Theories Underpinning How Organisations Are Structured and Developed for Production

Organisations are defined as ‘social arrangements for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals’ (Buchanan and Huczinsky, 2007, page 6). From this definition it is possible to identify that the issue within organisations, is that they are made up of numerous individuals all with differing personalities and behaviours. This and the conflict between the purpose and the goals of the organisation as a whole must be overcome in order to allow for an efficient organisation to develop. Theories regarding the management techniques as well as theories regarding personalities suited for an organisation can be used to ensure a smooth flow of production.

An organisation can either be organised along the approach which views it as a machine; the scientific management theory, or as an organism; the contingency and the socio-technical theory.

The scientific management approach, which was developed from ideas of F.W. Taylor, can be defined as ‘a form of job design theory and practice which stresses short, repetitive work cycles; detailed, prescribed task sequences; a separation of task conception from task execution and motivation based on economic rewards.’ (Buchanan and Huczinsky, 2007, page 412). Prior to the development of this approach, organisation of companies was based on informal structures. Workers in this early organisational structure were set a task by the managers; however it was left up to the workforce to decide which method to use to complete the task. From the observations that Taylor made whilst working in a factory, he identified the need to increase production through more efficient, predictable and controlled work environments and thus developed his theory. The approach takes into account the following five principles, which aim to ensure that the production of an organisation is at the highest possible level.

Once this scientific approach had been developed, organisations used more formal systems by which...