Purpose:

This course examines organizational structure using formal, informal, and systems models. Students will learn how to apply those models to the analysis of organizational processes and operations including decision-making, communication, leadership, control, and change. This course also considers how size, technology, task, and other structural characteristics affect overall organizational performance. The course seeks at all times to apply theory to practice so that students are better able to advance in their careers by understanding how to better their organizations.

Texts:

Daft, Richard L. (2001). Essentials of Organization Theory and Design (second edition. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western. (This is our principal “theory” text. This is the “lite” version of Daft’s $100 opus. Students are expected to “command” this book by course’s end, and numerous exercises in the on-line environment will both drill students in the text material and serve as a prerequisite for chat classes and discussion forums. )

Wilson, James Q. (1989/2000 reissue) Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It. New York: Basic Books. (The title says it all. Wilson helps students understand why government agencies may do things more slowly, vaguely and simply differently than private firms. Wilson is a diagnostic tool to help students identify the conditions that stand in the way of more effective organizational design and process.)

Daft: Strategy and Goals, Chapter 2

Daft: 27 Give an example of a goal approach to organizational effectiveness as adopted by a real life public organization. Are these goals “operative” in that a specific measures or indicators exist that can show progress towards the goal? How, as far as you can tell, were the goals and measures chosen?

Daft: 29 Give an example of a resource-based approach to organizational effectiveness as adopted by a real life public organization. How does the availability of this resource impact upon the services delivered by the agency you have chosen? Develop a measure that you believe would help show whether solving all or part of the “resource problem” really makes a difference in the quality and/or quantity of the services delivered to the public.

Daft: 30 Why does Daft say that an “internal process” approach to organizational effectiveness has shortcomings? Give an example of a public agency that has achieved a “well-oiled” process. Then give your assessment of the degree to which this process has, or has not, contributed to organizational effectiveness.

Daft 30: Translate Daft’s list of Stakeholders and Effectiveness criteria (30) into a similar list for a government agency of your choice. Some stakeholders remain the same, such as employees, but may have different effectiveness criteria (such as tenure protection or worker choice for position placement). Other stakeholders may be different, such as taxpayers and politicians. Other stakeholders may have the same name, such as community, but really play a very different role.

Daft: Chapter 2 generally. Where did Enron fail in terms of the various approaches to organizational effectiveness?

Daft: Chapter 3 Organization structure

34: What is hierarchy? How does responsibility figure into hierarchy? How does authority? How does accountability? Can an organizational official have responsibility without authority? Authority without accountability? Are these good things?

34: How does Daft distinguish between “structural framework” and “patterns of interaction.” Which is more likely: the structural framework fully determining the patterns of interaction or the patterns of interactions eventually determining the structural framework? How does the previous question relate to the architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s policy of NOT laying out paths in the public spaces he created until people had trod a path across the lawns?

34: Brainstorm a list of the things that can go wrong with the coordination and integration of effort across departments? Go for quantity, not a definitive list and not just a list of high impact glitches. Then consider “bad ways” of structuring an organization so that the structure itself induces error and failed performance. Given what you have come up with for coordination/integration and for structure, which element do you think managers in general should pay more attention to?

36: In the organization in which you work, is the vertical structure dominant or is the hierarchical structure dominant? Whatever is dominant, do you think that this emphasis is the most effective one for dealing with the challenges facing your organization?

37: If Lee Iacocca was to be made chief executive of your organization tomorrow, would he ‘throw up?” Why? Or why not? What policies could your organization implement, or continue, that would keep Iacocca’s stomach settled?

39: Use Exhibit 3.3 as your basis for thinking through the following: What are advantages and disadvantages of giving full responsibility for getting a job done to a project manager? What advantages and disadvantages would arise if we decided to

give full responsibility over the project to one of the Department heads? Do the attitudes (existing or fostered) of the employees matter in choosing one approach or the other?

40: Are you employed in functional organizational structure, a divisional structure , a geographic structure or a matrix structure? Whichever you pick, explain why and then go over each “weakness” and “strength” for the structure you have chosen to assess whether your organization exhibits that factor and to what extent. Then decide whether your organization shows one or more of the symptoms of structural deficiency (49).

45. How does the current terrorist threat fit with the “conditions for establishing a matrix structure? Is there pressure to share scarce organizational resources? Do we need in-depth knowledge as well as flexibility to apply that knowledge? Is the problem being faced complex and uncertain? After you answer yes or no (along with a why) to these questions, evaluate what structures would best serve the Office of Homeland Security in coordinating an effective response to terrorist threat.

Chapter 4 External Environment

Environment breakdown (53-54)

53. Define domain (organization’s chosen environmental field of action).

54. Define sector. Name them.

55. What industry is the NYPD in?

56. What raw materials does the NYPD need?

57. What human resources does the NYPD need?

58. What financial resources is the NYPD dependent upon?

59. Does the NYPD exist in anything that can be viewed as a market?

60. What technologies exist that the NYPD can exploit to better its performance?

61. In what ways (identify at least two) can economic conditions impact the NYPD?

62. How does the government sector affect what the NYPD can and can not do?

63. How does the sociocultural sector determine what an NYPD can do or not do?

64. Does the international sector have an impact on how the NYPD does its job?

58. Take the following organizations and place them in the categories along the simple-complex environment dimension. Tony’s Pizza, AT&T. The Social Security Administration, John Jay College, Mel’s Beer Distributor, License Issuance Bureau, NYPD, Human Resources Administration, NYS Division of Cemeteries, Walmart, Toys-R-Us, Enron.

Very Simple Slightly Complex Moderately Complex Highly Complex

59. Take the following organizations and place them on the stable-unstable environment dimension: Tony’s Pizza, AT&T. The Social Security Administration, John Jay College, Mel’s Beer Distributor, License Issuance Bureau, NYPD, Human Resources Administration, NYS Division of Cemeteries, Walmart, Toys-R-Us, Enron.

Very Stable Slightly Unstable Moderately Unstable Highly Unstable

(59) Adding the complexity and stability dimensions together give you a four-cell matrix ranging from low uncertainty (simple, stable environment) to low/moderate uncertainty (complex but stable environment) to high/moderate uncertainty (simple but unstable envrironment) to high uncertainty (complex unstable environment). What environment does your organization face? Give your reasons for your judgement.

(60) What impact does an increase in environmental complexity and instability have on the number of departments and positions in an organization?

(61) What functions to “buffering” departments serve? Give examples.

(62) What functions do “boundary spanners serve? Give examples.

(63) From the organization chart of the NYPD (or other) identify at least two units perform a boundary spanning role and two units that perform a buffering role.

Why does differentiation lead to a greater need for integrators in an organization? And what kind of an environment does a highly integrated, highly differentiated structure work best in? Why?

What are the characteristics of mechanistic culture?

High specialization

Rigid task definition

Strict hierarchy

Centralized knowledge and control

Chain of command communication

What are the characteristics of organic culture?

Employees contribute to common tasks of the department

Teamwork leads to constant readjustment of tasks and assignments

Less hierarchical control, fewer rules

Distributed knowledge and control.

Omni-directional communication

x. 65 Having read the Enron story, explain how Enron sought to control its environment by utilizing the following strategy. First, define Enron’s environment by (1) identifying the businesses it was in and (2) determining the complexity, stability and uncertainty in the environment. Then explain how Enron dealt with any four of the following ten factors: resource dependence, ownership of the firm, joint ventures with other entities, cooptation, executive recruitment and transition, public relations, change of domain, political activity/regulation, trade associations, illegitimate activities.

Chapter 5 Technology and Organization

Identify which of the following is not an organizational technologies? Computers Turnstiles Escalators The system by which people wait in line at banks and amusement parks

Woodward’s Technology Scale: Small batch and unit production (Pizza shop, college class, airplane) Large batch (automobiles, computers, washing machines). Continuous production (beer, fertilizer, oil).

Management levels are fewer in unit production than in continuous process. F

Span of control is wider in mass production than in continuous process T

The ratio between direct labor costs (employees making the product) and indirect labor costs (employees managing and supporting the “makers”) is highest in

Unit Production y Mass production n Continuous process n

Formalized procedures tend to be most prevalent in unit production. F

Workers’ skill levels are higher in continuous process than in unit production. F

If you sign on to VirginRecords.com and order a CD in which the tracks are burned on as per your order, you are dealing with a firm that engages in mass customization small batch production mass production continuous process

If you go to the Anhueser Busch brewery and see the 99% automated flow of beer from water tap and grain loader to brewing to bottling to packaging, you are looking at a firm that is engaging in mass customization batch production mass production continuous process

If you look at exhibit 5.4, the authors contend that by moving from the “traditional choices” to the “new choices,” immense strides in organizational productivity have occurred. What are the arguments with which the authors support this claim and what do you think of those arguments? The college class, definitely a small batch service delivery system under traditional choices, is being delivered to you right now by a new and advanced technology. Just how far along from “small batch” do you think this new technology might move college education? What are the productivity implications? And what are the implications for the structure of a college that engages heavily in distance learning? Write your answer WITHOUT looking a figure 5.5 but then review your answer in light of figure 5.5 prior to Sunday evenings chat session with the Professor.

The “service” sector is where you work if your output (1) is intangible (can’t be touched), (2) can’t be inventoried, (3) is delivered more or less on demand, (4) tries to locate near the customer, and (5) requires a lot of labor and knowledge to produce. You are also a service sector worker if you (6) regularly deal with clients and customers, (6) along with fellow employees and, even though (8) what you produce is difficult to measure, (9) everyone has an opinion of just how well or poorly you are doing. Are you a service worker, a product/service worker, or a product worker? When you answer be sure to apply each of the eight categories above (or the additional “manufacturing” categories from exhibit 5.6) to what you do. Be ready to discuss your answer in Sunday evening’s chat session with the professor.

Ready for a tough question? Do you have what it takes to be a service worker? Assess your social and interpersonal skills, your willingness to deal with (and make decisions despite) uncertainty, your willingness to help a customer/client/caller even if it is not strictly your job to do so. How does your self-assessment coincide with what should be expected of you in a service environment envisioned by Daft (whether or not this is the service environment existing at your work place at this time)?

What structural characteristics tend to be present in service organizations (Exhibit 5.7)? For each of the six elements identified, discuss the degree to which they apply in your organization. If they don’t, what do you see as the consequences of your organization’s failure to adopt a structure appropriate to service delivery. If you work in a product organization, answer the same questions with reference to the structural characteristics you see where you work.

Now let’s get down to your job Answer the questions on pages 85 and 86 of Daft. If your answers to questions 1,2 and 3 are 75% or more, yes and yes, categorize your job as low variety. If 50%, with one no answer, categorize your job as medium variety. If 50% or less, with two no answers, categorize your job as high variety. For analyzability, if all of your answers are 75% or more, categorize your job as highly analyzable. If one or more of your answers falls below 75%, score analyzability as medium. If one or more of your answers falls below 50%, score analyzability as low. Using your scores, which you should report, and exhibit 5.8 are you in a routine job, a craft job, an engineering job or a non-routine job? How has your organization done in structuring your department in a way that most effectively facilitates what is required of your job (see exhibit 5.9)?

Do you work in a situation of pooled interdependence with mediating technology? If yes, explain why and how well the technology is applied? Do you work in a situation of sequential interdependence with long-linked technologies? If yes, explain why and how well the technology is applied? Do you work in a situation of reciprocal interdependence? If yes, explain why and how well the technology is applied. (ßYou must select and respond to one version of interdependence. Use the material on 88-89 as your guide.) Then consider exhibit 5.11 in determining how effectively your organization matches its coordination approach to the interdependence level of tasks.

How are concepts such as job rotation, job simplification, job enlargement and job enrichment related to the technology adopted by an organization? How much weight should be given to the human side of the equation when looking at organizations as socio-technical systems?

Chapter 6 Organization Size

What implications does the “Life Cycle” view of organizational development have for the proposition that there is a permanent, “best way” to run an organization? Looking at the crises that have befallen the organizations you are studying for your term paper, or that have befallen other organizations, how does Daft’s matching of “crisis type” with “life stage” (101-102) hold up? How does his matching of “life stage” with structural, process and leadership style (exhibit 6.3) hold up?

What is the advantage that “rational-legal” forms of authority and organization have over traditional and charismatic forms?

In Weber’s view of bureaucracy, rules and procedures were the “legal-rational” way or avoiding (1) arbitrary decisions (2) differential treatment (3) public distrust (4) all of the above.

Separating the position and the incumbent means (1) firing the job-holder (2) making sure the jobs don’t “belong” to the office-holder (2) first hiring the people you want then fitting them into positions (4) unqualified office-holders can only be incumbents

How does written communications and records contribute to the consistency and fairness with which administration is carried out, and to the ability to oversee administration?

By looking at exhibit 6.5, can you draw any conclusions about why “white collar” workers are often the target when large corporations seek to downsize? What are those conclusions?

Rank in importance on YOUR LEVEL the following control systems identified by Daft: (1) budget, (2) statistical reports, (3) reward systems, and (4) operating procedures. Explain your first and last ranked items in more detail.

Using examples that are NOT in your book, identify examples of organizations that rely on market control and “clan control” to keep performance on track.

Chapter 7 Organizational Culture

“Culture is the set of values, guiding beliefs, understandings, and ways of thinking that is shared by members of an organization and taught to new members as correct. It represents the unwritten, feeling part of the organization. . . . Only when organizations try to implement new strategies or programs that go against basic culture norms and values that they come face to face with the power of culture.” Is organization culture really that powerful? Can you give examples from your organization or others with which your are familiar where policies have crashed against the cultural iceberg and sank like the Titanic (see exhibit 7.1). Discuss these examples or, if you really have had a sheltered life, link to some of the following examples and discuss them.

What is the internal integration function of organizational culture?

What the four types of “rites” that help reinforce organizational culture? How many of these rites have your personally experienced? What was their effect on you?

Identify a “story” from your organization that is held up as an example of what to do, or even of what not to do. Are these kinds of stories effective in encouraging or discouraging particular behaviors? Are these kinds of stories effective in cementing solidarity among organization members?

What is the first thing that strikes you about the Nordstrom symbol (Exhibit 7.3). What kind of message do YOU think this sends to employees and customers? Look at the picture on the front cover of the Daft text? What message do you think that sends to individual readers of the book, and to the classes where it is used?

How does language bond an organizational culture? In answering this question, everyone should address police jargon, and them go to add examples from their own experience.

Students who have chosen book sets relating to Wall Street firms should report on the kinds of rituals, rites, symbols, language and behavior that characterize such firms. Then the student should analyze how those behaviors help or hinder the organizations in operating effectively in their environment. The degree to which these firms conform with the Adaptability/Entrepreneurial Culture should be discussed BUT, if your analysis points to another culture, then discuss the firms conformity with that.

Students who have chosen book sets relating to law enforcement agencies should report on the kinds of rituals, rites, symbols, language and behavior that characterize such firms. Then the student should analyze how those behaviors help or hinder the organizations in operating effectively in their environment. The degree to which these firms conform with the Mission Culture should be discussed BUT, if your analysis points to another culture, then discuss the firms conformity with that.

Students who have chosen book sets relating to computer and software companies agencies should report on the kinds of rituals, rites, symbols, language and behavior that characterize such firms. Then the student should analyze how those behaviors help or hinder the organizations in operating effectively in their environment. The degree to which these firms conform with the Clan Culture should be discussed BUT, if your analysis points to another culture, then discuss the firms conformity with that.

Students who have chosen book sets relating to airline and aerospace companies should report on the kinds of rituals, rites, symbols, language and behavior that characterize such firms. Then the student should analyze how those behaviors help or hinder the organizations in operating effectively in their environment. The degree to which these firms conform with the Bureaucratic Culture should be discussed BUT, if your analysis points to another culture, then discuss the firms conformity with that.

In your paper, discuss the issue of subcultures. Identify divisions, units, or informal groups whose culture deviated from the overall organizational culture. To what extent were these deviations positive (i.e., they contributed to the overall success of the organization)? To what extent were these deviations negative (i.e,. they detracted from the overall success of the organization)?

Assess the Enron scandal in terms of (1) managerial ethics, (2) social responsibility and (3) the degree to which one or more employees faced dilemmas between what was legal/moral/ethical and what preserved their employment/protected their firm. To what extent was the decision-making involve (1) personal ethics, (2) the organizational culture, (3) organizational systems and (4) external stakeholders.

In the wake of Enron, just about every large organization can use a reinvigoration of its commitment to ethics. What is the necessary starting point (and continuing touchstone) for such a reinvigoration? What structures encourage an organization’s focus on ethics? What policies help monitor ethical behavior and generally encourage employees to act ethically? What should organizations do to help insure that employees really understand, respect and subscribe to the ethics policy and structures enforcing those policies?

Chapter 8: Organization and Change

Define each of the four major types of change that an organization can undergo. Why does your text claim that these change types are interdependent? After you answer this question, talk about how this technology change that allows you to take on line classes has the potential to change (1) the products and services that this college offers, (2) the administrative structure of the organization, and (3) the culture of this organization. You don’t have to be a John Jay College expert to answer this question, just think about the impact of “Internet-ization” in just about any organization in order to start your answer rolling.

For successful organization change you need ideas, as well as need combined with a sense of urgency. Where do these ideas come from? Should the organization be active or passive in trolling for ideas? Who should get a vote on what the organization’s needs are? Finally, in giving a sense of urgency to a need, proponents of change often exaggerate and over-dramatize the problems that the proposed change is designed to address. Are they hypocrites, smart organizational politicians, or both?

Brainstorming change for your organization: Brainstorming means coming up with ideas without knocking down any ideas. This operates on two levels. Don’t censor yourself (“It can’t be done.” “I am too low on the totem pole to think of these things.”). And don’t censor others. (“I don’t think you have a good idea because . . . .”) Now that we have gotten that out of the way, students will be assigned, based on similarity of employment, to chatroom groups in which they are to brainstorm changes for their organization that would involve (1) Switching structures, (2) Creative departments, (3) Venture teams, and (4) Idea Champions.

When new products (such as community policing, electronic tax filing, and CompStat) succeed, your text identifies specialization, boundary spanning and horizontal linkages as key elements. Which element do you think is most critical to successful organizational innovation? Explain the reasoning behind your choice, making reference to real world examples in order to support your arguments.

Change can either come top-down or bottom-up. Daft’s discussion of the “dual core” approach emphasizes that government and non-profit agencies are more likely to initiate and manage change through the administrative core, rather than the technical core. Assess the several reasons with which Daft justifies his analysis from your own perspective as a current or future member of a government or non-profit agency.

Define reengineering. Then, compare and contrast reengineering with total quality management and organizational development with respect to the following issues (1) the percentage of the organization involved in the change; (2) the degree to which the basic operations of the organization change, (3) the degree to which the organization looks outside itself for better models, (4) the degree to which upper management dominates.

Identify a change that you would like to see in your organization. Describe the nature of the resistance that your proposed change is likely to encounter. How would you develop plans (Daft: 150-151) to overcome this resistance? Which of Daft’s approaches would you apply? How and why?

Chapter 9 Decision-making Processes

Every student should know the steps of rational decision-making (Daft: 161) and every student should know the bounded rationality perspective (Daft: 161-162). Just in case you think they are distinct, do the following. Try to apply the rational model to choosing exactly how to address the problem of terrorists getting on airplanes at U.S. airports in the following way: For each of the rational model’s eight steps, consider how the factors in Exhibit 9.1 would affect your analysis. For instance, would the perspectives you share with others affect what you saw as you monitored the decision-environment, or as you defined “the problem.” Ask and answer these questions right down the line to selecting and implementing your solution. (Airport security link here.)

Does a management science approach have a role in government management? Give examples. To what extent can data help even in decision situations where intuition also is important?

Having answered Question One in this section, you are now very smart about bounded rationality, which is a key element in the “Carnegie Model.” How does the Carnegie Model’s inclusion of “management coalitions,” “satisficing,” and “problemistic search” help clarify the idea of bounded rationality?

How well does Mintzberg’s Incremental Decision-Making Process Model help you make sense of the ways decisions get made in your organization? How relevant are phenomena such as decision interrupts and loopbacks to earlier decision stages. (Important note: Though Mintzberg is in the same ballpark, this Incremental Model IS NOT the same one your other public administration associate with Lindblom and Wildavsky.)

As nutty as the Garbage Can model sounds, and as much as Daft says it applies to extremely organic organizations, it sure sounds right to me as a life-long employee of public organizations. How about you?

Successful decision-makers in high-velocity environments rely on: real time information, parallel alternative solutions, trusted advisors, wide consultation that does not foreclose unilateral decision, and decisions that fit strategy. They also try and fail, get up and try again. Identify examples of such decision-makers from the your “term paper” organizations, your personal experience or other situations with which you are familiar? Then, using the same sources, identify any “commitment escalators” who brought their organization to ruin?