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Organisations
Organisations can be defined as “resource pools”
which come into existence when individuals place their
resources (money, skill, contacts) under some form of
central control that can be used collectively for the
benefit of the individuals who create the organisations.
Organisations must therefore establish rules and structure
for the use and distribution of their resources to attain
organisational goals.
Culture
People need to be part of a group in order to survive.
Important human needs (companionship, sustenance, status,
and meaning) are principally met by participating in
group processes. Organisational Culture is the informal
system of rules and expectations concerning behaviour
that springs up spontaneously among the incumbents.
This patterned network of expectations is often unrecognised
and/or misunderstood by managers.
Organisational Effectiveness
Organisational effectiveness depends on how well three
“people problems” are resolved.
| 1. |
Division of labour: so that those
who are best suited to do a particular job are assigned
to that job. |
| 2. |
Coordination of individual labour;
when operating procedures are standardised,
people can be left alone to do their jobs. |
| 3. |
Coordination of work within
and between teams; this is done by means of a
managerial hierarchy.
Ultimately, organisational effectiveness can be
thought of in terms of five factors or considerations,
all of which relate back to individual personalities.
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Talent of the work force
More talented people will outperform less talented people,
other things being equal. The talent level of a work
force is a direct function of the quality of the selection
procedures that management has chosen.
Motivation level of
the work force
A highly motivated but not overly talented team will
outperform talented but demoralised competition. The
motivation of the workforce is a direct function of
the quality of the managers for whom they must work.
Bad managers can (and do) demoralise any work force.
Leadership capability
of the management group
Putting an effective management group in place depends
on the adequacy of the management selection and evaluation
process, and that, ultimately, depends on the degree
to which senior management cares about the issue.
Business strategy
Business strategies are rarely arrived at in a rational
way—by evaluating the organisation’s strengths
vis a vis the competition, trends in technology and
market opportunities, emerging threats, costs and consequences
of various alternatives, and so on. Deriving a strategy
by rational means amounts to doing real research. CEOs
are not researchers—if they were, they wouldn’t
be CEOs!
Monitoring systems
Designed to evaluate, periodically, the talent level
of the workforce, the motivational state of the workforce,
the talent of the management team, and the effectiveness
of the business strategy.
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