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POS 543: A Comparative Analysis

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The purpose of this paper is to summarize, assess, and synthesize nine chapters across two primary texts listed as the required reading for the third week of POS 543. First, I’ll focus on the central themes discussed in the readings related to open systems, structures, and organizational environments. Second, I will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the various contributions of relevant organizational theories and concepts to open systems, structures, and organizational environments. The required reading for week three continued building on earlier schools of thought on organizational environments and systems with particular emphasis on open systems. Although the central themes to this collection of readings concentrate on open …show more content…

Earlier readings defined the perspectives of both rational and natural systems, which are now added to the discussion of open systems. “Rational and natural system perspectives have not been superseded by open system, but updated, elaborated, and combined” (Scott and Davis, 2007, p. 107). Scott’s Layered Model also proposes “that the rational and natural systems models developed prior to the 1960s shared in common the fact of being layered under closed system assumptions” (Scott and Davis, 2007, p. 110-111). Lawrence and Lorsch’s Contingency theory argues there are many organizational forms, no one is ideal, and “their stability is determined by the goodness of fit between organizational form and the diverse environment to which they relate” (Scott and Davis, 2007, p. 108). The environment drives design decisions, rates of change, limitations, and opportunities for organizations according to Contingency …show more content…

Blau and Scott (2016) devised a set of qualities they argued delineated a formal organization from a truly informal organization. They quickly confirmed that social organizations would not conform to the characteristics of a formal organization. Formal organizations emerge when there is “an explicit purpose to achieve certain goals” (Blau and Scott, 2016, p. 175). Size and complexity as well as the existence of an administrative structure help to portray a formal organization. Other factors that characterize a formal organization include the intensity of the bureaucracy and hierarchy within the organization. Of note, Blau and Scott indicated that “formal organizations are man-made” (2016, p. 177) unlike social or informal organizations. Unexpectedly, they confirm that “informal organizations arise in every formal one” (Blau and Scott, 2016, p. 175). The formal organization is “the organization”, not the informal one that exists within; however, it is vital to understand the nature of the informal organization and attached social relations and unofficial norms (Blau and Scott,

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