Organizational Studies : Theory and Practice

An organization is any group of people with a common objective. Simply put, two or more people may band together to form an organization because they determine that working together is a more effective means for creating value than if each of them continued to work separately. While a good deal of focus is placed on situations where the members have come together to pursue for-profit business activities, the term “organization” is broad enough to include all associations, institution, companies and other groups that have been formed and are being operated for a specific purpose. This Work provides a brief introduction to the theory and study of organizations, sometimes referred to as organizational studies. The field of organizational studies is based on pursuing a better understanding of the structured processes that emerge within organizations to guide how the members interact with one another to pursue their mutually agreed goals and objectives. Among the key topics covered in this Work are popular definitions of the term “organizations” and theories regarding the purposes of organizations; how organizations create value for the members of the organization and society as a whole; descriptions of the various internal and external stakeholders of an organization, including a review of their contributions and expectations; the fundamental elements of organizational management, including structure, culture, design and environmental factors; an overview of the academic foundations for organizational studies; a description of some of the key determinants of organizational effectiveness; and an introduction to popular methods for measuring organizational effectiveness. This Work includes an extensive discussion of the important “culture-free/culture-bound debate” which has been succinctly summarized as follows: “[d]o countries at approximately the same stage of industrial development, and having similar industrial structures, adopt the same approach to the organization and management of their institutions? Or are their distinctive cultural heritages sufficiently entrenched to mean that each society fashions its own unique administrative philosophy?” The Work identifies and describes various typologies of organizational structures that have been suggested for use in making comparisons across national or culture borders. The Work also included the author’s other work on related topics including the purpose of organizations, organizational stakeholders, measurement of organizational performance and effectiveness, organizations and networks and organizational development and change