Organizations as organisms The organism metaphor'

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Organizations as organismsThe organism
metaphor.

• Presented by
• Mary Anne Fraser
• Darby Jo McAsey
• Robert Arran McEwan
• Jose Fernando Davalos

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The "organization as an organism" metaphor is
discussed as an overlapping of three theories

• The Open Systems Theory
• The Contingency Theory
• The Population-Ecology Theory

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Issues and / or areas of focus common to all 3
theories

• Environmental circumstances are important to the
  success or failure of an organization.
• There may be different ways of arriving at a
  given end product.
• There may be different ways of arriving at a
  given end product.

• All three theories move away from the
  mechanistic, bureaucratic theories of
  organizational structure and operation, and take
  into account the importance and subjectivity of
  human resources to an organization.
• Flexibility and ability to adapt to changing
  conditions are important to the success of a
  company.

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The Open Systems TheoryKey Issues

• Developed in the l950s and l960s its main ideas
  come from the work of Ludwig von Bertalanffy, a
  theoretical biologist.
• Emphasis on the environment is important to the
  organization's existence.
• Environment and system are to be understood as
  being in a state of interaction and mutual
  dependence

• The organization itself is made up of smaller
  divisions.
• All are dependent on the others and on the
  environment.
• Open Systems theory encourages interaction and
  integration of smaller divisions, in ways that
  meet the requirements of the environment.

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The Contingency TheoryKey Issues

• A. Developed in the l950s from the work done by
  Tom Burns and G.M. Salker.
• B. There is no best way of organizing. The
  appropriate form depends on the kind of task or
  environment with which one is dealing.
• C.Different types of 'species' of organizations
  are needed in different types of environments".
  These species include machine bureaucracy, the
  divisionalized form, the professional
  bureaucracy, the simple structure, and the
  adhocracy

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C.1. Species of organizations

• Machine bureaucracy and divisionalized forms
  highly centralized and appropriate for
  organizations where tasks and environment are
  simple, stable and market driven.
• Professional Bureaucracy Modified form of
  mechanistic control, allows for greater
  independence of staff. Is appropriate for
  relatively stable conditions and fairly
  complicated tasks.

• Simple Structure and Adhocracy work best in
  unstable environments and in entrepreneurial
  organizations. Organization is very informal,
  flexible, and is ideal for quick changes.
• Adhocracy usually involves project teams that
  work together for a given task then disband when
  the task is over, regrouping into other teams for
  next tasks or projects.
•  

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C.2. Other Species shamrock, cluster, federal,
and matrix.

• Matrix Organization team based, attempts to
  combine the
  project-team structure with the departmental
  structure found
  in a bureaucracy.
• Matrix and other team-based organizations allow
  people from different specializations to work
  together on common problems.
• Team-based organizations increase the
  adaptability of organizations to their
  environments, make good use of human resources
  and individual skills and talents, diffuses
  control and power, allow people at lower levels
  of the organization to make contributions.

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Contingency Theory--Key Issues(continue)

• D. Different approaches to management may be
  necessary to perform different tasks within the
  same organization.
• E. Management must be concerned, above all, with
  achieving alignments and good fits.
• F. Organizations are open systems that need
  careful management to satisfy and balance
  internal needs and to adapt to environment
  circumstances.
• G. Contingency Theory posits that the "right fit"
  between an organization and its environment is
  paramount in the success of an organization.

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The questions below can be used to determine the
organization's characteristics and its "fit" to
its environmental conditions.

• How can an organization systematically achieve a
  good 'fit' with its environments? What is the
  nature of the organization's environment?
• How can it adapt to changing environmental
  circumstances?
• What kind of strategy is being employed?
• How can it ensure that internal relations are
  balanced and appropriate? What kinds of
  technology is being used?
• What kinds of people are employed, and what is
  the dominant "culture" within the organization?
• What does this mean in operational terms? How is
  the organization structured and what are the
  dominant managerial philosophies?

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The Population-Ecology Theory Key Issues

• Based on Darwin's theory of evolution like
  organisms, organizations depend on their
  resources for survival.
• Because members of a species tend to share
  similar strengths and weaknesses, it is the whole
  species that tends to survive or fail.
• It is the ability to obtain a resource niche and
  outperform one's competitors that is
  all-important, and in the long run applies to
  whole populations of organizations.
• Criticisms
• a) the emphasis is placed on resource scarcity
  and competition, and pays little heed to abundant
  resources and collaboration which are also very
  common.
• b) the theory does not provide a satisfactory
  explanation of how organizations actually evolve.
  

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Strengths of the Metaphor

• This metaphor places emphasis on the relationship
  between the organization and its environment,
  recognizing that organizations are open systems,
  dependent on their external and internal
  environments, which act and react upon each
  other.
• The management can be improved through noticing
  and analyzing the "needs" that must be satisfied
  for the organization to survive.
• The theory recognizes that there are many species
  of organizations, and therefore, many options are
  available.
• The theory recognizes that organic systems are
  the most appropriate systems for innovative,
  flexible and dynamic processes.
• The theory, especially the contingency theory,
  has contributed to the study of organizational
  development and has been successful in showing
  the importance of the "best fit" between an
  organization and its circumstances.
• The metaphor highlights the importance of
  inter-organizational relationships.

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Weaknesses of the Metaphor

• It is misleading to suggest that organizations
  need to 'adapt' to their environment or that
  environments 'select' the organizations that are
  to survive.
• Most organizations are not as functionally
  unified as organisms.
• There is a "danger of the metaphor becoming an
  ideology.