Sunday, July 18, 2010

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ORGANIZATION

The definitions given above indicated that organizations have certain common characteristics.The most common characteristics of an organization, which emerge from the definitions, are as follows.

SOCIAL INTERACTION-An organization cons its of people.They interact with each other while at work.This interaction among organizational members leads to the development of network.This interaction among organizational members leads to the development of network of social relations in work places.The smooth running of an organization depends much on the mutual understanding, and the cooperation's and support of the members to one another.

SHARED GOALS OR PURPOSES-An organization has its own definite goals or purpose to attain.Without shared goals,people rarely come together and establish a definite pattern of interacting.Therefore, goal orientation blinds the organizational members together and motivated them to work toward the attainment of the stated goals.

DIVISION OF WORK-Division of work means dividing large tasks into smaller packages of work to be handled by one person.Sometimes, a combined effort of man and machine performs a task.In specific cases, a group of persons are assigned a task.An organization, thus , brings different people together into a network of interactions to perform different tasks.Educational qualification,physical and mental abilities,experiences,skills etc. are the bases of allocating tasks among members.The nature and complexity of tasks determine the rank and status of organizational members.For efficiency,organizations typically divide the functions to enable the members to specialize in one two areas.Greater division of work and separation are to found in more complex organizations.

COORDINATION OF EFFORTS-The divided tasks performed by individuals Neds to be linked together to keep the activities of each division goals focused.This is accomplished by coordination.Coordination is basically a process of linking the activities of the various units of the organization.uncoordinated tasks may not be goal focused.

HIERARCHY OF AUTHOR TY-The jobs to be performed in an organizations are arranged in ladder hierarchy.The bases of the hierarchy construction are job responsibility and accountability,skill demand of the job,and complexity of the job.Higher level jobs are more demanding in terms of responsibility, skill and work experiences. Thus a chain of command is put into place to oversee the work of lower level jobs.A clear hierarchy of authority makes direction,supervision and coordination easier and more effective.

SOCIAL CONTROL-Organizations maintain their control over the behaviour of their members and regulate their activities.They make use of various rules,norms, and standard to ensure acceptable conduct and behaviour of the members may contribute to the process of disorganization's.

On the basis of the definitions and the features of organization given above, we can make important points about characteristics of organizations.

-Organizations are human creations.
-Fundamentally, organizations con sit of people, rather than building, equipment, machinery,etc.
-The term "organization" is used in a general sense.It is not restricted to industrial or commercial firms.Educational and medical institutions , social clubs, and wide range of other organized human activities are forms of organizations.
-People within organizations must be working to common goals and coordinate their activities to this end.

-Although relationships between people are determined according to a certain formal structure,informal groups also exists in organizations.

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