SOC300H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Organizational Ecology, Correctional Service Of Canada, Institutional Theory
Document Summary
We are comparing them to closed systems. Rational systems: rational tools, normative structure, goal attainment, formal structures, efficiency. Natural systems: organizations are similar, organic social systems, behavioural structure, formal v. s informal goals, informal structure, survival. Rational and natural look inside organizations, they forget about non-rational behaviour and other broader cultural influences. Open systems theorists open up organizations to outside. Open systems theorists examine setting and interdependence: e. g. how different universities influence each other. Open as receptive, conduits and connectors: they are willing to accept other influences. Main components: environment (the biggest one) Approach: boundary between organizations and their environment is blurry. Insight: an organization is a system of interdependent activities (interdependence crosses organizational boundaries. Organizations must adapt to their environments in various ways. 1: organizations are congeries of interdependent flows and activities linking shifting conditions of participants embedded in wider material resources and institutional environments, focuses on different types of participants, flow of knowledge.
