Notesale: Turn your study into money

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SECTION A- 5 short questions must answer all of them five marks each
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g
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Power culture- This comes from a central source like a CEO, depends on trust and personal
communication e
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Expertise seen better than position e
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Organisations exist for benefit of members
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e
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Perspectives of culture- Culture cannot be easily measured, emerges from the social interactions
of people
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Individuals can be socialised into a culture
The cultural iceberg is where only behaviours and practices (written and spoken language) are
apparent to observer and attitudes (unwritten standards) and core values which are morales what
is really important
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informal- doing the job, watching and listening
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g Football team had a shared goal, membership is controlled, specific roles
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Informal Group- Two or more people who form a unifying relationship rather than organisational
goals’ Bratton 2015
Benefits of groups to organisations- More viewpoints, can set common goals for a number of
people, communication made easier instead of emailing everyone just task leader and he can relay
message
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Tuckman (1965) Theory
1
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3
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Forming- Group is formed tests boundaries and establishes relationships
Storming- Conflicts arise around goals, task starts to get looked at and discussed
Norming- Single leader emerges, group roles emerge, group cohesion established
Performing- Roles are clarified, members perform tasks cooperatively
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Groups should be used when the task is appropriate for a team, when team is structured to
support the task, clearly authority over the task, team has a degree of autonomy e
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selecting
team leader, methods of working
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Functional approach- Views society or the organisation as stable
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Different types of communication shapes the organisation
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Perceptual distortions: Language, Knowledge, Body Language, Emotion
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Formal or informal
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Interpretivist approach to communication: society is made up of shared meanings Communication
seen as something that is not something one does
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Power differences:
Only tell boss good news
Superiors have little understanding of problems of people below them
Gender differences:
Women tend to reflect more
Men tend to talk more and give more info
Stereotypes
Physical surroundings:
Room size and layouts
How easy is it to see others

Language:
Variations in accent and dialect
Cultural diversity:
National cultural differences within an organisation e
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staff and management
Recruitment and selection- HRM
‘HRM is a body of knowledge to do with organisation of work and management of employment
relations’ Bratton and Gold 2012
HRM includesEmployee welfare e
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heath and safety
Personnel administration e
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payroll
Work organisation- Trained, managed
Trade union negotiation- representing employer in negotiations
HRM is responsible for: Top management, Line managers, HR manager
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Workforce planning: Training and development, Job re-design, promotion
‘Recruitment is the process of attracting the interest of a pool of capable people who will apply for
jobs within an organisation’ Bratton and Gold (2012)
Where to advertise:
Word of mouth
Internal advert
Company website
Jobcentre
Local media
Recruitment agency
Applicant pool: Short listing
CV or application form?
Pre agreed criteria
Eligibility to work, criminal record etc
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Selection technique should measure accurately
Does the selection technique relate to the job
Three most common selection methods are: Interviews, Tests and References
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70% of employers use a form of interview
Asking questions about past behaviour is the best way to predict future performance
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Evaluating recruitment and selection practices:
Organisations should of predicted the ability of the chosen candidate to perform and should
support and allow the candidate to perform to the best of their capabilities
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g
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Elements of organisational structure:
Element

Concern

Work specialisation:
Hierarchy:
Span of control:
Chain of command:
Departmentalisation:
Formalisation:
Centralisation:

The concern is division of work tasks
Levels of management in the organisation
Number of workers supervised by a single manager
Reporting relationships
Grouping of jobs
Extent of rules
Location of decision-making

Work specialisation: To what degree should work tasks be subdivided into separate jobs?
High specialisation- workers all do one, narrow type of task
Low specialisation- workers carry out many different tasks
Hierarchy: How many layers are needed in an organisation?
Tall hierarchy: Many layers e
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army
Flat hierarchy: Few layers e
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small businesses

Organisations need to consider:
Staff costs
Employee relations
Employee/manager motivation
Implications for workload
Span of control:
Wide span of control: many staff
Narrow span of control: few staff
Organisations need to consider:
What are the boring implications for communication and employee relations?
What are the implications for staff costs?
What are the implications for employee/manager motivation?
What are the implications for workload
Chain of command
Who is the direct line manager? (line manager relationship)
How is the individual linked to the top of the organisation
Is there one chain of command or several e
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a project manager may report to their own line
manager and to the sponsor
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g
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Also for example in redundancy situations directors must comply with HR director
instructions
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To what extent should work activities be specified and documented?
Formalisation
High formalisation
Extensive use of written rules, procedures, records
Staff have to follow set rules and procedures
Staff have to record actions

Low formalisation
Minimal use of written rules and procedures
High degree of discretion – responding to the situation
Centralisation
Where are decisions taken in the organisation?
Centralised
Decisions are taken at the top by senior managers
Staff actions are typically controlled by procedures or by gaining special authorisation to act
(“pushing upwards”)

Decentralised
Decisions are delegated to more junior staff
What sort of decisions might be delegated? In what circumstances?
The Leavitt Diamond
Organisations are complex systems in which structure is just one variable
Structure affects – and is affected by – the organisational objectives, technology used and people
employed
All four variables are also affected by the organisation’s environment
Formal and informal structures:
Formal
Structure:
Goal:
Influence:
Control:
Communication:
Leadership:
Relevant individuals

Planned
Profitability
Top down
Discipline
Formal channels(slow)
Imposed
All employees

Informal
Spontaneous
Member Satisfaction
Bottom up
Social sanctions
Grapevine(fast)
Attributed by group
Acceptable people

Organisational structure Summary
Summary:
Organisational structure is important
Structures create material realities which determine how people behave
Such material realities also limit what can be done or imagined in the organisational context, and
help members to make sense of that context (Thurlow and Helms Mills, 2009)
But… We should never overestimate the power of managers to completely control the actions,
thoughts or social relations of organisational members

Technology
‘The means by which an organisation transforms inputs into outputs
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Technology as a form of culture- ‘the way we do things round here’
Technology is about behaviour as well as tools and techniques

ICT as a revolutionary age: apply for jobs online, communication, travel and find places, how we
spend leisure and work time
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Compensatory effects (making a bad situation better; reducing the harmful effects of a situation
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g
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g
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2 million workers work from home at least one day a week – 7
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Quality are often sacrificed when we work at home
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0: Such technologies have the potential to radically change the nature of work (Birkinshaw
and Pass, 2008)
Tapping into knowledge across the organisation
Encouraging informal coordination
Making the workplace more engaging
Social media can cause problems for employers and employees: if someone tweets something
racist or about superiors could get in trouble
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g
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Realities of technology- organisational practice
Despite benefits of web 2
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Schein's Iceberg theory
Above the water is ‘artifacts’: organisational language, stories, rituals, structures
In shallow water is values: Thoughts and attitude, plays a big part on how employees
represent the organisation
In deep water is assumed values: There are certain beliefs and facts which stay hidden but
do affect the culture of the organization
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Organizations where female workers dominate their male
counterparts do not believe in late sittings as females are not very comfortable with such
kind of culture
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