Levels of Organizational Reality

1
Levels of Organizational Reality

• Orgs exist at all levels of social life, from the
  micro to the macro levels. Lets look at some of
  them.

2
The Micro Level

• Face-to face exchanges between individuals in
  roles and relationships within small groups
  characterize the Micro level. Organizations here
  would include a mompop candy store, a
  family-owned tree farm, a neighborhood patrol
  association, a small sorority chapter and the
  local volunteer fire department.

3
The Intermediate/Middle Level

• In between these small associations and those
  whose members range into the hundreds of
  thousands are a vast number of middle-sized
  organizations. Think of such examples as Seton
  Hall University, the New York Police Department,
  Beth Israel Hospital, a mid-sized law firm or
  bank, the Museum of Modern Art, the NY Yankees.

4
The Macro Level

• Here we enter the largest sphere of social life,
  where organizations are vast collections of
  members in a highly complex set of sub-groupings,
  and where power and influence reaches to national
  and international arenas. Think of General
  Electric, ATT, the U.N., the Roman Catholic
  Church, Sony, the AFL-CIO.

5
The so what? question

• As with all things we are told, we should ask
  so, what is the usefulness of knowing this?
  Thus, think about why we want to identify
  organizations at different levels of social size
  and complexity? What kinds of issues get raised
  and what kinds of questions can we pose if we
  think about these different levels of social
  reality?