Week 1 - What is an Organisation?

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Cambridge Dictionary definition: “a group of people who work together in a structured way for a shared purpose”

According to Huczynski & Buchanan (2001) an organisation are social arrangement for the controlled performance in of collective goals.

The two most important features of organisations: they are social arrangements and they exist to perform.   

The following are typical organisation characteristics

• They all contain people;
• The people in the organisation perform a role and their continued membership of the organisation is dependant upon such performance;
• The organisation has a collective goal to which all members subscribe;
• All of the roles taken together, help the organisation achieve its collective goal;
• The roles are divided so that members of the organisation perform different tasks according to their expertise, interest or specialism;
• There is a clearly defined hierarchy of authority so that each member of the organisation is aware of where the individual ‘fits-in’;
• The limits or borders of an organisation are usually clearly defined, and thus there is usually no doubt weather a particular person is ‘inside’ or ‘outside’ of the organisation.
  (Campbell & Craig, 2005)

‘The A-Team’ Organisation

An example of the above characteristics can be applied to the newly formed organisation ‘The A-Team’

Representation of ‘The A-Team’

Hierarchy Diagram of ‘The A-Team’

Purpose of ‘The A-Team’

I think most people would be thinking why not simply act alone to fulfil my own individual objectives?

The only answer i have is that the format of an organisation offers many advantages over the other option which is many people acting alone.

The Reasons of an Organisation Existences:

• Organisations facilitate synergy. Robson (1996) states synergy as “the benefits that can be gained when people work together rather than apart”. People working together can achieve far more work than people working separately. For example: Tesco supermarket has many staff workers on the operational level working on replenishing stock at mass level, compare to an individual in a small convenient store. This can also apply to ‘The A-Team’ organisation when all members can work together to present there findings on given topics in the weekly presentation.

• Organisations facilitate the division of labour. This is when tasks are divided into two separate but complementary jobs (Campbell & Craig, 2005). The specialists working together do not not only produce synergy, they also enable a task to be accomplished that neither member could accomplish alone. For example: software development projects involve technical and creative people, who both have skills in different areas, but still accomplish there tasks by working on there area of expertise. This can also apply to ‘The A-Team’ organisation where all members bring different skills and expertise, like research, presentation, reading, language, etc skills to accomplish the organisation goals.

• Adopting the format of organisation enables increased performance owing to the establishment of formal systems of responsibility and authority. Campbell & Craig (2005) state that “this allows all members to fully understand how roles are divided and to accept and respect both responsibility and authority”. They facilitate synergy and an effective division of labour by coordinating activities so that individuals act in concert to the overall benefits of the organisation. This can also apply to ‘The A-Team’ organisation where we have devised ‘The A-Team Charter’, which each individual will accept, respect and fulfil there duties.

How ‘The A-Team’ Organisation Works:

I belong to the ‘The A-Team’ organisation… and also 5 others:

• Man-Chie
• Abh
• Parsad
• Deepak
• Hamza

‘The A-Team’ organisation has a blog that contains: agenda, discussions, presentations, notes, etc… of all the work that is done together…

This blog is my individual posts on my own personal positions…

I will try not to post repeats or duplication information on this blog that are already posted on the organisation blog or are organisation blog contents…

‘The A-Team’ organisation is currently working on innovate ideas to make the organisation prosper… so please visit next week…

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Reference(s)
	Book		Bocij, P., Greasley, A. & Hickie, S. (2008) Business Information Systems: Technology, Development and Management for the E-Business. 4th Edition. Financial Times Prentice Hall: United Kingdom (UK), England, Essex, Harlow. [ISBN: 9780273716624]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VLJkgT].
	Book		Buchanan, D. A. & Huczynski, A. (2003) Organizational Behaviour: An Introductory Text. 5th Edition. Financial Times Prentice Hall: United Kingdom (UK), England, Essex, Harlow. [ISBN: 9780273682226]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VLkGwO].
	Book		Campbell, D. J. & Craig, T. (2005) Organisations and the Business Environment. 2nd Edition. Elsevier: Netherlands, North Holland, Amsterdam. [ISBN: 9780750658294]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VHJupz].
	Book		Chaffey, D. & Wood, S. (2004) Business Information Management: Improving Performance Using Information Systems. Financial Times Prentice Hall: United Kingdom (UK), England, Essex, Harlow. [ISBN: 9780273686552]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3yZ6vdF].
	Book		Laudon, K. C. & Laudon, J. P. (2007) Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. 10th Edition. Pearson Prentice Hall: United States of America (USA), New Jersey (NJ), Bergen, Upper Saddle River. [ISBN: 9780132415798]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3UhgqDH].
	Book		Robson, W. (1997) Strategic Management and Information Systems: An Integrated Approach. 2nd Edition. Pitman: United Kingdom (UK), England, London. [ISBN: 9780273615910]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3EZNmvZ].

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Reference (or cite) Article
	Kahlon, R. S. (2009) Week 1 - What is an Organisation? [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom, England, London, Hendon. [Published on: 2009-01-23]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000003]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi - https://ravi.dkode.co/2009/01/week-1-what-is-organisation.html].

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