| Go Back | Main Menu | OD TOOLKIT |
Sometimes it can be useful to compare an organisation to a living organism, perhaps to a person. This means that, in order to understand an organisation, it is useful to:
An organisation can then be seen as having (developed) its own personality. Changing an organisation is possible, but requires the kind of energy needed to change habits, lifestyles or set of psychological patterns.
There have always been valid reasons to explain why an organisation has developed the way it has. Understanding and respecting those reasons is a good basis for working within or with an organisation.
Organisations are usually trying to achieve something out there. Not always, however; a women consciousness-raising group for instance, could be said to be solely internally orientated. But when an organisation is offering a series of consciousness-raising activities, it is probably trying to offer opportunities to women to re-evaluate and perhaps change their lives. An underlying ideology will be concerned with reaching equality between women and men, or fighting exploitation of women.
The ideology, external and internal goals are sometimes clearly identified, but need regular updating, because the world outside and inside the organisation keeps changing.
Ideology is the underlying system of beliefs or values, and the required direction of change.
External goals are descriptions of what an organisation would like to achieve out there - in the long or possibly short term. These goals may be descriptive (improving the position of the poor) or defined in terms of products (for example, this year we want to teach 400 children, each course taking x amount of time, or we want to put out a monthly magazine and have x number of subscribers).
External goals bear a relationship to the underlying ideology. Every so often it is necessary to review that relationship.
Internal goals concern the organisation, and particularly the people within it. An organisation's goal may be to improve its internal communication, or to upgrade the know-how or professionalism of its people. It may want to introduce a computer system.
These internal goals will be aimed primarily at becoming more effective in achieving the external goals. The wish to develop a certain type of group dynamic, or to allow personal development or to........ is often related to the external goals (ways of attracting and motivating the right kind of personnel). But at times, they may stand as goals in their own right (increasing the job opportunities for women, the continuation of the organisation, personal development).
Ideology and external goals may be fairly well articulated, and there is a range of ways in which this can done. Some organisations have a tradition of detailed ideological discussion. Other organisations have a more general ideological direction, and are more specific about their short- or long-term goals.
Internal goals may be more implicit. The official policy and the realities of what occurs in an office often differ to a degree. Understanding the real motivation and direction of the organisation is not always simple, neither for outsiders nor for the people working within the organisation. This is because they become socialized, used to doing things in a certain way.
Organisations structure the work, level of responsibilities, internal and external communication, decision-making processes, etc.
There are many ways of doing this, and different reasons which can be considered when structuring an organisation. It may be efficient within an industrial context to give workers a small repetitive task which they can learn to do at high speed and with maximum precision. But there may be reasons concerning job satisfaction (internal goals) which suggest development of a more all-round skilled worker, or job rotation.
A range of considerations can play a role when deciding on matters of responsibility, coordination or control.
Questions to be considered:
Questions of responsibility, hierarchy, leadership etc., depend in part on what people are used to in their culture, or have learned to expect within a particular organisation.
Certain kinds of jobs need and therefore lead to certain kinds of organisational habits, or ways of doing things. There are branch cultures. For example, universities, restaurants, armies, civil service organisations, a sales organisation, NGO's or feminist organisations may have certain things in common, the world over. We expect to find a strong hierarchy in the army, and considerable professional freedom in a university. We expect to find a bureaucratic system in state organisations. Not only the structures but also the often unspoken or social habits within branch organisations are comparable, and differ from organisations in other branches.
When an organisation develops a way in which we do things here, newcomers will partly be selected and partly be socialized to become part of the team or, in other words, to take on the social habits of the organisation.
But such organisational cultures are not only affected by the type of work which is done, but also by the national culture.
More and more research is being done (Hofstede) on differences (and similarities) in national cultures. A number of dimensions in which cultures differ have been identified:
This is relevant because it turns out that different national cultures tend to have a preference for certain types of organisational structures and cultures. Organisations may be structured more (or less) like pyramids, machines, markets or families. Such differences in organisational structures and cultures lead to very different views of what should be standardized in the organisation (e.g. the skills, the workers, the work processes, the supervision/control system or the output of work....).
Literature on organisational analysis, consultancy and management probably carries in it the cultural bias of the author. It is difficult, perhaps even impossible, to be fully aware of such bias in oneself. Inter cultural exchange allows a growth in the awareness of cultural elements in one's own organisational taste.
The importance of recognizing differences in organisational and national cultures is that it means that there is no objective right way of organizing.
An organisation is more or less successful in a certain social context. A leadership style is more or less effective for an organisation in a certain phase of its development. Organisational structure and culture are more or less suited to the ideology and external and internal goals which an organisation is attempting to achieve.
Which leads to the conclusion that there is no single correct way of organizing.
And attempts to improve or develop an organisation can only be successful if one takes full account of at least three dynamic lines:
Change in an organisation will be more successful if the personality of the organisation (within its context) is understood in the analysis. And if the proposed changes are within the range of possibilities of the organisation, because they are based on the strengths and successes, and not only focussed on problems or weaknesses.