organization

…key psychological underpinnings of complex organizations. For example, the reason companies adopt hierarchies rather than leaving every corporate practice or decision to be worked out by ad hoc means is that it is more efficient and less costly for a person to obey a superior rather than engaging in constant…

…the likelihood of efficiency in organizations, however. Economists generally believe that organizations are efficient; they rationally allocate resources and optimally respond to their environments. Sociologists often believe that organizations are merely effective; they aim for survival and often use suboptimal arrangements that satisfy the social needs of participants and surrounding…

…the behaviour of workers in organizations in which they earn their living.

…the 1930s argued that an organization is a complex system of cooperation and highlighted the need to understand the behaviour of the individuals that compose it. He identified a disconnect between an organization’s conscious system of coordination (formal aspects) and its unconscious processes (informal aspects). The latter include customs, habits,…

…by all members of an organization. In this view, culture is thought to be an acquired body of knowledge whose interpretation and understanding provide the identity of the organization and a sense of shared identity among its members. This approach assumes clarity and organizationwide consensus among members and discounts ambiguity.

…on the principle that an organization, such as a business firm, must engage in transactions with other actors and organizations in its environment in order to acquire resources. Although such transactions may be advantageous, they may also create dependencies that are not. Resources that the organization needs may be scarce,…

…or classified information about an organization, usually related to wrongdoing or misconduct. Whistleblowers generally state that such actions are motivated by a commitment to the public interest. The whistleblowing of Edward Snowden and Karen Silkwood are prime examples. Although the term was first used to refer to public servants who…