAT IS AN ORGANIZATION?
Managers work in organizations. But what is an organization? An organization is a deliberat arrangement ofpeople to accomplish some specific purposee. Your college or university is an organization; so are fraternities and sororities, government departments, churches, Amazon.com, your neighb ouhood video store, the United Way, the Colorado Rockies baseball team, and the Mayo Clinic. These are all organizations because they have three common characterstics.
First, each organization has a distinct purpose. This purpose is typically expressed in terms of a goal or a set of foals that the organization bopes to accomplish. Second, each organization is composed of people. One person working alone is notan organozation, and it takes people to perform the work that's necessary for the organization to achieve its goals. Third, all organizations develop some deliberate structure so that their members can do their work. That structure may be open and flexible, with no clear and precise delineations of job duties or strict adherence to any explicit job arrangements--in other words, it may be a simple network of loose rilationship. Or the structure man be more traditional, with clearly defined rules, regulations, and job descruptions and some members identified as"bosses" who have authority wver other members. But no matter what type of sturctural arrangement an organization uses, it does require some ddeliberate structure so members work relationships are clarified. In summary, the term organization refers to an entity that has a distinct purpose, includes people or mambers, and has some type of deliverate structure.
Although these thre characteristics are important to our definition of what an organization is, the concept of an organization is changing. It's no longer appropriate to assume that all organizations are going to be structured like procter * Gamble, Exxon Mobile or General Motors, with clearly identifiable divisions, departments, and work units. in fact, one of GM's subsidiaries, Saturn Corporation, may be more characteristic of what contemporary organizations look like, with its flesible work arange ments, employee workteams, open communication systems, and supplier alliances. just how is the concept of an organization changing? todays organizations are becoming more open, flexible, and responsive to changes. Why are organizations changing? Because the world around them has changed and continues to change. Societal, economic, political, global, aned technological changes have created an environment in which successful organizations (those that consistently attain their goals) must embrace new ways of getting work done, As we stated earlier, even though the concept of organizations may be changing, managers and management continue to be important to organizations.
No matter whato country thye are located in, This is known as the universality of management. Managers in all these settings will plan, organize, lead, and control. However this is not to say that management is done the same way. The differences in what a supervisor in a software applications testing facility at Microsoft does versus what the CEO of Microsoft does are a matter of degree and emphasis, not of function. Becatrle both are managers, both will plan, organize, lead, and control, but how they do so will differ.
Since management os universally needed in all organizations, we have a vested interest in improving the way organizations are managed. Why? We interact with organizations every single day of our lives. Does it frustrate you when you have to spendethre hours in adepartment of motor vehicales office to get your driver's license renewed? Are you irritated when none of the salespeople in a department store seems interested in helping you? Do you get annoyed when you call an aruline three times and their sales representatives quote you three different prices for the same trip, these are all examples of problems created by poor management. Organizations that are well managed--and we will share many examples of these throughout the textdevelop a loyal customer base, grow, and prosper. Those that are poorly managed tined themselves with a declining customer base and reduced revenues. By studying management, you wili be able to recognize good management and encourage it, wheather it's in an organization with which you are simply interacting or whether it is in an organization in which you are employed.