ÖRGÜT KURAMI VE TASARIMI

All HR activities from recruiting to compensation have organizational implications and hence benefit from the knowledge provided by the organization theory; organizational development and change are particularly important elements of HR that demand a deep knowledge of organizations and organizing, and organization theory provides content for executive training programs.

Organizations as Machines: This metaphor emphasizes the technical, hierarchical, rational, prolific, mechanical, and productive aspects of organizations. Organizations mostly defined by classical organizational approaches are defined by this metaphor.

Political parties, clubs, and professional organizations are examples of mutual benefit organizations. Individuals tend to participate in these organizations just to make use of their own benefits to the organization. Members of these organizations begin shaping them since their establishment.

Many service organizations are formed not for profit but for offering services to customers in the relevant community. Educational institutions, hospitals, animal protection associations, environment protect associations and various non-profit organizations are examples of these service organizations.

Three important views representing Classical management school of thought are those of F. Taylor, H. Fayol, and M. Weber. The ideas of these three important organization theorists make up the foundation of today’s organization theories. Following are the still used approaches of these authors.

We may basically ground this approach on these four elements:

1. One best way: Organizational issues must be examined through observations and analyses on the scientific base. Owing to this knowledge obtained from scientific methods, it is possible to develop one valid and correct business model for all organizations. A way to make a business effectively and efficiently must be found.

2. Scientific selection of personnel: Even though personnel has certain restrictions, the management can offer necessary training for personnel and improve their capacities. The management must understand what is required for maximum efficiency and offer the relevant training using scientific methods.

3. Financial incentives: Taylor knew that making use of the correct person did not guarantee efficiency and suggested that financial incentives must be used regarding the performance of employees.

4. Functional foremanship: Taylor argued and defended that managers must make plans, while the employees must work according to divided and specialized jobs in direction with this planning.

Environmental and internal concerns are related to contingency theory.

Organization’s Conversion Process

The organization transforms inputs and adds value to them via:

• Machinery • Computers • Human skills and abilities

Formalization: This means concentration on adherence to certain principles and methods while operating in an organization. If what, when, where, how, and who to do something is specified in detail and entitled to follow these, formalization can be regarded as high. In short, formalization is about the organization’s written business definitions, rules, procedures and communications, which include written policies, handbooks, job/business definitions activity guides, organizational schemes, management and technical systems, etc.

It is possible to define organizational technology as a total of technical tools used for transforming inputs into outputs and actions during this transformation process. This is about how the organization offers the service for its customers and produces the product.

Organizational effectiveness indicates that how an organization satisfies the demands of various groups. Effectiveness means an evaluation of the usefulness of an organization’s work and how sources are used during this process and also the level of achieving the result that the organization aims to reach. Efficiency is the criterion for the capability of doing things right during the value creation process and effectiveness is the measure of realizing the plans made beforehand, while productivity means producing an output with the least possible input.

In the present day, organizations operate in an environment where globalization, intense competition, digitalization and innovation take the stage. Organizations that cannot adapt to these changes are not likely to survive.

So many authors have presented their ideas to define existing organizations of our lives. There are so many comprehensive definitions that emphasize different specifics of organizations. One of the most accepted, comprehensive and common definitions is the one made by C. I. Barnard, which argues that “organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities of two or more persons.” This very definition by Barnard is used commonly since it encompasses all organizations with different features. This definition increasingly emphasizes the coordination created among individuals. The common side of all organizations is to act in coordinated ways to reach their aims within a certain frame of aims. As two prestigious names in the field of organizational studies, Blau P.M. and Scott W.R. extend the scope of the definition above and utter these words: “The accomplishment of an objective requires collective effort, men set up an organization designed to coordinate the activities of many persons and to furnish incentives for others to join them for this purpose.” There are many other definitions by various other theorists. The definitions above are common ones, which make us prefer them to include in our text. The reason for this much variety about the definitions of organizations is related to the nature of the organizational structure. Organizations are, by their nature, social structures with a highly dynamic system and intense interaction with the surrounding, which leads to treating organizations with different approaches from different academic fields. Not just organizational theorists, but also theoreticians from sociology, economics, psychology, and politics elaborate on organizations to understand and explain them. Organizational theory field has also drawn a lot from other academic disciplines. Researchers that were influenced by different disciplines and trends within organization theory strived for understanding organizations with differenttheoretical backgrounds, which caused various schools of thoughts to emerge. As also understood from the information given the correct answer is “E”.

In his Images of Organization, Gareth Morgan explains this diversity in the field of organization theory and describes different perspectives on the organizations using metaphors4. He identifies eight metaphors:

As also understood from the information given the correct answer is “E”.

One of the common classifications based on organizations aims and functions is the one argued by Blau and Scott. As to their argument, we can separate organizations into four basic types on a very simple level.

Mutual Benefit Organization

Raison d’etre of mutual benefit organizations is to increase their members and thus the benefit they have. Political parties, clubs, and professional organizations are examples of mutual benefit organizations. Individuals tend to participate in these organizations just to make use of their own benefits to the organization. Members of these organizations begin shaping them since their establishment. However, when these organizations reach a certain size and become active in their environments, the potential of members to influence them decreases. This kind of organizations is inclined to conflicts. When the needs of members are not satisfied fully and completely, possible and potential conflicts and problems are among the most encountered problems with this type of organizations. That is why the failure rate of these organizations is quite high.

Business Concerns

Business organizations are established with the aim of economic benefit. The fundamental problem of these organizations is operating efficiency and achievement of maximum gain at minimum cost for further survival and growth in competition with other organization. This type of organization has also a high failure rate. Survival and sustainability are other important problems that business organizations handle. In today’s fast-changing business environment, these organizations suffer the pressure of solving problems and learning in flexible and quicker ways. They are also expected to have innovative processes in a time when the competition is really fierce and global. Facebook, HSBC Bank, IBM, General Motors, Turkish Airlines are examples of these organizations. Even though they all differ from each other in terms of their nature, their goal is to survive and make the profit for growth. The main beneficiaries of commercial organizations are their owners or shareholders.

Service Organizations

Many service organizations are formed not for profit but for offering services to customers in the relevant community. Educational institutions, hospitals, animal protection associations, environment protect associations and various non-profit organizations are examples of these service organizations. These organizations are generally funded by small fees, donations, grants, contributions by members, or government assistance. The main beneficiaries of non-profit organizations are customers and communities. Their main problem is the lack of professional management. A professional way of an organization may be costly for such foundations.

Commonwealth Organizations

These organizations, which are basically for social services, are formed to offer standard services for the majority of the population. The motivator of these organizations is not profit. Police offices, army forces, courts, fire services, and other public institutions are examples of these organizations. The beneficiaries of commonwealth organizations are ordinary people in general.

As also understood from the information given the correct answer is “D”. Political parties, clubs, professional organizations are not examples of business organizations, but mutual benefit organizations. On the other hand, Facebook, HSBC Bank, IBM, General Motors, Turkish Airlines are not example of mutual benefit organizations, but business organizations.

Classical Management School

Three important views representing Classical Management School period are those of F. Taylor, H. Fayol, and M. Weber. The ideas of these three important organization theorists make up the foundation of today’s organization theories. Following are the still used approaches of these authors. As the first author of these three, F. Taylor is the founder of scientific management. In scientific management, the aim is to produce more through increasing efficiency. As a way to realize this aim, arrangements in the business level make up the main field of activity. The most focused aspect of these studies is business management and organization. In terms of scientific management, etudes of motion and time are given importance to have productivity. Motion etude is used for determining which motions will make the job. The goal is to get the highest result with minimum labor. Time etude is used for determining the standard time of a job. Thus, necessary performance measures can be conducted. In short, this approach is a management theory that tries to explain how to utilize human resource effectively in routine jobs. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is “A”. Behavioral School following the classical period are known as the micro-organization theory. The contingency theory is the second important approach in modern organization theories and brings a new dimension to the relations of organizations with their environment. The contingency theory that regards the organization as a system argues that only one ever-successful management and organization style is not possible. According to bureaucratic theory, if expanding and growing organizations do not desire to turn out to be inadequate, they must adhere to the ideal bureaucracy structure. The aspects of ideal bureaucracy theory can be summarized as the following six items: A well-defined hierarchy of authority, clear division of work, a system of rules covering the rights and duties of all employees. System approach approach is the one that decides various communication and interaction areas between different units of modern organization and their environment and shows which way to go. The system is an integral structure whose parts communicate and interact with each other.

Following the classical period, studies of the behavioral school’s current representatives are known as the micro-organization theory. The basic contribution of the behavioral school to the classical management theory is the emphasis on the informal aspects of organizations. While the classical management thought tackles the structural and physical design of organizations, the behavioral school focuses on human relations within organizations. The starting point of the behavioral school is the criticism that the classical school was not humanist and it regarded the human being as a machine, which makes it harder to increase productivity. Effectiveness and productivity, too,  are at stake in this period. However, the theorists mentioned try to explain that the human being has also a soul. So, the relations and situations within the organization are seen as variables that influence productivity. The most important studies within this field are Harwood and Hawthorne Experiments. Especially, Hawthorne concludes that productivity can only be increased by the emphasis on the emotional side of the human being and on managerial practices that make an employee feel important. In short, human behavior, human relations, motivation, managerial change, and development are the topics examined in this period, which maintained its importance until the 1960s. As also understood from the information given the correct answer is “C”. “The emphasis on the informal aspects of organizations” and “examining human behavior, human relations, motivation, managerial change, and development” are the basic contributions of the behavioral school to the classical management theory.  “Tackling the structural and physical design of organizations” is the contribution of the classical management thought. “taking the relationship of organizations with their environment into consideration” and “considering the organization as an open system” are the benefits of systems approach.

According to bureaucratic theory, if expanding and growing organizations do not desire to turn out to be inadequate, they must adhere to the ideal bureaucracy structure. The aspects of ideal bureaucracy theory can be summarized as the following six items: A well-defined hierarchy of authority, clear division of work, a system of rules covering the rights and duties of all employees, a system of procedures for dealing with the work situation, impersonality of interpersonal relationships, selection and promotion based on technical competence. The success of an organization depends on the strict compliance with rules. Arbitrary behaviors and procedures must be routinized and managed. Management principles and approaches to the bureaucratic theory are those aiming at composing the formal structure of organizations. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is “E”. “A well-defined hierarchy of authority”, “Clear division of work”, “”A system of rules covering the rights and duties of all employees”, “Impersonality of interpersonal relationships” and “Selection and promotion based on technical competence” are among  the aspects of ideal bureaucracy. “A system of procedures for dealing with the work situation” is the sixth aspect of ideal bureaucracy theory.

Modern approaches have tried to combine the thoughts of the previous schools; and  they have additionally mentioned the interaction between organizations and their environments. Three great developments have contributed to the improvement of modern management and organization theories: improvements in system theory, behavioral sciences, and quantitative methods. Modern management theories consist of the two important ones: Systems approach to organization and contingency theory. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is “E”. As the first author of three important views representing classical management school, F. Taylor is the founder of scientific management. Bureaucracy theory, one of three important views representing classical management school, was developed by M. Weber.

According to Gareth Jones, value creation has three stages: Input, conversion, and output. Each stage of the value creation process is influenced by the organizational environment. As also understood from this information given the statement “Each stage of the value creation process is only influenced by the internal organizational factors.” is not correct related to value creation process. On the contrary, each stage of the value creation process is influenced by the organizational environment. Because of the fact that the other statements are correct, the correct answer is “E”. Inputs may be abstract and concrete things such as end products semi-products money, capital, machine and equipment, human resource and knowledge, which are acquired from organizational environments and used as resources during the value-creation process. This value-creation process will also be influenced by how an organization chooses and acquires the inputs.  Quality, amount and compliance of inputs, used in the transformation process, must be paid attention to because inputs as the first stage of value-creation process influence the created value. Procedures followed by organizations to transform inputs to outputs are called transformation process. The last element of the value-creation process is output. The products or services offered by the organization following the transformation process make up the output, which may also be input for another organization. Just as the organization offering output acquires the input from an organization, its output may also be used as an input by another one. In this sense, complex value-creation processes of organizations are influenced by their environments.

Daft groups the dimensions of organization design into two basic categories. He sorts structural dimensions as formalization, specialization, the hierarchy of authority, centralization, professionalism and personnel ratios, while he labels contextual dimensions as size, technology, environment, goals and strategy, and culture. These dimensions cannot be dissociated since there is a connection between them and they mutually influence one another. While structural dimensions are about internal features of an organization, contextual dimensions influence a whole organization, which also shape and create an impact on structural dimensions. As also understood from the information given, the correct answer is “E”. Goals and strategy and culture are among the contextual dimensions. On the contrary, formalization, specialization and personnel ratios are among structural dimensions.

Performance generally means the level of work. Effective resource use, productivity, efficiency, profitability or the realization level of similar organizational aims reflect the performance level of a business. Performance is also the level of a work finished or outputs achieved according to certain goals. Organizational performance is the skill for reaching the organization’s aims using the scarce resources in effective and efficient ways and the consequence of an output or work after a certain period of time. Organizational efficiency means reaching and achieving organizational goals. Organizational effectiveness indicates that how an organization satisfies the demands of various groups. Effectiveness means an evaluation of the usefulness of an organization’s work and how sources are used during this process and also the level of achieving the result that the organization aims to reach. We may summarize these three concepts which are very similar to each other as follows: Efficiency is the criterion for the capability of doing things right during the valuecreation process and effectiveness is the measure of realizing the plans made beforehand, while productivity means producing an output with the least possible input.  As also understood from the information given the definitions “Organizational efficiency means reaching and achieving organizational goals.”, “Organizational effectiveness indicates that how an organization satisfies the demands of various groups.” and “Productivity means producing an output with the least possible input.” are correct. The correct answer is “D”. The definitions in the options IV and V are not correct. Efficiency is the criterion for the capability of doing things right during the valuecreation process, while effectiveness is the measure of realizing the plans made beforehand.