Understanding Organizations: Concepts and Controversies

We live in an organizational world. Most of us are born in an organization (a hospital) and our very existence is ratified by government agency that issues a certificate documenting our birth. When we die, a death certificate will be issued by another public bureaucracy and our passing may be announced in a newspaper organization. And during the time in between, more than 90 percent of individuals living in the U.S. will earn their livelihoods working for an organization—as contrasted with being self-employed—having been prepared for employment through schooling in educational organizations. “Organizations are all around us. Because of their ubiquity, however, they fade into the background and we need to be reminded of their impact” (Scott, 1992, p.3). As Scott (1992, p.4) noted, one of the indicators of the importance of organizations is that with increasing frequency they are “singled out as the source of many of the ills besetting contemporary society.” Today, many of society’s assets are managed and controlled by organizations such as banks and mutual funds, “organized” religion is an important social force, and community organizations now do things such as providing help for the poor that were at one time done primarily by neighbors and family. The fact that so much of our lives and our material and social welfare are inextricably bound up with organizations means that it is important to understand how they function and how they can be understood.