Traditional Approaches to Organizational Structure

1
Traditional Approaches to Organizational Structure

• Lecture III

SOWO 804 Organizational and Community Behavior
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Traditional Response to Katrina

• Direct Practice and Macro Practice responses
  helping people on an individual and community
  level
• Role of Cultural Competence?
• Should Organizations Change with the Times? If
  yes, When, How?
• Can past Organizational responses suffice if
  rooted in successful social work practices?

3
What is an Organization?

• A Holistic View
• Organizations are Holistic
• Organizations are Ecological
• Organizations are Organic
• Organizations are People-Based

(Holistic Model, n.d.)
4
An Organizations Mission

• The Threefold Mission
• Develop and Implement all the Parts
• Connect the Parts Cause and Effect
  Relationships Understood
• Coach the People

(Holistic Model, n.d.)
5
Mission, Vision and Values
(Holistic Model, n.d.)
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The Four Organizational Forms

• Explicate Order vs. Implicate Order
• Explicate Order
• It manifest structure associated with power,
  hierarchy of task, and roles
• Implicate Order
• These organizations are defined by social
  associations, empathetic/creative
  interrelationships, feeling fields, metaphors and
  symbols
• Models
• Community Building Model
• T-group Model
• Other Environments that function with Implicate
  Order
• Creative Environments
• Expressive Arts
• Improvisational Jazz
• Pedagogy of the Oppressed (P. Friere) - Model of
  Education

(Dinkelaker, 1997)
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4 Types of Organizations

• Bureaucratic
• Matrix (Research and Development)
• Familial Organization
• Organic Adaptive

(Dinkelaker, 1997)
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Organizational Structure and Design

• Organizational Structure describes the
  organizations framework as expressed by its
  degree of complexity, formalization, and
  centralization
• Complexity How is the Work Divided?
• Formalization - The Rules of Employee Behavior
• Centralization Who at the TOP is Making
  Decisions?
• Decentralization Is Decision Making Occurring
  In Lower Levels of the Organization?

(Organization Structure, n.d.)
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Organizational Structure and Design (Contd)

• Organizational Design
• Six Elements
• Work specialization
• Departmentalization
• Chain of command
• Span of control
• Centralization/Decentralization
• Formalization
• Classical View vs. Contemporary View
• Unity of Command
• Authority and Responsibility
• Span of Control

(Organization Structure, n.d.)
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Organizational Structure and Design (contd)

• Horizontal Dimensions
• Division of Labor
• Departmentalization
• Functional
• Product
• Customer
• Geographic
• Process

(Organization Structure, n.d.)
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Importance of Environment

• Environment Greatly Influences How Organizations
  Form, Structure, and Function

C
People
Systems and Rules
Culture Community
Goals Objectives
The Agency
Work Structure
Technology
(Clifton, 1980)
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Importance of Environment (contd)

• Organizations Response to Environmental
  Influences were Especially Evident During the
  20th Century

1900 1950 2000

• Early 1900s Largest Single Group Farmers,
  Second Group Live-In Servants
• Industrial Revolution Farmers and Live-In
  Servants move to the cities, but remained
  impoverished.
• By 1950 Labor Unions made Industrial Workers
  Middle Class Citizens
• By 1990 Labor Unions in Retreat
• No Class in History has ever risen faster than
  the blue-collar worker. And no class in history
  has ever fallen faster.
• Now The Rise of a Knowledge Society.

(Drucker, 1994)
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Importance of Environment (contd)

• Environmental Influences on the 21st Century
  Organization
• Email
• Voicemail
• Facsimile Machines
• Teleconferencing
• Electronic Data Interchanges
• Intranets
• Telecommuting
• Virtual Workplaces

(Organization Structure, n.d.)
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Group Activity

• Power-Oriented Agencies (The White House)
• Centralized Power - Power is held either by a
  select number of key individuals or by one
  person.
• The organization's success or failure is
  determined by the central power source.
• This Power Source must be willing to take risks
  in an effort to increase the agency's success.
• Role-Oriented Agencies (DSS)
• Emphasize is on Role Relationships.
• Members work under the principles of logic,
  rationality, and caution.
• The roles of the individual members are clearly
  defined in policies.
• The focus of these agencies is on the
  organization rather than the individuals who make
  up the organization.
• Task-Oriented Agencies (Boeing Aircraft)
• Emphasizes getting the job done by bringing
  together resources and people.
• The team concept makes this type of agency very
  adaptive. Groups are formed for specific
  purposes.
• Group members have a high degree of control over
  their own work.
• Performance is determined by team results.
• People-Oriented Agencies (Human Resources
  Consulting Firm)
• Described as Single-cell organisms living in the
  same solution but remaining independent of one
  another.

(Clifton, 1980)
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Activity Directions

• Choose one of your organizations to discuss
• Identify what type of agency is described
• Draw a Figure to demonstrate how this agency
  functions
• Identify 3 strengths of the agency
• Identify 3 barriers of the agency

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A Quote to Remember

• Directors, coordinators, and staff members of
  small community-based, social-service agencies
  are realizing, in increasing numbers, that it is
  they themselves who make their programs
  effective. There will always be external
  constraints and obstacles, but the people who
  make up an agency must look inward for the
  definition of rights, privileges, roles, and
  responsibilities.
• Kent Higgins

(Clifton, 1980)
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References

• Cliton, Robert L, Dahms, Alan M. (1980)
  Grassroots Administration, A handbook for Staff
  and Directors of Small Community-Based Social
  Agencies. Illinois Waveland Press, Inc.
• Dinkelaker, A. (1997) The New Frontier in
  Democratic Theory and Practice Organizational
  Forms that Simultaneously Optimize Autonomy
  Community. Retrieved September 8, 2003, from
  http//quadrant4.org/thesis/chapter2.html
• Drucker, P.F. (11/1994) The Age of Social
  Transformation. Retrieved September 8, 2003 from
  The Atlantic Monthly website http//www.theatlan
  tic.com/politics/ecbig/soctrans.htm
• A Holistic Model for Organizational Management.
  (n.d.) Retrieved September 8, 2003 from
  http//socialent.aztech-cs.com/resources/articles/
  holistic/
• Organization Structure and Design. (n.d.)
  Retrieved September 8, 2003 from
  http//faculty.unitarklj1.edu.my/homepage/Coursewa
  reWeb/bmb1013/LECTURE_NOTES?MODULE20IV/sec1.htm