Rational, natural and open perspectives

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Rational, natural and open perspectives

• Mandag 14. november 2005
• Forelesning 2

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Rational perspective

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

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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

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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.

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Rational perspective

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

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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.

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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

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Natural perspective

• Goal complexity
• Stated vs. Real goals
• Parallel goals

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Natural perspective

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

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Natural perspective

• Examples
• Hawthorne effect

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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.

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Open perspective

• Definition
• Organizations are congeries of interdependent
  flows and activities linking shifting coalitions
  of participants embedded in wider
  material-resource and institutional environments.

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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

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Open perspective

• Examples
• Loose and tight coupling
• Normal accidents vs reliability
• Contingency theory

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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

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Din organisasjon

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

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Felles oppgave

• Åtte frivillige personer
• Dere er en organisasjon
• Målet deres er å telle sammenhengende til 20