Essay About Organizational Praxis And Views Of Performance

Views Of Performance
Essay Preview: Views Of Performance
Report this essay
Views of Performance –
Site of James F. Pestaner, Jr.
Last Edited 3/9/2006 8:29 PM
File Name: Views of Performance s.doc
Views of Performance
James F. Pestaner, Jr.
Views of Performance –
Site of James F. Pestaner, Jr.
Last Edited 3/9/2006 8:29 PM
File Name: Views of Performance s.doc
Overview
Organizations are a unique social form due to its foundation in intent, “they
get things done” (Scott, 2003). Customers are the focus of planning, production,
and placement of goods and services. Owners provide the catalytic energy
behind the focus attempting to operate within and if possible control the
environment that berthed the organization. The Western design of organizations
is dominated by the objectives of owners that struggle to align with the objectives
of a chosen management and staff labor system through the control of
resources, law, and a division of labor. The characteristics of these three
components may be blurred at times as workers place claim of ownership of
processes, autonomous groups self-manage, and public bureaucrats shun the
title or claim of ownership. Yet these roles remain present and distinguishable.
Emerging issues in other domains attempt to shape structures and processes
related to this design, which is not surprising, as social and organizational praxis
have historically been related. But recently, the concerns of social order have
superseded the place of organizational and business thinking. And yet it is clear,
organizations are all about performance.
There appears to be general consensus about the nature of performance
and related improvement. There is an economic relationship between inputs and
outputs and improvements of production. Topical studies have evolved from the
sole artisan to the factory and transitioned from time and motion within classical
organizational theory to motivation and the application of social sciences
(Greenberg & Baron, 2003; Anonymous, 2006). Competitive strategies have
Views of Performance –
Site of James F. Pestaner, Jr.
Last Edited 3/9/2006 8:29 PM
File Name: Views of Performance s.doc
moved from environmental alignment to managerial consistency to best practices
(Voss, 1995). And time focus has categorized periods of time in American
History as pre-industrial, the Industrial Era or the Information Age (Holtzman,
2005). The academic understanding of management, as it applies to
organizational behavior, has transitioned from a command-and-control
orientation to a perspective that embraces diversity and cooperative
relationships. The conceptual transitions from Foyols functions to Mintzbergs
roles to Katzs competencies to Luthans activities of management also illustrate,
though in a limited fashion, transition in perspective (Robbins, 2003). More
importantly, these concepts are evolved in the related mental models adopted
within organizational thinking (Hubiak and ODonnell, 1996).
While there is general agreement concerning the characteristics of
performance, there is also disagreement over the responsibility of organizational
behavior that has led to confusion and inconsistent dealings within and external
to the formal structure concerning decision-making (Beauchamp & Bowie, 2004).
There are supporters of integrated decision-making, which would ultimately rule
against accountability of the organization collective. And there are those who
contend that organizations engage in an aggregated decision-making process;
individuals are accountable for reward or punishment. Problems with production,
error, cost, and profit are mentally modeled and thus employ a standard set of
conceptual devices to repair what is perceived to require fixing.
Observing the context of organizational language exhumes linguistic
artifacts providing insights (Brown, 1987) and focusing discussion. A not so
Views of Performance –
Site of James F. Pestaner, Jr.
Last Edited 3/9/2006 8:29 PM
File Name: Views of Performance s.doc
obvious problem may occur as the analyst may unintentionally alter meaning by
changing the context of origination. This effect occurs with such words as “gay”,
“dial”, and “ice box”.