Organizations

And
Organizational
Effectiveness

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 Organization: A tool people use to
coordinate their actions to obtain
something they desire or value
 Entrepreneurship: The process by which
people recognize opportunities to satisfy
needs and then gather and use resources
to meet those needs

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 Value creation takes place at three stages:
input, conversion, and output
 Each stage is affected by the environment
in which the organization operates
 Organizational environment: The set of forces
and conditions that operate beyond an
organization’s boundaries but affect its ability
to acquire and use resources to create value

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 To increase specialization and the division
of labor
 Division of labor allows specialization
 Specialization allows individuals to become
experts at their job

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 To use large-scale technology
 Economies of scale: Cost savings that result
when goods and services are produced in large
volume on automated production lines
 Economies of scope: Cost savings that result
when an organization is able to use
underutilized resources more effectively
because they can be shared across different
products or tasks

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 To manage the organizational
environment
 An organization’s environment is the source of
valuable input resources and is the marketplace
into which it releases outputs
 It is the source of economic, social, and political
pressures that affect an organization’s ability to
obtain these resources

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 To economize on transaction costs
 Transaction costs: The costs associated with
negotiating, monitoring, and governing
exchanges between people
 To exert power and control
 Organizations can exert great pressure on
individuals to conform to task and production
requirements in order to increase production
efficiency

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 The five factors help explain why more
value can be created when people work
together, coordinating their actions in an
organized setting, than when they work
alone

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 Organizational theory: The study of how
organizations function and how they affect
and are affected by the environment in
which they operate
 Organizational structure: The formal
system of task and authority relationships
that control how people coordinate their
actions and use resources to achieve
organizational goals

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 Organizational culture: The set of shared
values and norms that controls
organizational members’ interactions with
each other and with suppliers, customers,
and other people outside the organization

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 Organizational design: The process by
which managers select and manage
aspects of structure and culture so that an
organization can control the activities
necessary to achieve its goals

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 Organizational change: The process by
which organizations redesign their
structures and cultures to move from their
present state to some desired future state
to increase their effectiveness

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 Dealing with contingencies
 Contingency: An event that might occur and
must be planned for
 The design of an organization determines how
effectively an organization is able to respond to
various pressures in its environment and so
obtain scarce resources
 Challenges organizations must be ready to face
 Globalization
 Changing technology

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 Gaining competitive advantage
 Competitive advantage: The ability of one
company to outperform another because its
managers are able to create more value from
the resources at their disposal
 Core competences: Managers’ skills and
abilities in value-creating activities
 Strategy: The specific pattern of decisions and
actions that managers take to use core
competencies to achieve a competitive
advantage and outperform competitors

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 Managing diversity
 Differences in the race, gender, and national
origin of organizational members have
important implications for organizational culture
and effectiveness
 Learning how to effectively utilize a diverse
workforce can result in better decision making
and more effective workforce

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 Promoting efficiency, speed, and
innovation
 The better an organization functions, the more
value it creates
 The correct organizational design can lead to
faster innovation and quickly get new products
to market

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 Decline of the organization
 Talented employees leave to take
positions in growing organizations
 Resources become harder to acquire
 The process of value creation slows down

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 Control - Having control over the external
environment and having the ability to
attract resources and customers
 Innovation - Developing an organization’s
skills and capabilities so the organization
can discover new products and processes

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 Efficiency - Means developing modern
production facilities using new information
technologies that can produce and
distribute a company’s products in a
timely and cost-effective manner

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 Official goals: Guiding principles that the
organization formally states in its annual
report and in other public documents
 Mission: Goals that explain why the
organization exists and what it should be
doing
 Operative goals: Specific long-term and
short-term goals that guide managers and
employees as they perform the work of
the organization

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 Organizations are a tool people use to
achieve their goals
 Organizational theory is the study of how
organizations function and how they affect
and are affected by their environment
 Organizational effectiveness must be
monitored by managers

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