HRM 1101 Lecture 8: HRM 8
3 May 2018
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Department
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Professor
• How Can We “ee Organizations and their “tructures in Non-Traditional Ways?
o Open systems theory
▪ Open systems theory states that a human system such as an organization
is constantly influenced by and is influencing its environment.
▪ A system is made up of individual parts to create a whole system but
that the system is not cut off from the environment within which it
exists.
o Mechanistic Organizations (perhaps a manufacturing plant)
▪ Characteristics of mechanistic organization:
• high degree of specialization; division of labor, and routine job
functions
• may also be hierarchical and bureaucratic
• processes and standard operating procedures are routine
• is inflexible and formal and it often has centralized decision
making.
o Organic Organization (perhaps a high-technology company)
▪ Characteristics of organic organization:
• high degree of flexibility, low levels of specialization
• less formality and decentralized decision making processes
• can change and adapt, depending upon the internal and external
conditions and demands.
o Organizations as Spiders
▪ Traditional, hierarchical, and mechanistic
▪ Decisions are made higher up and then pushed down the chain of
command
▪ Power is centrally organized at the top
▪ If the head dies, the whole organism dies with it.
o Organizations as Starfish
▪ The legs of a starfish act independently from one another, smoothly
and gracefully moving over and around obstacles
▪ Brai is’t akig all the decisios or cotrollig all the actio: all the
knowledge for the activities needed to stay healthy, adapt and change is
self-contained in part of the starfish
▪ If you cut off one of its legs, a new leg will grow back.
• How Are Organizations Classified and Legally Structured?
o For-Profit Organization
▪ Any business whose mission includes making profit for owners.
o Not-for-Profit Organization
▪ An organization that provides goods or services and that invests profits in
pursuit of organizational goals as opposed to sharing profit among
owners.
o Governmental Organizations
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