Management and Organizational Studies 2181A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Human Relations Movement, Lyndall Urwick, Alvin Ward Gouldner

• School: Western University
• Department: Management and Organizational Studies
• Course: Management and Organizational Studies 2181A/B
• Professor: Victoria Digby

Document Summary

Chapter 1: what are organizations, social inventions. Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing common goals through group effort. Their essential characteristic is the coordinated presence of people, not necessarily things. Of primary interest is understanding people and managing them to work effectively: goal accomplishment. Individuals are assembled into organizations for a reason. In the private sector, some organizations have goals like selling cars, delivering news, or winning hockey games. In the nonprofit and public sectors, organizations may have goals such as saving souls, promoting the arts, helping the needy, or educating people. Virtually all organizations have survival as a goal: group effort. To achieve their goals, organizations are staffed with people who operate together in a coordinated fashion. But by combining greater resources and wealth with effective teamwork, organizations have become the dominant producing agents in the world. The field of organizational behaviour is concerned with how to get people to practice effective teamwork.