1. Approaches to the Organisation

Management and Strategy

Types of OrganisationCompany Voluntary

OrganisationPublic

Service

Goals Maximum Profit to owners

Help members or help others. Promote ideas

Serve society / The public / public good

Ownership Investors / Shareholders

Members The State or Society

Workforce Employers and employees

Members and employees

Employees

Financing Sales Subscription,Public funding

Public funding – Tax / PRSI / EU

Examples Tesco, Bank of Ireland, Builder

Credit Union, Greenpeace, Sports Club

Garda Siochana,Schools, Hospitals

Organisation in a Business ContextPeople working

together to achieve a goal

Organisation refers to the way in which people are grouped

and the way in which they operate

to carry out the activities of the

business

Key elements of the organisationThe goals of the business and the way they are

formulated - ownership and control - size - social structure - organisational structure

Set the boundaries to the organisation and to decide whether

or not one individual is in or

out

Who wants the Company to Exist?

Company

Customers

Community

OwnersEmployees

Leaders

Suppliers

Financial institution

s

Power Model by Mintzberg

The Classic Approach to Organisation

Management and Strategy

Main Approaches to Organisation

Classical Approach to Management

Purpose an structure

The need for people to act together with unity of

action

Coordination

Hierarchy

Specialisation

Planning of work Technical requirements

Principles of management

Assumes rational and logical behaviour

Need a clear understanding of the purpose

of the organisation

Need for discipline

Scientific Management

FW Taylor

All job processes should be analysed

into discrete tasks to find the ‘one best’

way to perform each task

There is a best machine for each job and a best working method

Scientific selection, training and

development of workers

Co-operation with workers is to ensure work is carried out in

prescribed way

Division of Labour

Bureaucracy

Tasks are allocatedas official duties

Clear Division of Labour

High level ofspecialisation

Rules & regulations

Employment is based on technical qualifications

Max Webber

Criticism of Bureaucracy

Over-emphasis on rules and

procedures, record keeping and paperwork

Lack of flexibility and stifling of

initiative

Position and responsibilities can

lead to officious bureaucratic

behaviour

Impersonal relations can lead to stereotyped

behaviour and lack of responsiveness to

individual incidents or problems

Human Relations Approach

Social factors at work and the behaviour of employees within an

organisation

Importance of the informal

organisation and the satisfaction of individuals’ needs through groups at

work

Elton MayoHawthorne

experiments

Human Relations Approach – The Criticisms

Weak methodology of Hawthorne experiments

Adoption of a management

approach

Insufficiently scientific

Ignoring the role of the organisation

within society

The Systems Approach

Attempts to reconcile the classical and human relations approaches

Examines the total work of the

organisation

Inter-relationships of structures &

behaviour Examines the range of variables within the

organisation

Viewed within its

total environment

The importance of multiple channels in

interaction is emphasised

Inputs and processes may be modified as a

result of feedback

The Systems Approach

The Contingency Approach

The structure of an organisation is

dependent on

Nature of tasks

Environmental influences

No one best way

Post Modernism

A more recent view of organisations and management

Rejects a rational, systems approach and

accepted explanations of society and behaviour

Places greater emphasis on the use of language and attempts to

portray a particular set of assumptions or versions of the

truth

Comparing Theories of OrganisationApproach to

Organisation

Scientific management

Bureaucracy

Human

relations

Systems Contingency

Nature of

solution

Rational allocation of work for efficient specialisation and authority structure

Arrangements to evoke co-operation

Minimising communications burden

Adaptation to environment to meet customers needs

Means Principles drawn from experience

Work group participation in decisions

Decision-analysis and

communication systems

Going for cost leadership and special know-how

Factors studied

Work loads, responsibility,

specialisation

Individual needs, group behaviour

Communication channels, decision-making

Analysis of key variables and strategy

Background influence

Military, engineering, classical economics

Psychology,

sociology

Mathematical economics, operational research, systems engineering

Organisation theorists:

J. Woodward

Burns & Stalker

Japanese Thinking

Japanese methods have produced: high levels of teamwork an atmosphere of innovative ideas a willingness to continually improve (Kaizen)

1960s – Western management lacked

curiosity about competition from Japan,

with British and European managers

obsessed by American examples

1970 & 80s - many sought to emulate the

characteristics of Japanese management

TQM JIT

Zero Defects

FIGURE 1.1