Organizations are studied by scholars who belong to different
sub- disciplines. These include the experimentalist, the sociometrist, and the
dynamics, the clinical specialists, and the cultural anthropologists. These
categories are rather arbitrary and even overlapping, but are broadly accurate.
EXPERIMENTALIST:
There are two varieties of experimentalist.
They agree rather absolutely on one thing and that is the need and feasibility
of measuring the phenomena of human behaviour.
They are statistically and
mathematically trained and they make a serious attempt to apply to the study of
human behaviour the rigorous methodology of the natural sciences. One group
which regards itself as the true experimenters creates its own experiments. An
example is the familiar one where Bavelas re-arranged work-flow and layout for a small group which passed papers from one to another in a white collar
operation.
The second type of experimentation is some times referred to as
observation because it studies behaviour in existing organizations. It attempts
to establish standards of effectiveness for the sub-units of the organization
and compares the observed behaviour of the more effective with less effective
sub-units. All organizations are confronted by individual members who are
troubled, unstable and unhappy.
There are undoubtedly many people who are not
by nature fitted to work in a team; others are vocationally misplaced and still
others are victims of fortune beyond their control. All of this adversely
affects their ability to perform their work. The new research in motivation is
producing valuable insights into how hierarchical leaders should behave. But we
are still largely helpless when faced with the necessity to change the
behaviour of persons having basic personality defects.
Cultural Approaches
Organizations have individual cultures peculiar to
themselves. The behaviour of people belonging to organizations is conditioned
by their culture patterns. Some of these are the traditions, vocational modes
of thought, methods of production, habitual manner of accomplishing tasks, the
social structure of the people, and the group tensions which prevail.
Culture
has in the past been the province of the anthropologist who has been primarily
interested in isolated primitive people. There is happily developing a school
of industrial anthropologists who are studying management cultures.
However,
this need not be their exclusive hunting ground. What is needed is a
realization of the importance of culture in determining human behaviour, even
in technologically advanced industrial societies.
If workers feel closer to the
union than to their employer, the cause is partly cultural. If policemen
enforce the law against some and not against others, their motivations are also
cultural in nature. Culture can be consciously changed but only if its roots
and traits are understood by administrators.