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SOWO 874: Introduction to Organizational Theories

SOWO 874: Introduction to Organizational Theories. Walter C. Farrell, Jr., Professor Management and Community Practice School of Social Work University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3550 wfarrell@email.unc.edu.

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SOWO 874: Introduction to Organizational Theories

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  1. SOWO 874: Introduction to Organizational Theories Walter C. Farrell, Jr., Professor Management and Community Practice School of Social Work University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3550 wfarrell@email.unc.edu

  2. Nature of Human Service Organizations (HSOs) • HSOs can be contradictory to clients and workers Is this the case? If so, explain • Workers have a goal to help people • HSOs offer intrinsic and extrinsic benefits • HSOs can also cause frustration • Clients are the “raw material? Is this TRUE? • HSOs process, sustain, or attempt to change people

  3. Human Services as Moral Work • Moral judgments and statements of social work • Diagnostic labels----statements of social worth • Allocation of resources: • Rationing • The Deserving Client Explain

  4. Gendered Work • Women have been historically assigned caretaker roles • Patriarchal ideology---women as nurturers • Women are the majority of frontline workers • Conflict between women’s contributions to social work and HSO norms and values • Devaluation of women’s work in human services: in earnings, positions, and social status • Note Frances Perkins—The Woman Behind the New Deal (Kirstin Downey 2009), the driving force behind social security in the 1930s

  5. The Primacy of Institutional Environment • HSOs conform to dominant cultural, social symbols, and belief systems of “interest groups” in their environments • HSOs’ access to resources is dependent on their adherence to environmental norms • HSOs’ technical proficiency matters less than the ability to accommodate the escalating, often competing “diversity” in their service areas • HSO rules and legitimacy are in flux

  6. Moral Entrepreneurs and Cyclical Legitimacy • HSOs influence public perceptions of their clients: • parents as partners • consumers as potential welfare cheats • Cycles occur within the communities of HSOs: • Support for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) 1965 • 1996 Welfare Reform: Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act (PRWRA) • PRWRA changed the perception of welfare from allowing “dependency” to mandating “work”

  7. Human Service Technologies as Enactment of Practice Ideologies • Technologies are socially approved and sanctioned • State Plans are best judgments of “best practices” that are frequently resource-based—What does this mean? • Measures of effectiveness involve moral choices that are part of practice ideologies • Effectiveness is also politically determined. How so?

  8. Client Reactivity and Service Trajectory • Clients can react and participate • The reactions of neither clients nor staff can be completely controlled • Many HSO services are compartmentalized and delivered in discrete ways. Is this the best practice? • The diagnosis of a client’s needs may not take into account his/her total ecology. Why is this so often so?

  9. Client Compliance • Selection of clients who are amenable to services enhances control and responsibility • Limiting and constraining client options improves tracking • Social control is the result • Is such control the best approach?

  10. Centrality of Client-Worker Relations • Client-Worker relations are the core of HSOs • The quality of these relations are critical to service delivery and successful outcomes • Best cooperation is based on “trust!” • But trust is impersonal and difficult to maintain due to the often irregular contact between HSOs and clients

  11. HSO Forms as Moral Practices: The Case of Welfare Departments • Need to understand how HSOs select and implement moral rules that guide their work • HSOs and their workers participate in this process (“micro interaction”) • HSO rules are also driven by political interests (“macro interactions”) • Moral assumptions are a constant in the welfare system

  12. Theoretical Approaches • Rational-Legal Model (RLM) • HSOs have a clear and specific set of goals and their internal structure and processes represent a rational design to attain them • Internal divisions of labor, clear definitions of roles, and levels of authority are formalized • The RLM cannot handle multiple and changing “environmental influences”

  13. Human Relations Approaches (HRAs) • HSO effectiveness is a function of its goals and the personal needs of workers • The “quality of “leadership” is an important determinant of workers’ job satisfaction • Burn-out is an increasing problem in today’s HSOs • HRAs, alone, cannot overcome political and economic constraints

  14. Negotiated Order and Political Economy • Work structures are a product of “negotiated order” among the participating actors (clients & workers) • Services must have legitimacy, power, and resources (money, clients, and personnel) • Political economy understates values and ideologies that transcend power and money in shaping HSO behavior

  15. Marxist and Institutional Theory • Labor in HSOs is controlled through hierarchy, standard operating procedures, and the deskilling of jobs • The market economy impacts HSOs • Rules from the institutional environment determine the HSO structure • Societal and HSO values are the driving forces

  16. Population Ecology • Groups and organizations that have similar characteristics and structure • Focuses on the evolution of HSOs: founding, disbanding, and change in population • Population ecology is sometimes inappropriately applied to HSOs and generates inaccurate interpretations of HSO environments

  17. Organizational Theory and Behavior • Classical Organization Theory • Scientific Management Theory (Taylor 1917) Four Basic Principles • Find one “best way” to perform task • Match each worker to the appropriate task • Supervise workers, using “reward’ and “punishment” as motivators • Management’s role is “planning and control”

  18. Organizational Theory (cont’d) • Bureaucratic Theory • Clear lines of “authority” and “control” • Hierarchical structure of power • Division of labor and specialization • Rules for stability and uniformity • Administrative Theory • Emphasize universal set of management principles that can be applied to all organizations

  19. Neoclassical Organizational Theory • Barnard (1968) • Organization is a system of consciously coordinated activities. • Success depends on leader’s ability to create a cohesive environment. • Authority is derived from subordinate’s acceptance, not hierarchical power structure.

  20. Neoclassical Organizational Theory (cont’d) • Limited Rationality Model--Simon (1945) • Workers may respond unpredictably to managerial attention • The scientific method has to be rigorously applied

  21. Contingency Theory • Chandler (1962) • Form follows function • Organizations act in a rational, sequential linear manner to adapt to changes in the environment • Ability to adapt=effectiveness • Lawrence and Lorsch (1969) • Managers should be given authority over their domain

  22. Systems TheoryLudwig von Bertalanffy (1928) • All components of an organization are interrelated, changing one variable might impact many others • These relationships can be nonlinear • Nonlinearity=complexity

  23. Organizational Structure • Systems Theory and Organizational Structure • Relationship Patterns Among Organ. Parts • Integration • Differentiation • Structure of hierarchical relationships. • Formalized policies, procedures, and controls • Relationship Between Organization and Environment • Complex environments=greater differentiation • Two-way flow of information and energy

  24. Organizational Birth and Growth (cont’d) • Four Stages of Organizational Life Cycles • Entrepreneurial • Collectivity • Formalization and Control • Elaboration • Land and Jarman (1992) • Entrepreneurial and Bifurcation • Reversal in strategy toward rule standardization

  25. Organizational Birth and Growth (cont’d) • Growth Can Occur in Four Organizational Models • Striving for dominance with existing field/domain • Diversification into new domains • Technological advancements • Improved managerial techniques

  26. Organizational Decline • Biological Determinism( Boulding1950) • Irreversible trend toward death. • Biological Life Cycle • Peak and decline or never reach peak • Signs of Decline • Loss of morale, leadership, planning, innovation • Conflict, secrecy, rigidity, scapegoating • Conservatism, over-confidence

  27. Organizational Turnaround • Biebault (1982)—Four Stage Model • Change in management • Evaluation • Implementing emergency actions and stabilization procedures • Return to growth • Five Process Domains—Zammuto and Cameron (1985) • Defense and Offense • Creating new domains • Consolidation and Substitution

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