Organizational Analysis and Sole Proprietorship
Introduction
Organizational analysis is a theoretical discipline that can achieve changes in the components of an organizational system, making it more suitable according to the nature of people, work, and the external environment. The Industrial Revolution contributed to the development of the idea of an organization conceived as a closed system. Newer theories introduce concepts such as goals, motivation, adaptation to the environment, and open systems, which are more typical of systems thinking.
This new trend focuses on three objectives:
- Integration of social sciences
- Analysis of dynamic problems of change in group life
- Development of new tools and techniques of social research
Complete Definition of Organization
An organization is an integrated socio-technical system, deliberately formed to carry out a specific project. It aims to meet the needs of its members and a population or external audience, which gives it meaning. It is inserted into a socioeconomic and political context with which it interacts.
Seven Relevant Dimensions of Organization
1. The Project
In an organization, the project always comes first. It draws from insights and ideas representing the developers and the group’s needs relating to the social or external community. It is connected to a balance of threats and opportunities arising from the link with the environment. It has to do with the mission and vision of the company. Supporting projects and organizations may change over time. To carry out the project due to its complexity, it is convenient to divide the plan into objectives and goals, which are delegated control activities and results. Some authors speak of strategy, tactics, and technique. Strategies respond to broad definitions and have to do with the political orientation of the company. Tactics respond to implementation and the identification of different alternatives, and the technique is the know-how of how to carry out a task.
2. The Task and Technology
This involves a primary task, the main activity of the company, which is divided and broken down into smaller tasks and then integrated and made compatible units. Complex tasks are broken down into simpler ones, which can then be delegated to lower levels. There are different types of task complexity:
- First level of complexity: Simple tasks, manual, administrative employees.
- Second level of complexity: Roles: first-level management, skilled jobs, graduate employees.
- Third level of complexity: Alternative paths. Role: Unit Manager (200 people), engineers, chief scientists, lawyers. Flexibility to change course when one path leads to a dead end.
- Fourth level of complexity: Parallel processing. Role: General Manager. Construction of alternative paths of level 3.
- Fifth level of complexity: Operation and design of a fully consolidated business unit.
3. The Structure
This refers to the set of roles that are part of the system. A good definition of roles, clearly and explicitly, allows an organization to be independent of the people who make it up. Structure involves:
- Organizational chart
- Definition of functions of each job
- Formal communication mechanism
- Types and levels of authority
- Objectives of each position
The formal structure is the framework that the organization needs to operate as a complex system and for troubleshooting. The structure can be made explicit as:
- Formal structure: It is written in the organizational chart.
- Alleged structure: The structure perceived as real by the members of the organization.
- Existing structure: The structure that is actually operating.
- Required structure: The structure agreed upon by consensus from everyone.
4. Psychosocial Integration
This refers to the relationships that exist in the organization. Freud recognizes two axes in interpersonal relationships:
- Vertical axis: Relationship to authorities, which is asymmetrical.
- Horizontal axis: Relationship between peers, which is symmetrical.
Jaques emphasizes the role of persecutory and depressive anxieties that permeate the social atmosphere, determining factors that alter the direction of the organization and often prevent the realization of certain decisions. Resistance to change is a form of expression of such anxieties. To understand how an organization works, it’s enough to see the interaction of two or more persons as part of the same situation.
5. Leveraging HR
Paying attention to people is a widespread intention but difficult to achieve. Individuals within an organization are very sensitive to their treatment within it; they aspire to fair remuneration in line with what they feel they contribute and take a position where they feel their opinion is taken into account. This treatment has an incentive effect, creates job satisfaction, and stimulates productivity.
6. Internal Groups of Power
Every organization has a variety of groups that interact and are prone to conflict. Social conflict between significant power groups is an inescapable fact that, far from being an undesirable phenomenon, can become a factor of change and development in the organization if well managed.
7. The Context
The organization is seen from the perspective of the context and under the effects of the external field exerted on it. Outdated conceptions see the company as a closed system.