Dina Rahmany Zilberstein asks for help in formulating a definition of
"organization."
>I try to get a definition of "organization" and I can't.
I'm confident you'll receive all kinds of answers, Dina, so I'll try to be
brief.
"Organization" is often used as a synonym and general label for some kind
of legal entity that also goes by various other names, for example,
company, business, enterprise, firm, partnership, and corporation. I
doubt this is what you're looking for.
"Organization" also refers to an arrangement of elements. In this sense,
it refers most directly to relationships. These relationships might
address the division and coordination of effort (what is often referred to
in org psych terms as "differentiation" and "integration"), they might
define the way in which functions are distributed amongst the units of an
enterprise (e.g., sales, manufacturing, finance, legal, etc.). Or they
might refer to the more general form or structure of the enterprise (e.g.,
functional, divisional, matrix, etc.).
In my own thinking, I usually settle on "organization" as referring to
some kind of arrangement of elements involving the relationships between
and among the elements.
Hope this helps...
Regards,
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
nickols@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
--Fred Nickols <nickols@worldnet.att.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>