IB - Module 1

systems approach

Katz & Kahn; firms as living organisms; firms are made up of interdependent parts which can only be understood by analysing them all together; we may analyse them in three categories inputs, processes, outputs

contingency approach

relationship between the organisation and its environment; business activities and the way they are organised are products of the environment in which they operate

bureaucratic management

Max Weber; organisations as hierarchies; formal rules, division of labour, systematic pay structure, authority of position; i.e. banks, armies, universities

scientific management

Frederick Taylor; organisations as machines; standardisation of tasks; separation of thinking and doing; scientific analyses of work; i.e. doctors, nurses, helpers

human relations

organisations as social systems; attention improves the output; Elton Mayo found out that informal relations, social groups, team spirit raise productivity

1st principal of systems approach: permeability

organisations as open systems; informations and resources flow in-n-out of organisations; context is dynamic, so companies need to be opened

2nd principal of systems approach: holism

parts of the company interact and are interdependent; the whole systems consists of many subsystems

3rd principal of systems approach: entropy

beware the mess; get the system back in order; equilibrium

4th principal of systems approach: equifinality

not all ways of organising are equally good

Business activities

1. Innovation, 2. Marketing, 3. Operations, 4. Human Resource management, 5. Finance and accounting

Network theory

Organisations as networks; strong ties - tight groups, in which people share the same kind of information

strong ties in network theory

tight groups, in which people share the same kind of information

weak ties in network theory

more unique information shared between group members

Setbacks for scientific management

1. Not thinking enough about people, 2. Carelessness, demotivation

Examples of Closed organisations

NASA, military, Hollister

Examples of open organisations

fast-fashion companies, Netflix, Charity

Strategical business context

strategy comprises a set of objectives and methods of achieving those objectives

orzganizational business context

organisation refers to the way in which people operate to carry out the activities of the business

environmental business context

the economy, state, technology, labour

Taylorism

study of how specialisation affects people

homo economicus

human is a rationally calculating machine, who is narrowly self-interested, desires to possess wealth, mainly motivated by money

Hawthorne effect

when you know you are under observation, you act differently; attention motivates people