Organisational theory - its importance for an integrated business environment Power, influence and group effectiveness

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LECTURE 2

Organisational theory – its importance for an integrated business environment

Power, influence and group effectiveness

A. Organisational theory

Organizations have existed for thousands of years and people have intuitive understanding of how organizations work (see Box 1.2 from Handy, 1987, p. 17). The question is what makes an organization successful and another one unsuccessful? The answer may be eventually given by organizational theory that identifies, analyzes, and conceptualizes the characteristics of successful organizations.

Organisations are made up of people that come together in order to fulfill specific purposes. Organizations can be quite varied in the way they were set up: from business companies to NGOs, from partnerships to charities and government agencies. The purposes also can be extremely diverse: from selling products and services in order to make a profit and get rich to educating people and enhancing their spiritual wellfare, from medical support to teaching, from fighting pollution and injustice to campaigning for political purposes, from playing and listening to music to watching games.

Organisations are social systems through which people try to fulfill their ambitions or dreams. People form relationships that influence, for better or for worse, the development of an organisation. They like one another, hate one another, support or block one’s ideas or projects, sometimes get very personal and fall in or out of love, are motivated or on the contrary, demotivated and apathetic, are sociable or isolated, can or hate to work together.

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Key words when talking about organizations are:

Stakeholders, culture, politics, power, bounded rationality, paradigms.

Stakeholders – People with an interest in an organisation’s success, failure or activities, and therefore a desire to influence its behaviour.

Examples of stakeholders

Organisations, politics and power

Given the existence of different stakeholder groups in organisations, it is likely that their interest will differ and that there will sometimes be tension between them. Such tension can be destructive, but it can also stimulate creativity and help more organisations forward.

Oragnisational politics

These tensions within organisations are resolved through political ...

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