Overview of

Organization and
Management
theories
WMSU Lemuel Ian B. Cua, LPT
EDAD 205 Student

WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

“No individual is
self-sufficing, we all
have needs”
(The Republic)
Introduction
• Organizing – gathering the resources
required to carry out the activities and
allocating the effective and efficient use of
those resources (Schermerhorn, 2011)
• Management – involves four functions –
planning, organizing, leading, and
controlling
Introduction
• Tasks are too big for one person –
Coordination
• ”The greatest improvements in the
productive powers of labour, and the
greater part of the skill, dexterity, and
judgment, with which it is anywhere
directed, or applied, seem to have been
the effects of the division of
labour.” (Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations)
 Classical Theories
of Organizations
“One best way”
“Maximizing productivity and
efficiency inputs to produce
the same amount of product”
WMSU

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Classic Theory of Organization
• Max Weber – Bureaucracy
• Principles
– Clear definition areas of competence
– Hierarchy of office
– Decisions made on basis of written documents
according to written rules
– Impersonal or professional
– Extensive education
– Employment on the basis of expertise
– Set Salaries
Classic Theory of Organization
• Frederick Winslow Taylor – The Principle of
Scientific Management
• Principles
– Science not rule of thumb
– Harmony, not discord
– Cooperation, not individualism
– Maximum output, in the place of restricted output
– The development of each man to his greatest
efficiency and prosperity
Other Classics
• Henri Fayol – Functions of management:
Forecast and Plan, Organize, Command
or Direct, Coordinate, and Control
• Luther Gulick and Lyndal Urwick –
POSDCORB: Planning, Organizing,
Directing, Staffing, Co-Ordinating,
Reporting, and Budgeting
Other Classics
• Chester Barnard – The Theories of Authority and
of Incentive
– The cannels of communication should be definite
– Everyone should know of the channels
– Everyone should have access to the channels
– Lines of communication should be short and direct
– Competence of persons serving as communication
centers should be adequate
– The line of communication should not be interrupted
when organization if functioning
– Every communication should be authenticated
Classical Theory
• Herbert A. Simon - Administrative
Behavior
– Decisions and Decision-making
– Man’s Bounded Rationality
– “We can never find the best possible solution”
– “Best Way”
– Manager – do the first solution they find that is
deemed good
 System Organization
Theories
The foundation of systems
theory is that all the
components of an
organization are interrelated,
WMSU and that changing one
variable might impact many
others.

WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

System Theory
• Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy – Austrian
Biologist
• W. Ross Ashby – English Psychiatrist
• Kenneth Boulding – English/American
Economist
• Anatol Rapaport – Russian/Mathematical
Psychologist
System Theory
• Parts which must be related
• Encapsulated
• Can be nested or overlapped another system
• Bounded with time and space
• Exchange information and materials with its
environment
• Processes that transform inputs into outputs
• Dynamic and evolving
System Theory
• Self-regulating
• Seeking equilibrium
• Multifinality and equifinality
 Contingency
Organization
Theories
Contingency theorists view
conflict as inescapable, but
WMSU manageable.

WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

Contingency theory
• Joan Woodward
– Management and Technology
– Found that organizational form varied and
correlated with production technology
– Concluded that there was not “one best way”
to organize but only the most suitable
Contingency theory
• Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker
– The Management of Innovation
– Studied the introduction of electronics
– Two Ideal types of Organization
• Mechanistic
• Organismic
– Three different social systems
• Formal Authority
• Cooperative Systems
• The Political System
Contingency theory
• Paul R. Lawrence and Jay W. Lorsch
– Organization and Environment
– Question: Why do people seek to build organization?
– Answer: In order to find better solutions to
environmental problems facing them
– Therefore
• It is people who have purposes, not organization
• People come together to coordinate their different activities
into an organization structure
• Effectiveness is determined by member’s needs satisfied
– Organization develop units and formal structures
suited to the particular environment
Contingency theory
• James D. Thompson
• Organizations in Action
– Views organizations as rational, open systems
– Classifies organization according to their
production technologies and environments
• Pooled interdependence (the university)
• Sequential interdependence (the factory)
• Reciprocal interdependence (the airline)
Contingency theory
• Henry Mintzberg
• The Structuring of Organization
– Synthesized large parts of the organizational
research
– 5 Basic Organizational Configuration
• The Simple Structure – Direct Supervision
• The Machine Bureaucracy – Standardization of Work
• Professional Bureaucracy – Standardization of Skills
• The Adhocracy – Support System
• The Divisionalized Form – Standardization of Output
 Interactionalism
Organization
Theories
Meaning Making through
interaction in the
WMSU Organization

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Interactionalism
• David Silverman
– The Theory of Organizations
– Three Main Characteristics of Formal Org.
• They started at a certain point in time
• As artefacts, they will be characterized by
patterning or relationships
• It follows form this that there will be much
”attention paid to the discussion and execution of
planned changes in social relations, and the ’rules
of the game’ on which they are based”.
Interactionalism
• Karl E. Weick
• The Social Psychology of Organizing
• Enactment: Organizations are enacted, they
are created by being talked about
• Sensemaking: Organizations are primarily
“sensemaking systems”, incessantly create
and recreate conceptions about themselves
• Loose coupling: The lack of firmness in the
coupling among some of the parts of the
organization – changes can take place locally
with little consequence elsewhere
 Institutional
Organization
Theories
The processes by which structures,
including schemes, rules, norms,
WMSU and routines, become established
as authoritative guidelines for
social behavior.

WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

Institutional theory
• Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell
• Institutional Isomorfism
– Why organizations differ but there is such an
overwhelming degree of homogeneity
• Organizations within the same business may
have displayed considerable diversity when
first set up, but converge over time toward
bureaucracy
• They do so not because bureaucracy is the
most efficient, but because it furnishes
legitimacy in the eyes of outside stakeholders
Three kinds of isomorfism:
• Coercive isomorfism – by political influence
• Mimetic isomorfism – a response to
uncertainty
• Normative isomorfism – a result of
professional managers
Institutional theory
• John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan
– Organization is more about conforming to
institutionalized rules
– Thus, you have two organizational structures
– one formal, which can be shaped according
to the normative expectations in the
environment, and one informal that is actually
used for getting things done
– The advantages conferred by the myths are
stability, legitimity and resources – exactly
what is needed to survive
 Post-Modern
Organization
Theories
“The concept that initiates new
paradigm that influences many
WMSU aspects including culture and
organizations.”

WESTERN MINDANAO STATE UNIVERSITY

Postmodern Approaches

• Epistemological theory
(episteme = reason,
knowledge)
• Ontological theory (ontos =
being, existence)
• The core of modernity is differentiation –
in organizations, especially the rational,
increasingly fine-grained and rigid division
of labor
• The core of postmodernity is de-
differentiation – the gradual integration of
jobs, the blurring of areas of responsibility,
the increasing overlap of functions, the
increasing flexibility, the team attitudes
Postmodern Approaches
• Stewart Clegg
• Modern Organizations
– Rationality is subjective, and relative to
context
– Agents all act under a subjective rationality
– Subjective rationalities can differ widely
– No universal forms and practices
– Organizations are human fabrications
REFERENCES
• Do you know this term? (n.d.). Retrieved June 21, 2018, from
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organization.html
• Groth, L. (n.d.). Overview of theories on organization and
management. Retrieved June 21, 2018, from
http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF5890/v13/materi
al-to-download/lecture-presentations/Feb_6_organization-
and-management-theories/overview-of-theories-on-
organizations-and-management-inf5890-v2013.pdf
• Quero, R. A. (2017). Organization and Management. Makati
City: Diwa Learning System Inc.
• Solution Problem Solving Organization Management Concept.
(2015, September 17). Retrieved June 21, 2018, from
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/solution-problem-
solving-organization-management-concept-317577065