Organizational Theory: Meigs County Senior Citizen Center

Organizational Theory

What is Organizational Theory

For most individuals, the phrase organizational theory recalls businesses. This is the most common association for the term but it has a broader scope than most realize. When we study organizational theory, we are examining and analyzing the organization on the macro level. The organization concept itself is an abstract idea. This is because for an organization to thrive the organization must have coordination to reach a common goal while utilizing its resources and people effectively. Contingency must be utilized since each “department” must rely on the others. An example I would like to use is the Meigs County Senior Citizen Center. This agency has a desired goal to assist and improve
the services provided to Meigs County Seniors. This agency is broken down into separate departments which reflects organization design and must rely on each other to reach the desired goal. For the residents of Meigs County we see this organization and do not realize the separate departments working together efficiently to continue providing the services and operations to the area seniors. For a company or organization to be profitable it must have a set structure, utilizing organizational theory, which can benefit society.

Why is it important to the study of management?

For managers to be effective in their role they must understand organizational theory. Since organizational theory is the analyzation of an organization on a macro level as one unit, managers in general, are working toward a common goal or the desired goal of the organization. To keep the organization on track the mangers must stay focused and maintain the direction needed to maximize their profits.
Most organizations are designed to have top, middle and lower management.
A manager in “top” management is primarily responsible for the organization. These individuals are responsible for setting goals, utilizing and developing strategies, while making changes to the structure and design of the organization. Middle management concern themselves with the major departments and must correlate the separate departments to fit the rest of the organization. The top and middle managers must work together to achieve the desired goal of the company to obtain the abstract idea of organizational theory or one unit. An example would be the common hierarchy of management for an organization. Having the hierarchy of management top, middle and lower level management in place can have significant advantages to the organization. It provides a structure that can filter through the entire organization. Let’s look from another perspective. If management didn’t study organizational theory and how it is relevant to organizations the company, that the managers are employed with, would suffer and would not be efficient or effective. This would lead them to miss their objectives as well as their goals. I have personally experienced organizations that did not concern themselves with the overall organization structure or theory of that company. The manager departments did not work well together and they kept most of their operations separate from the top-level managers. This caused issues for employees, who didn’t fully understand their objectives or goals, but also for customers of the company. Customers became irate from the mediocre services being provided which created a loss of revenue as well as clients. I believe it is imperative for companies to fully understand organizational theory but to also create a training program for the company so managers from all levels and employees are all working in the same direction to achieve the goals of the
organization.