1. Understanding Organizations Sung Seek Moon

2. Defining Terms Organizations (Daft, 1998)- Organizations are social entities that are goal directed, are designed as deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems, and are linked to the external environment Social entities-organizations are made up of people Goal-directed-they exist for a specified purpose Deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems-activity systems are clusters of work activities performed by designated units or departments within an organization

3. Linked to the external environment-an organization is in constant interaction with other systems in the social environment, including individuals, groups, other organizations, and communities

4. Social Services Institutional: financial assistance, housing programs, or education provided by public organizations Personal social services: target specific groups (such as children or the elderly) or particular problems (such as family planning or counseling) Human services, social services, and sometimes, social welfare are often used interchangeably

5. Social agencies Organizations providing social services Public: run by a designated unit of government and are usually regulated by laws that directly affect policy Private: privately owned and run by people not employed by government Nonprofit: run to accomplish some service provision goal, not to make financial profit for private owners. Funding for services can range from tax money to private donations to grants to service fees Proprietary or for-profit: similar services as nonprofit, but a major purpose is to make money

6. Organizational Theories Systems Theory-emphasize how all parts of the organization are interrelated and function together to produce output Class Scientific Management Theories-emphasize that specifically designed, formal structure and a consistent, rigid organizational network of employees are most important for an organization to run well and achieve its goals (Traditional Bureaucracies)

7. Human Relations Theories-emphasize the role of the informal, psychological components of organizational functioning Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor, 1960) Theory X Managers view employees as incapable of much growth, and believe they must control, direct, force, or threaten employees to make them work Employees are perceived as inherently disliking work and having relatively little ambition

8. Inconsistent with what behavioral scientists assert are effective principles for directing, influencing, and motivating people Theory Y Managers view employees as wanting to grow up and develop by exerting physical and mental effort to accomplish work objectives Believe that the promise of internal rewards are stronger motivations than external rewards and punishments Most employees are assumed to have considerable ingenuity, creativity, and imagination Mistakes and errors are viewed as necessary to the learning process

9. Theory Z: developed by Ouchi (1981) based on five assumptions initiated in Japanese industry Views workers as lifetime employees instead of people having a series of short-term jobs in different organizations over a careers time. It emphasizes job security as a major component of employee satisfaction and, hence, motivation for productivity. Presumes that employees undergo long periods of evaluation and are not promoted quickly Assumes workers progress down career paths that arent specialized. Job descriptions are more flexible, and management views employees as capable of performing any job when they receive relevant training

10. Collective decision making-workers collectively address issues and arrive at some consensus regarding how to proceed. Such work groups are called teams, quality circles, or quality control circles. Collective responsibility-it emphasizes the importance of all workers being responsible for the successful functioning of the organization

11. Cultural Perspective Assumes that each organization develops a unique mixture of values, standards, presumptions, and practices about how things should be done that eventually becomes habit Advantage: performance becomes predictable, thus requiring less effort to develop new approaches

12. Disadvantage: may squelch innovative ideas with pressure to retain the old way of thought

13. Economic Perspective Emphasizes that organizations proceed in whatever way necessary to maximize profits or outputs Poses difficulties for social workers who maintain professional values and ethics Places primary emphasis on profit and productivity

14. Contingency Perspective Maintains that each element involved in an organization depends on other elements; therefore there is no one generally best way to accomplish tasks or goals Strength: flexibility Potential weakness: lack of direction

15. Social Agencies as Systems A system is a set of orderly and interrelated elements that form a functional whole Boundaries: the repeatedly occurring patterns that characterize the relationships within a system and give that system a particular identity, setting it apart from other systems Subsystem: a secondary or subordinate system, a smaller system within a larger system

16. Homeostasis: the tendency for a system to maintain a relatively stable, constant state of balance Role: a socially expected behavior pattern usually determined by an individuals status in a particular society Relationship: the mutual emotional exchange; dynamic interaction; and affective, cognitive, and behavioral connection that exists between tow or more persons or systems

17. Input: the energy, information, or communication flow received from other systems Output: what happens to input after it has been processed by some system Feedback: a special form of input. It involves a system receiving information about what it is doing correctly in order to maintain itself and thrive

18. Differentiation: s systems tendency to move for a more simplified to a more complex existence Entropy: the natural tendency of a system to progress toward disorganization, depletion, disintegration, and, in essence, chaos Equifinality: there are many different means to the same end

19. The Nature of Organizations Agency Settings Predominately social work settings Host settings

20. Organizational Goals Multiple goals Goal displacement and goal substitution Goal displacement occurs when an organization continuous to function but no longer achieves the goals its supposed to In social service organizations, it often means that the rules and following those rules become more important then providing service to clients (see Highlight 4.1)

21. Organizational Culture The constellation of values, beliefs, assumptions, and expectations that underlie and organize the organizations behavior as a group

22. Organizational Structure Manner in which an organization divides its labor into specific tasks and achieves coordination among these tasks Lines of authority Channels of communication (formal/informal) Dimensions of power (see Highlight 4.2)

23. Working in a Bureaucracy What words come to mind when you hear the term Bureaucracy? Websters Dictionary: Orientation conflict between helping professionals and bureaucracy (see Highlight 4.4) How to survive in a bureaucracy?