Scientific electronic library. Signs and characteristics of formal and informal youth organizations

1.1. Concept of formal organization

The concept of organization is central to management. Organization is the reason for the existence of management. Chester Barnard, a management classic of the 1930s, defines a formal organization as “a system of consciously coordinated actions of two or more people.” In the modern sense, an organization is a group of people whose activities are consciously coordinated to achieve a common goal or goals. It should be noted here that informal organizations that exist within formal organizations are beyond the scope of this definition. Informal organizations dynamically interact with formal ones. One of the first to study the formation of informal organizations was George Homans, a theorist in group studies.

It is essential to understand modern management organization as an open system, i.e. a system whose elements interact not only with each other, but also with the external environment. The internal environment includes the organization's goals, resources, size, division of labor, and people. These variables are controlled to varying degrees. The external environment includes economic conditions, consumers, legislation, competitors, etc. These variables are outside the organization's control.

The concept of organizational management is far from unambiguous in science. In modern theory, at least five approaches to management can be distinguished:

1. A behavioral science approach that focuses primarily on methods for building interpersonal relationships. The approach examines various aspects of social interaction, motivation, the nature of power and authority, organizational structure, communication in organizations, leadership, changes in the quality of work and the quality of working life.

2. Approach from the point of view of quantitative or economic-mathematical methods. A key characteristic of the approach is the replacement of descriptive analysis with models, symbols and quantitative values.

3. Process approach, viewing management as a continuous series of interrelated management functions. The specific content and classification of functions, different among different authors, can be reduced to four categories of functions: planning, organization, motivation and control.

4. A systems approach that considers an organization as an open system consisting of numerous interdependent subsystems that interacts with the external environment.

5. Situational approach. The central point of the situational approach is the situation—the specific set of circumstances that affect the organization at that particular time. The situational approach attempts to link specific techniques and concepts to certain specific situations in order to achieve organizational goals most effectively.

Organizations create structures to ensure coordination and control of the activities of their departments and employees. Organizational structures vary complexity(i.e. the degree of division of activities into various functions), formalization(i.e. the extent to which pre-established rules and procedures are used), the relationship between centralization and decentralization(i.e. the levels at which management decisions are made).

Structural relationships in organizations are the focus of attention of many researchers and managers. In order to effectively achieve goals, it is necessary to understand the structure of work, departments and functional units. The organization of work and people greatly influences the behavior of workers. Structural and behavioral relationships, in turn, help establish organizational goals and influence employee attitudes and behavior. Structural approach used in organizations to ensure the basic elements of activity and the relationships between them. It involves the use of division of labor, span of control, decentralization and departmentalization.

Organization structure- these are fixed relationships that exist between departments and employees of an organization. It can be understood as an established pattern of interaction and coordination of technological elements and personnel. The diagram of any organization shows the composition of departments, sectors and other linear and functional units. However, it does not take into account factors such as human behavior, which influence the order of interaction and its coordination. It is the behavior of personnel that determines the effectiveness of the organizational structure to a greater extent than the formal distribution of functions between departments.

The organizational structure of any business firm, hospital, bank, government agency, etc. should be considered based on various criteria. The effectiveness of an organization is influenced by:

1) real relationships between people and their work, reflected in organizational charts and job responsibilities;

2) management policies and methods influencing personnel behavior;

3) powers and functions of the organization’s employees at various levels of management (lower, middle and higher).

A rational structure of an organization involves a combination of these three factors, ensuring a high level of production efficiency.

Formal organization - This a pre-planned structure of authority and function that is established based on the established interaction between the components of the organization. It is focused on achieving acceptable levels of production and overall organizational goals. The formal structure defines the entire system of relations and a set of functions that allow for purposeful activities.

A formal organization is, as A.I. Prigozhin points out, a method of organized construction based on the social formalization of connections, statuses and norms. By social formalization he means “the purposeful formation of standard, impersonal patterns of behavior in legal, organizational and sociocultural forms.” He identifies the following basic elements of formal organization:

Formal organization characterized by a legalized system of norms, rules, operating principles, and standards of conduct for members of the organization. The main feature of a formal organization is the predetermination, programming and certainty of organizational norms and actions.

Formal organization is characterized by a certain degree standardization of labor functions. There are comprehensive descriptions of them, many organizational rules, clearly defined procedures covering the labor process in an organization where the degree of formalization is high. The higher the level of standardization of labor functions, the less should be the personal contribution of each employee to the final result. Standardization not only does not contribute alternative behavior workers, but also eliminates any need for any alternatives. The degree of formalization varies across organizations.

Many types of interactions between workers do not fit into the formal organization chart. There is a network
informal organizations
within which relationships are not of a pre-designed and predetermined nature, but arise under the influence of various factors, such as the common interest of a group of workers, the objective need to cooperate, personal safety, etc.

Considering the structure of a formal organization, he cites the types existing in the structure of an enterprise, identified in the works of F. Taylor and A. Fayol, as well as their followers: line organization, functional organization and headquarters organization.

The formalization of a social system can be carried out in two ways: firstly, the legalization of an already naturally established state, this is the so-called “reflexive” method of formalization; secondly, the development of a program (special project, work plan, etc.), in accordance with which the organization of a particular social system is subsequently carried out, is already a “designer” method of formalization.

All formal organizations have a special administrative apparatus, the main function of which is to coordinate the actions of members of the organization in order to preserve it. The extreme degree of development of a formal organization, expressed in maximum standardization within the organization in order to increase the efficiency of the organizational mechanism, turns it into a bureaucratic system.

1.2. Types of Formal Organizations

Groups of employees are created at the will of management for the organization production process, whose primary function in relation to the organization is to perform specific tasks and achieve certain goals.

Figure 1 shows the difference in the formation mechanisms of formal and informal organizations.

The structure and type of formal organization is determined consciously by management through design, while the structure and type of informal organization arises as a result of social interaction.


Describing the development of informal organizations, Leonard Sales and George Strauss say: “Employees form friendly groups based on their contacts and common interests, and these groups arise from the very life of the organization. However, once these groups are formed, they begin to take on a life of their own, almost completely divorced from the labor process from which they arose. This is a dynamic, self-generating process. Employees united within a formal organization interact with each other. Increasing interaction contributes to the emergence of friendly feelings in them towards other members of the group. In turn, these feelings form the basis for everything more a variety of activities, many of which are not described job responsibilities: eating together, doing work for a friend, fighting with those who are not members of the group, gambling with numbers on money checks, etc. These enhanced opportunities for interaction help create stronger interpersonal bonds. Then the group begins to be something more than a simple collection of people. It creates traditional ways of performing certain actions - a set of stable characteristics that are difficult to change. The group becomes an organization

Two types of formal organization can be distinguished: a limited group (a leader and his direct subordinates) and a committee, or task group.

These groups, created by the will of management to organize the production process, are called formal groups. However small they may be, they are formal organizations whose primary function in relation to the organization as a whole is to perform specific tasks and achieve certain, specific goals. There are three main types of formal groups in an organization: management groups, production groups, and committees.

The command (subordinate) group of a leader consists of a leader and his immediate subordinates, who, in turn, can also be leaders. The company president and senior vice presidents are a typical team group. The same group is formed by the director of a retail store and the heads of its various departments, or the head of a department and his or her salespeople. However, although they are part of his or her chain of command, salespeople are not members command group the president of the company because they do not report directly to him. Another example of a command subordinate group is the aircraft commander, co-pilot and flight engineer.

The second type of formal group is a working (target) group. It usually consists of individuals working together on the same task. Although they have a common leader, these groups differ from a command group in that they have significantly more autonomy in planning and executing their work. Working (target) groups include Hewlett-Packard, Shackley Corporation, Motorola, Texas Instruments and General Motors. More than two-thirds of Texas Instruments' 89,000-plus employees are members of task forces. For increasing the overall efficiency of the company, they can receive a 15 percent bonus to their budget. In this company, management believes that task forces break down barriers of mistrust between managers and workers. In addition, by giving workers the opportunity to think about and solve their own production problems, they can meet the needs of higher-level workers. The third type of formal group is the committee.

People join formal organizations for a variety of reasons. Sociologist Amitai Etzioni classifies organizations based on these reasons and identifies three main types of organizations: voluntary, coercive and utilitarian. Voluntary organizations are associations whose members have the right to freely join and leave. Examples of such organizations are: a chess club, a nature conservation society, Afghan war veterans, a fishermen's society, etc. Members of such organizations do not receive payment for participation in their activities. Individuals join voluntary organizations to fill free time, communicate with like-minded people, fulfill a social duty, serve a cause, or try to help themselves.

People become members of some forced organizations against their will. People may end up in a mental hospital, be sentenced to prison, or be drafted into the military. Sociologist Erwin Goffman studied the lives of people in so-called totalitarian institutions - social institutions whose purpose is to isolate people from the rest of society for a long period of time to subject them to strictly regulated norms of behavior. In such environments, individuals are subjected to resocialization procedures, during which a systematic attempt is made to rid them of previous roles and beliefs and to impose new roles. The initial stage of being in such organizations often involves suppression of the individual. Individuals are separated from families and friends who represent for them a connection to their former social roles. They are taught organizational rules and internal discipline, selecting personal items and clothing associated with their usual way of life. With the help of uniform haircuts, uniforms or standard clothing, people's belonging to the new institutional structure is established. Often, the dignity of newcomers is violated in every possible way - they are forced to do dirty or humiliating work, and are subjected to offensive epithets (sociologists call this procedure a “degradation ceremony”). All this makes individuals psychologically and emotionally susceptible to the roles and principles that forced formal organizations require them to accept.

Individuals also join formal organizations created for practical purposes—utilitarian organizations. Universities, corporations, farmers' associations, labor unions, government and private foundations are among the formal organizations created by people to carry out essential daily tasks.

Utilitarian organizations are a cross between voluntary and compulsory organizations: membership is neither entirely voluntary nor entirely compulsory. For example, no one will force you to take a job at a corporation, but if you need a livelihood, you will simply have to accept the position.

While organizations remain relatively small in number, they often function quite successfully on the basis of direct personal interaction between their members. But if a large organization is interested in achieving certain goals, it cannot do without the approval of formal production and administrative procedures. Only after production and management procedures are clearly established will the organization be able to function truly effectively. This requirement is met by bureaucracy - a social structure based on a hierarchy of positions and roles prescribed by clear rules and standards, and on the division of functions and power.

2. Main characteristics of formal organizations

2.1. Signs of formal organizations

First of all, in a formal organization there are certain officially approved rules of conduct for its members, certain standards of activity: internal regulations, job descriptions, etc. Being a member of this organization, a person finds himself included in a complex system of these norms and rules, which he is forced to obey.

This kind of system of relations is called a formal organization. Its main features:

The defining property of an organization is the increase in additional energy that exceeds the sum of the individual efforts of employees. This is why organizations are so widespread. The principle of organizational effect is rooted in the combination of individual and group efforts to achieve the goal of the organization. This is the so-called "system effect". It is due to the presence of certain connections - relationships between people who represent elements of a given system - organization.

The goals of organizations by level can be presented as follows. The first level is intra-organizational goals as objectively necessary conditions for its functioning. This is sometimes called the teleonomic properties of the system or teleonomy. That is why each organization develops internal rules, monitors them, and improves the organizational structure. These are the internal goals of the system. Further. As soon as any organization is created to fulfill some social need, it is given external goals and tasks by an organization of a higher level, which this organization translates for itself into specific indicators (production of a given range of products, provision of such and such services, etc.) . But the organization employs people who have their own individual interests. Such general and individual interests of employees, realized through the organization, form the goals-orientations of its employees. They also have their own specific content: receiving remuneration for work, realizing status claims, etc.

It is obvious that the goals of the organization and the goals of its employees cannot coincide. Therefore, their coordination is necessary. In fact, the plant produces, for example, sheet metal. But personally, no one from the team of this enterprise needs this rental. A mechanic, an engineer, and even a plant director will work if in exchange for their work they receive something that interests them personally, and this is not only income, but also the satisfaction of other needs (for communication, prestige, etc.). Until the general goal of the functioning of this production organization - a rolled steel plant - is transferred to the implementation of individual goals of employees, the plant will not operate.

Consequently, the first sign of a formal organization - goal setting - breaks down into intra-organizational goals, the implementation of which is a condition for the functioning of the organization as a whole, external goals set from the outside, and the individual goals of its employees. The last two require approval. In a formal organization, this is achieved, firstly, by creating specialized units that carry out specific functions that collectively realize the goals of the organization (foundry, rolling shop, design bureaus, etc.), and, secondly, by creating a vertical pyramid of power t .n. hierarchies to coordinate these specific functions.

The “structure” of an organization, the objective basis for the formation of its structure, is represented by a certain hierarchy of relationships.

First, hierarchy means centralization. In this sense, hierarchy represents a vertical division of labor. Here, leadership-subordination relationships develop, and at all levels. Like any division of labor, hierarchy is introduced for efficiency, to save labor through centralization.

Secondly, hierarchy manifests itself as human relationships. This means that one of the employees can influence the position and behavior of another, who is lower on the hierarchical ladder, and this lower one is deprived of such a right. This position is fixed in statuses and acts as a factor of social inequality. A serious consequence of this side of hierarchical relationships is that the relationship of subordination cannot be completely regulated. There is always some gap left for the manifestation of the personal qualities of a superior leader in relation to subordinates, and these qualities may not always be positive, which is often a source of social tension.

Thus, it turns out that the organization as a community is stratified into managers and managed, and, if we exclude from the analysis the highest level for the organization (director, company president, etc.) and the lowest (janitor, cleaner), everyone in this hierarchical system at the same time is both the manager and the controlled.

Third, hierarchy is a form of power that is subject to certain externally prescribed rules. The peculiarity of these hierarchical relationships is that impersonal norms of behavior dominate each member of the organization as an individual, forcing him to limit himself in favor of the existence of the organization as a whole, as a community. In this case, the organization applies certain incentives (to encourage if the individual’s behavior corresponds to the organization’s goals) or sanctions (if this behavior contradicts its goals).

In this understanding, power, as such, is largely neutral in relation to those who personify it, although the individual characteristics of representatives of power at one or another level can significantly “color” it. All the properties of the organizational hierarchy that we have considered operate in a complex, although each, of course, has an independent meaning.

Characteristics of a formal organization:

Resources– the goals of any organization include the transformation of resources to achieve results. Basic resources are people, capital, materials, technology and information;

Dependence on the external environment— the relationship between the formal organization and the external environment. External environment- these are economic conditions, consumers, trade unions, government acts, legislation, competing organizations, the value system in society, public views, technology and other components that influence everything that happens within the organization;

Horizontal division of labor— division of all work into its constituent components. This division allows the organization to produce much more products. Sample horizontal labor in a manufacturing plant are production , marketing and finance .

They represent the main activities that must be successfully completed to achieve the goals;

Divisions- horizontal separation due to formation of units performing specific specific tasks and achieving specific specific goals. These divisions are called departments or services. Units are groups of people whose activities are consciously directed and coordinated to achieve a common goal;

Vertical division of labor— separating the work of coordinating actions from the actions themselves;

The need for management– tasks must be coordinated through a vertical division of labor, i.e. management is essential important activities for the organization.

But the classical ideas about formal organization turned out to be limited: it is obvious that people’s behavior cannot be completely regulated. A formal organization relies on functionaries, and there are people in it whose interests are not limited to the goals of the organization. And their participation in the functioning of the production organization is not limited to role performance. They enter into interpersonal relationships that go beyond formal boundaries. These relationships define the informal organization.

2.2. Principles for building formal organizations

All organizations (biological, social, physical) are built on the basis hierarchical principle. From the point of view of systems theory, the phenomenon of hierarchy can be defined as a multi-level distribution of parts (elements) of a whole according to the degree of commonality of their functions (properties). In social organizations, this principle is refracted into complex relationships between people, which qualitatively distinguishes social hierarchical systems from all others.

The hierarchical principle, firstly, means centralization, linear subordination of the lower links of the system to the higher ones. A special form of division of labor not only horizontally, but also vertically. Assigning management and executive functions to people and departments. Secondly, hierarchy determines the purposeful personal dependence of one person on another. Third, hierarchy functions as power, that is, the subordination of an organization member to the rules and standards of the organization. For deviation from these impersonal, formal rules and norms, sanctions and enforcement measures may be applied to individual employees of the organization.

An essential feature of the organization is also the horizontal division of labor. The division of labor allows the organization to specialize and professionalize the activities of employees, increase the productivity and quality of their work. A classic example of horizontal division of labor in an industrial enterprise, for example, is production, supply, marketing, staffing, finance, R&D.

Specialized units, being components(subsystems) of an integral organization are social systems (of a smaller scale and complexity), the activities of which are consciously directed and coordinated to achieve a common goal. The activity of coordinating the work of people and special units (subsystems) is the essence of management. Management is the process of planning, organizing, motivating (activating), coordinating, regulating, controlling and researching

Research into patterns of formal organizations shows that there is a level of vertical and horizontal division of labor. Scheme vertical division of labor shown in Fig. 3.




A top-level manager manages the activities of middle and lower-level managers, i.e. formally he has more power and a higher status. Vertical differentiation is related to the management hierarchy in an organization. The more steps in the hierarchical ladder there are between the top level of management and the performers, the more complex the organization is. Powers are distributed among positions and managers holding these positions. The purpose of the organization is seen as a guide to the direction of the flow of connections and powers.

Horizontal differentiation reflects the degree of division of labor between individual structural units. The more different areas an organization has that require specialized knowledge and skills, the more complex it is. Horizontal specialization aimed at differentiation of functions. It covers the definition of work (the connection of various individual tasks) and the determination of the relationships between different types of work that may be performed by one or many workers.

Scheme horizontal division of labor shown in Fig. 6.2, which reflects approaches to control coverage and functionalization. Coverage of control - This is the number of subordinates who report to one manager. Functionalization - it is the variety of tasks that must be completed to achieve the goals of the organization. The top-level manager (RVU) has direct control over three middle-level managers (MSM) - production, accounting and marketing. In turn, middle-level managers have direct control over the corresponding lower-level managers (LLM), and they directly over a certain number of performers. This can be considered as functionalization, as a result of which certain specialized units are formed. Along with this, there is a geographical (territorial) division of labor associated with the degree of distribution physical assets organization for different regions. In this structure, communication, coordination and control become more complex.


It is necessary to distinguish between the scale and depth of work. Scope of work - This is the number of works performed, their volume. An employee who performs, for example, eight tasks has a broader scope of work than someone who performs four tasks. Concept depth of work refers to the amount of control an employee exercises during the course of work. The depth of work is personal in nature; it can be different for different employees at the same organizational level. For example, the head of the marketing department in an industrial company has greater depth work than, say, an accountant in charge of current production accounting. When solving specific problems of division of labor in the management structure, it is necessary to carefully consider not only the functional focus and scale of the work performed, but also their depth.

For large and complex organizations, management work must be clearly separated from non-managerial activities, i.e. Organizations must appoint dedicated managers and define their duties and responsibilities.

Leading companies recognize that the central tenet of the organization's development concept is a well-founded and carefully considered concept of the growth of the company's or firm's human resources; recognition as the highest value of a person, taking into account his needs, interests and values, and the most significant qualities of a leader are professionalism, competence, creative entrepreneurship, and perseverance in achieving goals.

One of the significant features of an organization is its relationship with the external environment. The external environment includes economic, political, social, demographic conditions, the value system in society, the culture and mentality of the people, religious beliefs, legislation, suppliers, consumers, competing organizations, market position, equipment and technology, geographical and climatic conditions. This combination of factors influences everything that happens within the organization.

3. Dependence on the external environment

3.1 Concept and meaning of the external environment

Enterprise operating environment represents a set of business entities, their relationships, infrastructure links and conditions of their activities. The study of this environment is due to the fact that business entities, when carrying out their activities, do not function in isolation, but interact with each other, with the authorities government controlled, public structures, etc., that is, they carry out their activities in the external environment.

The external environment in strategic management is considered as
a combination of two relatively independent subsystems: the macroenvironment and the immediate environment.

There are two main types of systems: closed and open. A closed system has rigid, fixed boundaries; its actions are relatively independent of the environment surrounding the system. A clock is a familiar example of a closed system. The interdependent parts of the watch move continuously and very precisely once the watch is wound or the battery is inserted. And as long as the watch has a source of stored energy, its system is independent of the environment.

An open system is characterized by interaction with the external environment. Energy, information, materials are objects of exchange with the external environment through the permeable boundaries of the system. Such a system is not self-sustaining; it depends on energy, information and materials coming from outside. In addition, an open system has the ability to adapt to changes in the external environment and must do so in order to continue to function.

Closed ones are characterized by determinism and linear development. Open systems involve the exchange of matter, energy, information with the outside world at any point, as well as the stochastic nature of the processes, sometimes bringing randomness to a determining position. Managing such systems involves developing the optimal option based on the study of many options for adoption management decisions.

Managers are primarily concerned with open systems because all organizations are open systems. . The survival of any organization depends on the outside world. The approaches developed by the early schools of management could not suit all situations because they assumed, at least implicitly, that organizations are closed systems. They did not actively consider the environment as an important variable in management.

The term “external environment”, which is understood as a set of subjects and forces located outside the organization and having any influence on its activities.

IN scientific literature There are quite a lot of points of view regarding the structure of the external environment. But the most widespread approach is that the external environment of any organization is divided into two levels: micro- and macro-environment.

The external environment of an organization refers to all conditions and factors that arise in the environment, regardless of the activities of a particular company, but which have or may have an impact on its functioning and therefore require management decisions.

However, the set of these factors and the assessment of their impact on economic activity are different, not only among the authors of scientific publications on management issues, but also among each company. Typically, in the management process, a company itself determines which factors and to what extent can affect the results of its activities in the present period and in the future; the conclusions of ongoing research or current events are accompanied by the development of specific tools and methods for making appropriate management decisions. Moreover, first of all, external environmental factors are identified and taken into account, influencing the state of the internal environment and influencing the state of the internal environment of the company.

The external environment of the organization is the source that supplies the organization with the resources necessary to maintain its internal potential at the proper level. The organization is in a state of constant exchange with the external environment, thereby providing itself with the opportunity to survive. But the resources of the external environment are not limitless. And they are claimed by many other organizations located in the same environment. Therefore, there is always the possibility that the organization will not be able to obtain the necessary resources from the external environment. This can weaken its potential and lead to many negative consequences for the organization. The task of strategic management is to ensure that the organization interacts with its environment in a way that would allow it to maintain its potential at the level necessary to achieve its goals, and thereby enable it to survive in the long term.

The macroenvironment creates the general conditions of the organization's environment. In most cases, the macroenvironment is not specific to an individual organization. However, the degree of influence of the state of the macroenvironment on different organizations varies. This is due both to differences in the areas of activity of organizations and to differences in the internal potential of organizations. The components of the macroenvironment include: economic, political, legal, social, technological, natural and geographical (Fig. 5).


Studying the economic component of the macroenvironment allows us to understand how resources are formed and distributed. It involves the analysis of such characteristics as the size of the gross national product, inflation rate, unemployment rate, interest rate, labor productivity, tax rates, balance of payments, savings rate, etc. When studying the economic component, it is important to pay attention to such factors as the general level economic development, extracted natural resources, climate, type and level of development of competitive relations, structure.

The study of the organization's immediate environment is aimed at analyzing the state of those components of the external environment with which the organization is in direct interaction. At the same time, it is important to emphasize that an organization can have a significant influence on the nature and content of this interaction, thereby it can actively participate in the formation of additional opportunities and in preventing the emergence of threats to its further existence. The elements of the microenvironment include: suppliers, consumers, competitors, labor market, infrastructure (Fig. 6).


The very survival and existence of an organization depends on its ability to find consumers for the results of its activities and satisfy its needs. Consumers can vary greatly in their nature and the place they occupy in the product chain. Consumers can be: individuals and legal entities both within the country and abroad, public and government organizations. Based on this, five client markets can be distinguished: consumer, producer market, intermediate seller market, government agencies and international.

The macroenvironment creates the general conditions of the organization's environment. The degree of influence of the state of the macroenvironment on different organizations varies. This is due both to differences in the areas of activity of organizations and to differences in the internal potential of organizations.

3.2. Mutual influence of environmental factors and formal organization

Many environmental factors can influence an organization. Steiner and Miner point out: “In the past, managers focused on economic and technical circumstances. However, private changes in people’s attitudes towards social values, political forces and areas of legal responsibility forced managers to expand the range of external influences requiring consideration.”

It follows that there is some interconnection between environmental factors. This interconnectedness is defined as the level of force with which a change in one factor affects other factors. Just as a change in any internal variable can affect others, a change in one environmental factor can cause changes in others.

The relationship of an enterprise with the external environment is dynamic. The external environment is characterized by the presence of many connections between its elements, which are conventionally divided into vertical and horizontal.

Vertical connections arise from the moment of state registration, since each business entity carries out its activities in accordance with current legislation.

Horizontal connections ensure the continuity of production processes and sales of products, reflect the relationship of manufacturers with suppliers of material resources, product buyers, business partners and competitors.

The interconnectedness of various environmental factors, according to Emery and Trist, should have turned the environment of modern organizations into a rapidly changing one. They give the example of the failure of one English food canning company, which “failed to recognize that a series of external events were becoming so interconnected that they led to irreversible overall changes.” As they point out further, "survival becomes critically linked to the organization's level of knowledge about its environment."

The following main types of external environment are distinguished:

1. A changing environment characterized by rapid change. These could be technical innovations, economic changes (changes in the inflation rate), changes in legislation, innovations in the policies of competitors, etc. Such an unstable environment, which creates great difficulties for management, is inherent in the Russian market.

2. A hostile environment created by fierce competition, the struggle for consumers and markets. This environment is typical, for example, of the automotive industry in the USA and Western European countries, the USA and Japan.

3. A diverse environment is inherent in global business. A typical example of a global business is McDonalds, which operates in many countries (and therefore is associated with serving numerous customers speaking different languages), with diverse cultures and gastronomic tastes of consumers. This diverse environment influences the company's activities and its policy of influencing consumers.

4. Technically challenging environment. In such an environment, electronics, computer technology, and telecommunications are developing, which require complex information and highly qualified service personnel. Strategic management of enterprises in a technically complex environment must be focused on innovation, since products in this case quickly become obsolete.

External environmental factors are interconnected. The interconnectedness of environmental factors refers to the level of force with which a change in one factor affects other factors. Just as a change in any internal variable can affect others, a change in one environmental factor can cause changes in others. Now, taking into account the external environment, we can depict such a diagram (Fig. 3).

In terms of the number of external factors to which an organization must respond, if it is under pressure from government regulations, frequent renegotiation of union contracts, multiple vested interests, multiple competitors, and accelerated technological change, it can be argued that the organization is in a more complex environment. than, say, an organization concerned with the actions of only a few suppliers, a few competitors, in the absence of trade unions and slow changes in technology. Likewise, when it comes to diversity of factors, an organization that uses only a few inputs, a few specialists, and does business with only a few firms in its home country should find its collateral conditions less complex than an organization that has different parameters. In terms of the diversity of factors, an organization that uses numerous and different technologies that are undergoing more rapid development will be in more complex conditions than an organization that is not affected by all this.

The classification of environmental factors due to their diversity is quite different and can be based on different principles. But in management it is accepted, and most adhere to it, the classification of factors into factors of direct and indirect impact. In the environment of direct influence, we can distinguish the following: suppliers, laws and government bodies, consumers and competitors.


The external environment is not constant; changes occur in it all the time. According to Elbing, the direct impact environment includes factors that directly affect and are directly affected by an organization's operations. Indirect influence environment refers to factors that may not have a direct immediate impact on operations, but nevertheless affect them.

4. Availability of resources

To achieve its intended goals, any organization needs resources to be transformed in the process of production activities.

The resources of a formal organization include labor, equipment, cash, land, capital and human resource. The informal organizational structure is based on the principles of ergonomics. According to ergonomics, the basic law of constructing an organizational structure is the law of mandatory correspondence of rights, powers, responsibilities, personal and professional qualities employee to the content of the functions performed. The laws and principles of the organizational structure are unshakable, but a person comes into it, a creative performer of the corresponding functions, a bearer of rights, powers, responsibilities, who implements them on the basis of professional knowledge of the laws and principles of management and his own individual properties (will, character, physical and moral health, intellectual abilities, memory, etc.).

The main resources used by the organization are people (human resources), fixed and working capital, technology and information. The main task of the organization in the field of using resources is to achieve goals with: minimum costs and maximum efficiency.

Material resources are the objects of labor consumed in the production process, which include basic and auxiliary materials, semi-finished products and components, fuel and energy for technological needs.

A necessary condition for organizing the production of products is to provide it with material resources: raw materials, supplies, fuel, energy, semi-finished products, etc. In the process of consuming material resources, they are transformed into material costs, therefore, the economic use of fuel, raw materials, materials, energy, etc. reduces production costs.

Despite its paramount importance, resource provision is not the goal of the organization. The objective of the activity is to achieve the most significant social or local results at the lowest cost, thereby including two subtasks.

The first is the formation of strategic goals and directions economic activity, maximizing its effectiveness. The second – resource provision relates to production and reproduction, distribution of necessary resources, minimization and rationalization of costs.

Resource provision cannot be reduced only to the formation of sources of activity of an economic entity. This process is much broader and turns out to be cross-cutting in relation to the strategic management of activities as a whole. The emergence or elimination of the most important problems of an organization's management depends on the resource provision strategy, for example, preventing the formation of organizational barriers or conflicts of interest, stimulating increased efficiency.

The study of the mechanisms of resource support for the organization's activities creates the necessary basis for developing the concept of resource management. The resource provision mechanism is a system of institutional elements necessary for the distribution and redistribution of resources by economic entities and their structural divisions, as well as the transformation of resources from one form to another.

The directions of resource support for the organization's activities, on the one hand, are determined by those financial, personnel, material and other resources and innovations that it plans to introduce in the future, as well as the ability to attract investment sources.

Thus, resource support for the activities of an organization (including the organization of road transport) is a complex process of mobilization, accumulation, distribution of resources, as well as planning, control, monitoring and other procedures aimed at the effective and efficient use of resources and reduction risk in the organization's activities.


Any organization as an open economic system interacts with the external environment represented by resource markets, forming its primary resources. Sources of financing resources can be own funds or borrowed funds.

The next stage in the process of resource support for the organization's activities is the accumulation, combination, distribution and redistribution of its resources, i.e. the formation of the organization's resource potential.

Resource potential is a category that expresses the unity of an organization's resources and represents the possibility of managing them at certain stages of their development.

It is reasonable to assume that resources of the same quantity and quality may have different potential depending on the degree of their use. Thus, resource potential characterizes not only different types of resources, but also the degree of their use, their ability to create a beneficial effect.

The resource potential of an organization combines not only resources that interact with the management system at various stages of its development, but also methods, the use of which allows the most effective implementation of existing market opportunities.

As a result of the interaction of the blocks of the management system, resources and the activity block, functional areas are formed that allow us to draw an analogy with the organizational structure and a line of relationship with the functions of various organizational units. Thus, this structure allows you to determine the full set of functions of a particular structural unit of the organization. At the same time, all areas of activity are fully covered, from research to the use of marketing tools for interaction with the market.

The intersection of the resource area and the management system area structures the process of planning and managing an organization both at the level of the final product (goods) and at the level of resources produced within the organization for internal consumption.

Thus, determining the structure of the organization's resource potential is a necessary stage of strategic analysis and management.

5. The need for control

5.1. The essence of control

It is not enough to make a competent management decision and achieve its implementation. It is necessary to exercise social control over its implementation, evaluate its effectiveness and always make the necessary adjustments so that the next cycle of management work is even more effective than the previous one. Therefore, the implementation of social control and assessment of management effectiveness are the last stages of managerial work, but necessary for the beginning of its next continuous cycle, without which effective social management impossible.

In the broadest sense of the word, social control is a set of means and techniques by which society ensures that the behavior of its members, individual subjects of management, social groups will be carried out in accordance with established social norms and values. Order in society means that each person, each subject of activity, accepting certain responsibilities, in turn has the right to demand from others that they fulfill them for their own purposes. There are three ways to implement social control.

1. Effective education and socialization, during which people consciously accept the norms and values ​​of society, its individual groups and social institutions.

2. Coercion, application of certain sanctions. When an individual, group, or subject of management does not follow laws, norms, rules, then society resorts to coercion, which is aimed at overcoming deviations from the norm and accepted values. In this sense, social control is closely related to the categories of freedom and responsibility. In fact, effective management presupposes the manifestation of initiative, creativity, and independence on the part of all subjects of management, but freedom is impossible without responsibility for the social consequences of activities, which usually occurs after the implementation of social control.

3. Political, moral, legal, financial and other forms of responsibility. Such forms of responsibility as group or collective, cultural values, traditions, and group norms play an increasingly important role.

5.2. Control as a necessary element of formal organization

The effectiveness of social control depends entirely on the nature and degree of the country’s progress towards civil society, the institutions and organizations of which are capable of supporting and realizing the interests and needs of their members, protecting them outside and apart from the state.

Thus, it is clear that social control cannot be reduced to either accounting or reporting, but is a complex management relationship that permeates the entire system from bottom to top. At the same time, control can be considered as the final part of the management process. In this sense, it is that part of management work that is associated with monitoring and verifying the compliance of the process of functioning of an object with the adopted management decisions, and not just with laws, norms, and rules. When a decision is made, the managed and control systems are put in order, adjusted in order to maintain and improve it, and the results of activities are summed up by the control system. Then a new decision is made or the same one remains, and a new management cycle begins. Again, actions and operations are carried out to implement management functions. At the same time, all management functions are in unity, in interaction, especially its control function, which permeates all stages of management, acts as an integrating guide and unites them into a single ensemble. Therefore, control problems cannot be reduced only to organizational activities. Control occupies an important place in ensuring the stability of society, in the reproduction of the dominant type of social relations and social structures. Essentially, control is one of the main mechanisms for regulating relations between society and the individual, society and the state, the state and social institutions. The entire society, its citizens, through social control, check the actions of individual subjects of management in accordance with social norms, value standards, and ideological guidelines. The mechanism of social control is not limited to the impact on an individual, to accounting for work, statistical and accounting reporting, and in general to the quantitative and qualitative assessment of available resources. Its function is much broader - detection of possible deviations from set goals, timely adoption of proactive measures to eliminate emerging imbalances. Measures of social control are more effective the more widely the whole society, its civil institutions and all citizens. In this sense, the means of control and social regulation are forms of direct democracy (referendums, requests from citizens, public opinion, bodies of representative power, etc.). In the process of control, the initial goals of the organization can be modified, clarified and changed taking into account additional information received about the implementation of decisions made.

With the help of control, deviations from the program are not only identified, but the reasons for these deviations are also determined. We can say that social control is one of the main functions of regulatory influence on the part of society, which is implemented in the management activities of society as a subject of management. Society is still weak in predicting expected deviations from the norm and making timely adjustments to the activities of individual management entities, primarily the state. There are other functions that can be solved using execution control.

1. The diagnostic function is the main leading control function. In any case, you first need to clearly imagine the true state of affairs, or make a diagnosis. Knowledge about an object is meaningless from a control standpoint if there is no idea of ​​the normal, or proper, state of the analyzed system. It is the idea of ​​the norm that makes it possible to determine deviations in the behavior of a social system, a subject of management, an individual, a particular social disease or pathology. On this basis, programs of proactive influence or correction are developed in relation to the diagnosed object.

2. The feedback function, without which the manager does not know about the progress of the assigned tasks and essentially lets go of the reins of government, is deprived of the opportunity to influence the progress of work.

3. The orienting function is manifested in the fact that those issues that are more often controlled by the subject of management, as if by themselves, acquire special significance in the minds of the performers, directing their efforts primarily to the object of increased attention. Issues that fall out of the manager's field of vision are often not resolved by subordinates.

4. The stimulating function is close to the orienting function, but does not coincide with it. If the orienting control function, with skillful leadership, keeps the work in sight, then the stimulating function is aimed at fulfilling and involving in the work process all unused reserves, and first of all, the reserves of the human factor.

5. The corrective function is associated with those clarifications that are made to decisions based on control materials. A complex psychological situation arises here: the manager believes that he is checking the work of his subordinate, but in fact, the latter has already tested in practice the effectiveness of the manager’s decision. In a word, control, one might say, has already taken place, and according to the most reliable criterion - whether the decision corresponds to practice.

6. Pedagogical function. Control, if built skillfully, gives performers strong incentives to work conscientiously.

In the practice of managing an organization, three main types of control are used:

1) preliminary - precedes the making of a final decision, its purpose is to provide a deeper justification for the decision being made;

2) current - with its help they make adjustments to the process of execution of decisions made;

3) subsequent - serves to check the effectiveness of decision-making.

Thus, control is an objective necessity, since even optimal plans cannot be implemented unless they are communicated to the executors and objective and constant control is established over their execution.

Practical task No. 2

1. To what extent, in your opinion, can this questionnaire be successfully used in Russia?

In our opinion, this questionnaire will be of little use in Russia, since it concerns such private personal characteristics of a person, such as “the peculiarity of the client’s physical condition.” In Russia there is a special market where, in order to make a profit and fight for each client, it is hardly economically justified and ethically possible to ask an existing regular or possible potential client about his health problems.

In addition, another example is the question about awards in college - the award, academic degree and success at school in Russian conditions is not an indicator of a person’s success.

Moreover, in our opinion, the question “is the client someone’s guardian” is unlikely to characterize him as a client.

Most likely, this questionnaire is necessary when testing clients representing any large commercial or government structures, but even in this case, most of the questions presented relate to confidential information that the Russian client is unlikely to provide.

2) If you were a manager, what changes would you make to this questionnaire and why?

Firstly, we removed from the questionnaire all information that did not characterize the client as a commercial partner. These are questions 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46,

Secondly, this questionnaire can be used if the client is a regular customer. It is necessary to develop a similar questionnaire for small and non-regular clients, including questions: 1, 2, 3, 4,7, 13, 17, 24, 29, 30, 47,49,50,51

3) What do you see as the positive and negative aspects of the practice of surveying clientele?

Positive aspects of the practice of surveying clientele:

– knowledge of the client’s personal life allows us to most fully take into account his desires and needs;

– the ability to remind about our company on important days for the client - congratulations on his birthday, on holidays, on some family holidays, which allows you to show respect to the client, inform how important he is for our company, and of course remind him about the company again.

Questionnaire
clients will allow you to receive and analyze information in the shortest possible time, which significantly speeds up service time.

This is not only a tool for summarizing the necessary data, but also additional advertising for the enterprise

Negative sides:

– surveying is still an invasion of privacy, which is unlikely to please some clients and may, on the contrary, alienate them.

Thus, a formal organization is a pre-planned structure of authority and function that is established based on the established interaction between the components of the organization. It is focused on achieving acceptable levels of production and overall organizational goals. The formal structure defines the entire system of relations and a set of functions that allow for purposeful activities.

A formal organization can be characterized as a method of organized construction based on the social formalization of connections, statuses and norms. By social formalization he means “the purposeful formation of standard, impersonal patterns of behavior in legal, organizational and sociocultural forms.” He identifies the following basic elements of formal organization:

A formal organization is characterized by a legalized system of norms, rules, operating principles, and standards of conduct for members of the organization. The main feature of a formal organization is the predetermination, programming and certainty of organizational norms and actions.

A formal organization is characterized by a certain degree of standardization of labor functions. There are comprehensive descriptions of them, many organizational rules, clearly defined procedures covering the labor process in an organization where the degree of formalization is high.

The main features of a formal organization are:

a) rationality, which is based on the principle of goal setting;

b) formal regulation of relationships – functions of people, regardless of their individual characteristics;

c) vertical subordination (hierarchy). Let us consider these signs of a formal organization in more detail.

Thus, formal organization represents an important part of industrial organization, the main function of which is to connect people with the means and ends of social labor.

Bibliography

    Ansoff I. Strategic management. – M.: Economics, 2003. – 549 p.
    Coordination in organizations CONCEPT, TYPES, FORMS AND METHODS OF FINANCIAL CONTROL 2014-01-13

A formal organization is created at the will of management. But once it is created, it also becomes a social environment where people interact not according to the instructions of the leadership. People from different subgroups communicate over coffee, during meetings, over lunch and after work. From social relationships, many friendly groups, informal groups are born, which together represent an informal organization.

An informal organization is a spontaneously formed group of people who interact regularly to achieve a specific goal. Like formal organizations, these goals are the reason for the existence of such an informal organization. It is important to understand that in a large organization there is more than one informal organization. Most of them are loosely connected in some kind of network. Therefore, some authors believe that an informal organization is essentially a network of informal organizations. The work environment is particularly favorable for the formation of such groups. Because of the formal structure of an organization and its mission, the same people tend to come together every day, sometimes for many years. People who would otherwise be unlikely to even meet are often forced to spend more time with their colleagues than with their own family. Moreover, the nature of the tasks they solve in many cases forces them to communicate and interact with each other frequently. Members of the same organization depend on each other in many ways. A natural result of this intense social interaction is the spontaneous emergence of informal organizations.

Informal organizations have much in common with the formal organizations in which they find themselves embedded. They are organized in some ways the same way as formal organizations - they have a hierarchy, leaders and tasks. Emergent organizations also have unwritten rules, called norms, that serve as standards of behavior for members of the organization. These norms are supported by a system of rewards and sanctions. The specificity is that the formal organization is created according to a pre-thought-out plan. Informal organization is more likely a spontaneous reaction to unmet individual needs. Figure 15 shows the difference in the formation mechanisms of formal and informal organizations.

Figure 15 - Mechanism for the formation of formal and informal organizations

The structure and type of formal organization is determined consciously by management through design, while the structure and type of informal organization arises as a result of social interaction. Describing the development of informal organizations, Leonard Sales and George Strauss say: “Employees form friendly groups based on their contacts and common interests, and these groups arise from the very life of the organization. However, once these groups are formed, they begin to take on a life of their own, almost completely divorced from the labor process from which they arose. This is a dynamic, self-generating process. Employees united within a formal organization interact with each other. Increasing interaction contributes to the emergence of friendly feelings in them towards other members of the group. In turn, these feelings form the basis for a growing number of different activities, many of which are not included in job descriptions: eating lunch together, doing work for a friend, fighting with non-group members, gambling with numbers on checks. etc. These enhanced opportunities for interaction help create stronger interpersonal bonds. Then the group begins to be something more than a simple collection of people. It creates traditional ways of performing certain actions - a set of stable characteristics that are difficult to change. The group becomes an organization."

The development of informal organizations and the reasons why people join them contribute to the development of characteristics in these organizations that make them both similar and different from formal organizations. Below is short description the main characteristics of informal organizations that are directly related to management, as they have a strong impact on the effectiveness of the formal organization.

Social control. The first step to this is to establish and strengthen norms - group standards for acceptable and unacceptable behavior. In order to be accepted by the group and maintain his position in it, an individual must comply with these norms. It is quite natural, for example, that an informal organization has its own clearly defined rules regarding the nature of dress, behavior and acceptable types of work. To reinforce compliance with these norms, the group may impose fairly harsh sanctions, and those who violate them may face exclusion. This is a strong and effective punishment when a person depends on an informal organization to meet his social needs (which happens quite often).

Social control exercised by an informal organization can influence and guide the achievement of the goals of a formal organization. It can also influence opinions about managers and the fairness of their decisions.

Resistance to change. People can also use informal organization to discuss proposed or actual changes that may occur in their department or organization. In informal organizations there is a tendency to resist change. This is partly due to the fact that change may pose a threat to the continued existence of the informal organization. Reorganization, introduction of new technology, expansion of production and, consequently, the emergence of a large group of new employees, etc. may lead to the disintegration of an informal group or organization, or to a reduction in opportunities for interaction and satisfaction of social needs. Sometimes such changes can enable specific groups to achieve position and power.

Because people react not to what is objectively happening, but to what they perceive is happening, a proposed change may seem much more dangerous to the group than it actually is. For example, a group of middle managers may resist the introduction of computer technology out of fear that the technology will take away their jobs just when management is about to expand their areas of expertise.

Resistance will arise whenever group members perceive change as a threat to the continued existence of their group as such, their shared experience, the satisfaction of social needs, common interests, or positive emotions. Management can reduce this resistance by allowing and encouraging subordinates to participate in decision making.

Informal leaders. Just like formal organizations, informal ones have their own leaders. An informal leader gains his position by seeking and exercising power over group members, much as a leader of a formal organization does. There are essentially no major differences in the means used by leaders of formal and informal organizations to exert influence. The only significant difference between them is that the leader of a formal organization has support in the form of official powers delegated to him and usually acts in the specific functional area assigned to him. The support of an informal leader is his recognition by the group. In his actions, he relies on people and their relationships. The sphere of influence of an informal leader may extend beyond the administrative boundaries of the formal organization. Despite the fact that the informal leader is also one of the members of the management staff of a formal organization, very often he occupies a relatively low level in the organizational hierarchy there.

Significant factors that determine the opportunity to become a leader of an informal organization include: age, position, professional competence, location of the workplace, freedom of movement in the work area and responsiveness. Exact Specifications are determined by the value system adopted in the group. For example, in some informal organizations old age may be considered a positive characteristic, while in others it is the opposite.

The informal leader has two primary functions: to help the group achieve its goals and to support and strengthen its existence. Sometimes these functions are performed different people. If this is so, then two leaders emerge in an informal group: one to carry out the group's goals, the other to facilitate social interaction.

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The economy consists of the actions of various economic entities. Informal and formal organizations form the basis of the economic system. They may have a different structure and be diverse, but their main purpose is to carry out production and business activities.

Organization concept

Ideas about organizations are formed at the intersection of disciplines such as economics and management. It refers to a certain process during which a system is created and managed, and a set of certain interactions between various systems and groups in the course of joint work, and the unification of people to implement certain tasks. Traditionally, there are three historically established types of organizations: community, corporation and association. Depending on the principle of internal structure, there are informal and formal organizations. But in any case, they are groups of people united common goals and tasks. The main feature of an organization is the presence of several people who act together in pursuit of achieving a socially significant, common goal. Organizations are characterized by the complexity of their structure and big amount varieties.

Organization structure

The difficulty of studying organizations is that they are characterized by extremely diverse structures. It is a complex, interconnected system of elements with different functions and structure. The structure of the organization is subject to the internal logic of production processes; it reflects the functional specifics of the enterprise and is designed to contribute to the most effective solution of economic and business problems.

Traditionally, the structure of an organization is viewed as a control element. Organizational structure in management is determined by the tasks and activities of the company, it is influenced by the economic factor - a rational organizational structure allows to reduce costs. Also, the organizational structure is formed under the influence of such factors as the form of management organization, the degree of centralization of individual functional units, the principles of division of labor, the external environment, methods of employee relations, and management strategy.

The structure of the organization contributes to the efficiency and efficiency of making the most important production and management decisions. The organizational structure must be flexible but stable in order to increase the company's competitiveness in the market.

Types of organizational structures

There are several approaches to studying the structure of an organization. In the technical aspect, the structure of an organization is a system of material objects and processes that serve as the basis for the implementation of all processes. The technical structure provides the basis for functional connections between personnel, influences the content and nature of work, determines the type of personal and work relationships between employees and influences the social structure of the organization.

Social structure organization covers interpersonal and intergroup interactions and extends to goals, values, and power. The social structure is formed under the influence of several factors: the potential of management, its ability to build strategy and relationships, authority, professionalism, moral and psychological climate in the team, the creative and professional potential of employees, their initiative, ability and desire to look for non-standard ways to solve production problems.

The third component of the organization's structure is sociotechnical; this structure consists of spatial ways of uniting employees within their workplaces and ensuring their relationships.

The organizational structure of a company in management is usually divided into hierarchical and adhocratic. In turn, hierarchical structures are divided into linear, functional, linear-functional, divisional and others. And organic ones are divided into matrix, project and team.

Hierarchical structures are common; they developed gradually during the evolution of management. The linear organizational structure is simple and typical for enterprises with a simple production cycle. In such organizations, all cycles are united under the leadership of a manager, who, in turn, reports to higher managers. The head of the department assumes full responsibility for the work of his department. The advantage of such a structure is the visible performance of each department and its manager, a well-functioning system of mutual subordination and distribution of functions, and clear areas of responsibility for managers at each level. The disadvantages of such organizational structures are the complexity of the overall strategic management of divisions, each of which solves its own problems, but is poorly involved in the implementation of strategic plans, poor flexibility and response to external and internal changes, high degree dependence of results on the professionalism of managers. Functional organizational structures differ from linear ones in the principle of separating departments; they are created based on the tasks being solved. In such organizations, cross-management by the same executive often occurs, which greatly complicates management. Linear and functional structures are methods of managing organizations that are becoming a thing of the past, since they do not meet modern management requirements.

The linear-functional structure combines the two previous types; in this case, line managers rely on the activities of functional units. Such structures are convenient for similar production processes with a staff of no more than 3,000 people. A more modern type of such structure is a line-staff organization, in which a headquarters is created for each type of activity to help the manager solve the main tasks. Divisional structures are typical for large companies with a complex production cycle. A division is a separate production unit headed by a manager who is fully responsible for the work of his team. Divisions can be distinguished on a regional basis (this is an understandable branch system) or by product. Hierarchical organizational structures have stability, but a low degree of flexibility under the influence of a changing environment. Often in such structures there is a lengthy decision-making process and bureaucratic barriers.

Organic structures are designed to eliminate the shortcomings of hierarchy; they are created for specific situations and quickly respond to all changes; adaptability is their main difference and advantage. The brigade structure is characterized by the horizontal involvement of employees in work groups. The advantage of such structures is the effective use of employee potential and speed of decision-making, but there are also difficulties, which lie in the difficulty of coordinating all teams and achieving strategic goals. Similarly, there is a project structure in which a work group is selected to perform a specific task. The matrix or program-target structure consists of two types of elements: functional services and projects or programs. They have double subordination, and this is a disadvantage of such organizations. But the advantage is management efficiency, efficiency, high productivity, and the interaction of current tasks with the development strategy.

Also, the structure of the organization is divided into formal and informal. The formal structure is the structure that is enshrined in some documents, the informal structure is the spontaneously formed relationships between employees and their division into groups within the team. The main informal structure is that social groups arise spontaneously when the need arises, and therefore have a flexible and adaptive structure. Depending on the situation, the distribution of powers and functions in such groups can easily change.

Goals and objectives of the organization

Informal and formal organizations are created for specific purposes, and they determine the type and structure of the company. It is well known that an organization is distinguished by the presence of complex and diverse goals, these include:

  • Strategic goals. Setting global, long-term goals for the company is an important part of the activities of top management. Such goals include the company’s position in the market, its image, important production and commercial indicators in the growth perspective.
  • Tactical goals. The path to achieving global goals always lies through achieving short-term goals. This type of goals includes current and operational tasks that necessarily fit into the overall strategic direction of development.
  • Economic goals. Any organization sets commercial goals for making a profit; they must be expressed in digital terms: in amounts and time of achievement.
  • Production goals. The development of the company is impossible without modernization and improvement of production. Purchasing equipment, developing technologies, searching for new areas of implementation - all this fits into
  • Social goals. Creation of favorable conditions for work, formation corporate culture, influence on society and culture - all this is also an important part of the organization’s activities.

The purpose of a formal organization is usually enshrined in the charter and is ideological and motivational in nature, it must be related to the mission of the company. The goals of informal groups are usually not recorded in writing and are presented in the form of shared values ​​and interests. The organization arranges all goals in order of importance and, based on them, formulates the strategy and tactics of work.

Characteristics and attributes of the organization

Despite significant differences between organizations, they are united by characteristics inherent in each of them. The most important characteristic of an organization is the presence of a goal that is close to all its participants.

An important characteristic of a formal organization is its legal status and isolation. The organization must have an officially established form of management, which ensures its special status. Isolation is also manifested in the isolation of production and management internal processes, which create a boundary between the organization and the outside world. The next sign of an organization is the indispensable presence of resources: human, financial, material; government organizations can have power as a resource. The organization has such a characteristic as self-regulation, it has its own area of ​​​​responsibility and makes main decisions independently. But at the same time, it remains dependent on the external environment, which influences its activities. An important feature is the presence of which exists in the form of corporate norms, traditions, rituals, and myths.

Signs of formal organizations

In addition to the general characteristics, the characteristics of a formal organization have their own distinctive features. The first of these signs is the presence of a set of documents regulating its activities: instructions, charter, laws, regulations that prescribe a certain procedure for it to act in different situations. Thus, its activities are initially formalized. The formal structure of an organization also includes informal groups, but its formal components always remain dominant. Thus, the formal organization is always wider and larger than the informal one.

Signs of informal organizations

The unique characteristics of informal organizations distinguish it from its antipode. These signs include:

  • Presence of public control. Informal organizations are under the constant control of their members and the external environment, in order to identify approved and disapproved behavior. Members of informal groups are prescribed certain behavioral models; deviating from the norms and rules of a group member will result in reprimand or even exclusion from the group.
  • Obstructing change. Another sign of informal groups is internal resistance to change; the group strives for self-preservation and views change as a threat to its existence.
  • Presence The most important characteristic of such groups is the presence of informal leaders. The group leader is the structure-forming element of such organizations; certain rights and responsibilities are delegated to them, and he has the trust and recognition of group members.

Types of organizations

In addition to the fact that there are formal and informal organizations, it is also possible to distinguish other types. They can be classified by industry: trade, manufacturing, intermediary, service, etc. By legal status Organizations can be divided into for-profit and non-profit. Based on production volume, small, medium and large organizations can be distinguished. The main classifications relate primarily to formal organizations, but some types may also exist in informal groups.

Internal environment of the organization

An important feature of an organization is its internal environment. It traditionally includes goals, objectives, organizational structure, human resources and technology. The internal environment is a moving structure, as it greatly depends on the situation. The system of formal organization consists of groups created by management, in their activities they are guided by the norms and rules set out in documents. In this aspect, the internal environment is usually spoken of as an element of the corporate culture of the organization. Formal group at the same time, it may be subject to changes, but their initiator is the manager. Informal groups are also an element of the internal environment, but their activities are less predetermined and regulated. Communication, sympathy and relationships play an important role here, what is called the psychological climate of the work group.

Formal and informal groups in the structure of the organization

The complex structure of organizations, especially large ones, requires the allocation of small working groups within to solve various problems. They can be formal or informal. The role of formal groups is to solve production and economic problems as directed by management. Such groups are created for the duration of any work, for example, to create a project. Their activities are regulated by documents, for example orders, which distribute powers and set tasks. But in large companies, informal organizations are always spontaneously created. Examples of such associations can be found in any enterprise. They develop spontaneously on the basis of personal sympathies and interests. They also play an important role in the organization, as they unite the team, form and maintain the climate in the organization, and contribute to the improvement of corporate culture.

The concept and role of a group leader

Informal and formal organizations rely on leaders to function. The concept of a leader presupposes that this person has special psychological characteristics and qualities. A leader is a person who has the trust of the group; he must have authority. If in formal groups there is an officially appointed leader who is not a leader, then in informal groups there is always a leader who is nominated for this role due to his personal qualities. The leader of the groups unites people and motivates them to take any action; he does not need to put pressure on them, because the employees voluntarily delegated power to him. Modern management recommends managing leadership based on their power resource in groups.

Management of a formal organization

Managing a formal organization is built on traditional management functions: planning, organizing, controlling, motivating and coordinating. In such organizations, the decisive factor is the division of labor, which allocates each employee a place in the production chain. Government organizations, for example, work on the basis of job descriptions, which very clearly define the scope of work, powers, rights and responsibilities of various employees. In such teams, the role of management is extremely high, since performers do not have to make decisions; they are not supposed to do so according to instructions. A formal group needs a leader who is empowered to take responsibility. The management of a formal organization is determined by its organizational structure, goals, scope of activity, factors of the internal and external environment.

Informal group management

An informal social organization presupposes a certain freedom; it is not characterized by a hierarchy of power; the main thing here is social connections and relationships. Management of such a group is carried out in several directions at once, horizontally, bottom-up and top-down. An informal organization can be managed by formal leaders, but most often the reins of power are given to informal leaders endowed with authority from the group. In such organizations, it is impossible to use the usual management tools in the form of instructions and orders; more often, management is carried out using psychological methods impact and influence. Managing an informal group depends on the group's cohesion and size, status, and composition.

    Features of formal organizations.

    Formalizing factors.

    Informal organizations.

The significant difference between an organization and a social group is that its most important component is a system of impersonal connections and norms that are purposefully introduced into relations between people. In an organization, it does not matter at all what personal characteristics or individual characteristics a particular member of the organization has - everyone must obey the rules and requirements of this organization.

1. Features of formal organizations.

A formal organization can be described as a system of legalized impersonal requirements and standards of behavior, formally defined and rigidly assigned role prescriptions (boss - subordinate, technical worker - engineer, teacher - student). Its horizontal organizational structure characterizes the system of requirements for the functional division of labor, and the vertical structure characterizes relations of power and subordination.

Features of formal organizations are as follows:

    Rationality, since they are based on the principle of expediency;

    Impersonality, designed not for specific individuals, but for abstract individuals (members of the organization);

    The relationships between people in them are predominantly of a service nature;

    The goals of the organization are functional and intentionally unambiguous.

The main function of a formal organization is to connect people with the means and ends of collective work. The advantages of formal organizations are that they ensure maximum efficiency by limiting diversity to a certain extent, i.e. they direct the efforts of people in the narrow direction of achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. They also create the integrity of the team as a single organism with its own laws and rules of life.

A formal organization can be described as a system of subdivisions of groups and jobs. The workplace of an individual employee in a horizontal functional structure is called a function, in a vertical power structure - status.

Summary. The formal organization strives to erase the personal characteristics of people and use them for purely functional purposes.

2. Formalizing factors.

It is possible to identify a whole system of formalizing factors for an organization. Thanks to these factors, the organization acquires internal

certainty.

    Administrative - legal: determines the status and competence of both the entire organization and its individual elements - subordination, legal responsibility, powers, etc., determines the legal status of the employee, general principles of selection and placement of personnel, methods of control and reporting; includes a description and characteristics of the workplace.

    Economic - determines financial resources, commercial relations, incentives, planning and cost indicators;

    Technological - determines the sequence and mode of the labor process, the placement of workers and their communications, the content and intensity of labor, equipment with means of labor, the material environment;

    Logical-systemic - determines the rationality and efficiency of building an organization as a system, its communication and operational capabilities, information flows and the decision-making process;

    Operational management determines methods of influencing the behavior of the organization and its members through current orders on rewards, punishments, and placement of employees;

    Sociocultural includes the norms of behavior and relationships accepted in a given organization;

    Psychological reflects in the structure of the organization the peculiarities of thinking of creators and managers - orientations, values, ideas, stereotypes, etc.

The most important sign of organization is the contractual, documented consolidation of these factors.

Formal organization is inherent in every social institution, regardless of its purpose. One of the main elements of organization is the division of labor as a result of the deep specialization necessary in modern society. The division of labor in an organization appears in the form of positions with assigned functional responsibilities. Positions form a hierarchical structure: horizontally and vertically.

In addition, the organization includes a system of communications that form channels of organizational connections.

Summary. Formalizing factors give the organization harmony and completeness, the ability to function functionally.

    Informal organizations and conditions for their emergence.

Informal organizations usually arise as socio-psychological associations that spontaneously develop as a result of long-term interpersonal and intra-group communication. Informal organizations develop as voluntary associations. They are joined by people who find themselves in the same situation, sharing the same interests, and facing the same problems. Membership in them is flexible; they exist on membership fees. However, as they develop and grow, such organizations tend to turn into formal ones.

In relation to the individual, informal organizations act as a mechanism for protecting him from the limiting influence of formal organizations, as a sphere for satisfying his psychological needs and social, as well as personal, interests. If an informal organization arises within a formal one, it can play a dual role. It can independently support and expand the activities of the organization (a house committee at the housing department, a council of veterans at work), or it can play a dysfunctional role, opposing common goals, overthrowing authorities, etc. This often happens during intra-organizational conflicts.

Quantitatively, informal organizations may coincide with formal ones (team, department); or be different from them, include members of several departments, or break them up into informal groups and even operate outside the organization.

Over time, informal organizations create their own norms of behavior and a mechanism for intragroup control. The group can split into formal and socio-psychological. Sooner or later, such division can lead to disorganization. Therefore, it is necessary to find ways to combine formal and informal organizations through personnel policies, personnel selection, employee participation in decision making, etc.

Summary. Informal organizations are most often created as a protest response to the impersonal atmosphere of a formal organization or as a condition for fulfilling the personal desires and needs of people.

    Informal organizations.

One of the types of informal organizations is informal. The concept of an informal organization means a system of connections, relationships, and activities spontaneously developed by members of a given organization, aimed at solving organizational goals and objectives in ways different from those formally prescribed. Its main feature is business content when activities coincide with the goals of the formal organization.

When analyzing the conditions and sources of informal organizations, it is necessary to keep in mind that the perfection of formal organizations is relative. Functional limitations are inherent in the very essence of formal organization. But there is another limitation associated with the specific structure and operating conditions of a particular organization. The following reasons for the emergence of informal organizations can be identified:

    Contradictions between the organization and the external environment caused by the state or illegal pressure

    Contradictions between people's social and professional status and their expectations

    Conflict between work and non-work roles

    Poor communication between cash links due to conflicting interests

    Contradictions between values, norms, positions of employees and the declared benefits of the organization

    Contradictions between the nature of individual activities and tradition (for example, the introduction of electronic documentation)

    Antagonism between different levels of leadership

    Discrepancy between real prestige and differences in formal status

These "tensions" appear to arise from the very formal functional diagram of the organization. Consequently, the very functional insufficiency of formal organization is the source of informal organizations.

What exactly can the activities of an informal organization manifest?

Firstly, members of an informal organization seek new contacts between employees to improve their performance. The chain of command may change, even the formal structure may change. There is a spontaneous streamlining of communications

Secondly, spontaneous groups can be organized within a formal organization to resolve joint issues of activity that individual workers cannot do. The power of united labor forms a community of interests (usually creative).

TEST QUESTIONS AND PRACTICAL TASKS.

    Why are individual personality characteristics not important in formal organizations?

    Make a hierarchy of features of a formal organization: impersonality, rationality, official nature of relationships, expediency, functionality. Explain your choice.

    What ensures maximum efficiency of a formal organization?

    Draw up a diagram of the interaction of formalizing factors using the example of a specific social organization (for example, a school).

    Why is there a rigid assignment of functional responsibilities in a formal organization?

    Give examples of an organization transitioning from an informal to a formally organized one and indicate the reasons for such a transition.

    Why are people not satisfied with formal structures alone, despite their rationality?

    Describe the situations of positive and negative influence of an informal organization on the activities of an enterprise.

    How does conflict between work and non-work roles stimulate the creation of informal organization?

In each work collective, along with the formal (official) structure of relationships, there are also informal (unofficial) relationships between members of the team.

If official relations are regulated by appropriate instruments, orders, instructions, then unofficial ones are not regulated by anyone or anything. Therefore, it should be borne in mind that the management process relates to the creation and functioning of a formal organization. However, you need to know that within any formal organization there are also informal organizations that to a certain extent influence the policy of the first organization. This is due to the fact that each member of the work collective belongs to many groups at the same time. The mechanism for the formation of formal and informal organizations is presented in Fig. 2.12.

Groups of people created by the will of management to achieve the goals of the organization are called formal groups.

Their primary function is to perform specific tasks and achieve the goals of the organization. Relations between people are regulated by various kinds of normative documents: laws, regulations, orders, instructions, etc.

A spontaneously formed group of people who enter into regular interaction to achieve certain goals (goals) is recognized as an informal group (organization).

Relations between members of such a group are formed on the basis of personal sympathies. Group members are bound by a commonality of views, inclinations and interests. There is no list of team members, responsibilities, or agreed upon roles.

Informal, or shadow, groups exist in every organization. They invariably “grow” out of friendships and relationships not defined by an organizational chart. It is important for an organization that informal groups do not dominate.

The value of friendship has nothing to do with formal relationships and competence, but their impact on the business of a formal organization can be quite significant. And when a large number of people are involved, the power of the informal group increases markedly. The most common use and abuse of this power is expressed in the form of informal communication (the so-called "secret" telegraph). No news is transmitted as quickly as through informal channels. This is one of the ways in which an informal group exercises its power (informal communication).

Another way that an informal group exercises its power is through its ability to act or fail to act. In management practice, there are many examples when organizations were brought to their knees by unauthorized management (strikes are not included here, since they are sanctioned by the trade union and are legal in nature).

Unauthorized setting of production standards is one of the ways through which informal groups have a negative influence on people. However, some organizations can be saved because informal groups can work harder than the norm. The point is that an informal group can work to advance or retard the development of an organization. The manager's job is to minimize the influence of these groups and channel their power.

The influence of informal relationships can be controlled, but to achieve this, the manager must have a clear understanding of how and why the informal organization functions. When a manager has a basic motivation for the functioning of an informal group, then he has the opportunity to develop an appropriate behavioral strategy.

To begin with, a manager must understand that informal organizations are generated by a basic principle of the human psyche: they are formed and developed when people interact with each other. Their activities are based on the concept of small groups. Interaction creates feelings, and from feelings comes consensus. The interaction of people is the basis of an informal organization.

Thus, an informal organization of people can work for you or against you. How to make it work for you?
First, the manager must agree and accept the fact that the informal organization exists.
Secondly, one should try to understand how informal organization can be valuable in helping the manager achieve his goals.
Thirdly, identify informal leaders and manage them.
Fourth, it is necessary to try to combine the goals of informal and formal organizations.
Fifth, the manager must understand and accept that no matter what he does, informal organizations continue to exist.

Reasons that encourage people to join informal relationships, can be grouped as follows:
1) sense of belonging Satisfying the need for a sense of belonging is one of our most powerful emotional needs. Since most formal organizations deliberately deprive people of opportunities for social contacts, workers are forced to turn to informal organizations to gain these contacts;
2) mutual assistance. Naturally, you can turn to your formal boss for help. However, some believe that their boss might think badly of them (the principle “don’t create problems for your boss” comes into play here), others are afraid of criticism, etc. In these and other cases, people often prefer to resort to the help of their colleagues;
3) protection. People have always known that strength lies in unity. Because of this important reason joining an informal organization is a conscious need for protection;
4) communication People want to know what is happening around them. Since in many formal organizations the system of internal contacts is rather weak, and sometimes management deliberately hides certain information from their subordinates, access to informal information (rumors) is possible only in an informal organization;
5) sympathy. People often join informal groups simply to be closer to someone they like.

Characteristics of informal organizations. Informal organizations can be both similar and different from formal organizations. Therefore, we can identify the characteristics that characterize informal organizations:
1) social control. Informal organizations exercise social control over their members. We are talking about establishing and strengthening norms - group standards of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Naturally, those who violate these norms will face alienation
The manager in this regard should be aware that the social control exercised by the informal organization can have a positive impact on the achievement of the goals of the formal organization;
2) resistance to change. In informal organizations there is always a tendency to resist change. This is partly due to the fact that change may pose a threat to the continued existence of the informal organization;
3) informal fagots. Informal organizations also have their leaders. Their difference is that the leader of a formal organization has support in the form of official powers delegated to him and acts in the specific functional area assigned to him.

The support of an informal leader is his recognition by the group. The sphere of influence of an informal leader may extend beyond the administrative boundaries of the formal organization.

An informal leader performs two primary functions: helps the group achieve its goals, supports and strengthens its existence.

The existence of informal groups in an organization is quite normal. Such groups most often strengthen the workforce, and the formal head of the organization should support them. For example, the Korging Glass company (USA) installed escalators in the building (instead of elevators) to increase the possibility of informal contacts between employees, the MMM company (USA) organizes clubs to increase the likelihood of casual conversations that help solve problems during receptions food or in other situations. All this enhances the feeling of belonging to the team. Here there is unity and solidarity, which manifest themselves not only in work, but also in leisure hours. Friendly contacts during work and after it, cooperation and mutual assistance form a healthy psychological climate in the organization.

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