Week Six: Organizations, Socialization and Motivation PIA 2000 Week Six: Organizations, Socialization and Motivation

What constitutes an organization?

Characteristics of an organization More than 1 person Has a systematic structure Is managed Has a particular objective Has distinct boundaries Delegation of tasks

What are the different kinds of organizations?

Businesses Government NGOs IOs Community associations Institutions Partnerships Cooperatives Universities

What is particular about the public sector?

Dispersed power and fragmented authority There’s a double bottom-line Competing conceptions of the role of government and its priorities Indirect feedbacks Ambiguous goals Political constraints

Take away points Public administration is an organizational process that is distinct from other organizational processes. Organizations are Complex Ubiquitous Necessary “It’s not rocket science” – Dr. Dunn

Organizations as a human machine Prior to 1890s – Total disorganization and confusion Instability Efficiency and rationality Business sector Frederick Taylor - Scientific Management Public Administration Weber – legal rational model

Humans are not machines… Human relations theory Hawthorne experiments (1927 – 1932) The “Hawthorne Effect” When people know they are part of an experiment, this affects the results Human resources theory Maximization of human resources Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (1943 – 1954)

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Organizations as systems Interdependent features - If you change one thing, you change everything Equilibrium (homeostasis) - Self-regulation and feedbacks Natural systems - The internal environment Open systems - The external environment Formal Vs. Informal organization – a necessary distinction

Chester Barnard, The Functions of the Executive, 1938 Cooperative systems Inducements-Contributions Theory Functions of the executive

Structure Vs. Adaptation Complex Adaptive Systems Organizational Learning Double loop/ single loop Climate Vs Culture

Culture Schiavo-Campo, MacPherson definition of culture: “…totality of shared behavior patterns, arts, beliefs and institutions based in generations of shared experiences and values.” Three levels of culture – Edgar Schein Artifacts Espoused values Assumptions Kinds of culture: National, Political, Organizational, Administrative (combination of all of the above?)

Determinants of org culture Shared values and experiences Internal and external environments Leadership

Symbolic Management Theory Draws on human relations theory The creation of organization-specific cultural norms allows for more effective decentralization and less overseeing. Goal congruence strategy

Cultural homogeneity Vs. Diversity Strong culture with shared understandings Benefits of diversity

Summarizing the practical side- Human relations: The well-being of human beings matters Human Resources: A sense of meaning and purpose matters when maximizing on an individual’s skills Systems Theory: Organizations exist within a complex interdependent web Org Culture: Aligning values with the objectives of the organization is also important. The creation of specific norms to further the goals of the organization