MGMT 101: Foundations of Management Assignment on Organizations

This essay, addressing key concepts in Foundations of Management, examines the applicability of the term 'common moral purpose' in organizations, arguing for a morally neutral approach to organizational rules and policies to allow for growth and adaptation. It contrasts the limitations of a rigid, common moral purpose with the flexibility of a neutral moral purpose that can adapt to changes, such as technological advancements. The essay then delves into organizational bureaucracy, highlighting rigidity, impersonation, and limitations on creativity as major obstacles to effective decision-making, particularly in the face of globalization and technological advancements. It contrasts bureaucratic, centralized systems with the need for decentralization to accommodate strategic growth and organizational complexities. The essay emphasizes the importance of flexible organizational structures to facilitate better decision-making and problem-solving, considering the challenges posed by population growth, technological revolution, and evolving economic conditions.

FOUNDATIONS OF MANAGEMENT
(Author’s name)
(Institutional Affiliation)
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Question One: The Fate of the ‘Common Moral Purpose’ Phrase
I believe that the term used by Barnard on common moral purpose is not a good way of
describing organizations (Scott & Davis 2015).Work can never be moral but rather morally
neutral; this is because the rules and policies established in organizations are never meant to
favor a particular group of employees but to help an organization achieve its goals and visions.
Secondly, describing organizations as moral may limit the growth and progress of organizations
as there may be assumptions the organizations are better yet there may be a need to improve. On
the contrary, the term moral purpose in an organizational content should not apply to the
organization management structure but to the relationship among staff. The sense of bonding
power between employees and organization administrators during work may be a great
determinant to the creation of powerful and positive social function.
Organizations can never be judged based on common moral purpose but rather on its
independent structure of management in understanding human motivation (Burke 2017).
Essentially, employees are more social than economic beings that require several needs. The
work environment is, therefore, a great influence on employees' performance. Morality in the
organization is affected by the relationship between organization management structure, the
employees, and the clients. Finally, the control structures keep changing depending on global
growths. Organizations can therefore not be embedded on common moral purpose but a neutral
moral purpose. The neutral moral purpose of managing organizations is more flexible as it can
quickly adapt to changes within the organization such as technological changes unlike the
common moral purpose is based on rigidity.
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Question Two; Organizational Bureaucracy
The major obstacles that bureaucratic organizations faces in the verge of making the best
decisions are rigidity stampedes creativity and impersonation (Dunleavy 2014). The bureaucratic
systems are formed around rigid rules and regulations in that they require everything to work
within a given system thus making it difficult for individuals to make decisions out-of-the –box.
Secondly, the impersonation practice rate in organizations is very high as bureaucratic
organizations have fixed rules and regulations that are considered more important than human
emotions. Decisions making are therefore only limited to top leadership; sometimes the leaders
may not have the capacity to make right choices.
High bureaucratic organizations have difficulties in making decisions especially in the
modern world where systems have changed due to technological influence. Rigid organizations,
therefore, find it hard to make best decisions as their management systems are based on fixed
rules. Flexible organizations thus have mileage over rigid organizations as they find it easier to
make decisions and solve problems.
Problems that bureaucratic organizations deal with include population growth,
technological revolution and economic conditions that have been caused by an increase in
organizational complexities (Andrews & Boyne 2014). The increase in organizational
complexity has been prompted by strategies growth thus resulted in the changes in organizational
management structures. Bureaucratic organizations, on the other hand, operate within centralized
systems where the institutions are managed in centralized systems due to impersonation and
rigidity in rules and regulations within the management structures. However, due to
globalizations, economies have revolved, technologies have improved, and population continues
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to rise. Organizations that intend to stabilize are therefore forced to decentralize their systems to
cope up with the strategies growth.
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Work Cited
Andrews, R. and Boyne, G.A., 2014. Task complexity, organization size, and administrative
intensity: The case of UK universities. Public Administration, 92(3), pp.656-672
Burke, W.W., 2017. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications
Dunleavy, P., 2014. Democracy, bureaucracy and public choice: Economic approaches in
political science. Routledge
Scott, W.R., and Davis, G.F., 2015. Organizations and organizing: Rational, natural and open
systems perspectives. Routledge
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