Organizational Structure
Organizations are composed of a variety of elements. Perhaps the fundamental component is organizational structure, the set of interrelationships (social bonds) between positions. Even organizations of globe-encircling proportions, such as multinational corporations, demonstrate "the consciously coordinated activities of two or more people" (Barnard 1938, p. 73). Similarly, it may be argued that relationships between and among sets of such organizations form the social structure of whole societies.
Within an organizational structure, groups or sets of social relationships can be differentiated by task specialization, known as the division of labor. People are assigned to specific positions within an organizational structure to increase the specificity of tasks and the reliability with which they are performed. Organizational structure is both (1) an outcome resulting from interactive processes between elements within the organization, as well as between the environment and the organization, and (2) a determinant of those interactive processes. Organizational structure calls forth or inhibits particular behaviors by organizational participants.
Interaction among parties to a relationship results in shared understandings that become part of an organization's culture. Focusing as it does on relationships constituting organizational structure, the social systems perspective for organizational analysis has been criticized as having a static cast.
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