Texts
- The Problem of Learning
- Problemistics Courseware
- Corso su Problemistica
- Resources Management
- Manuale/Intellettuale
- Campagna/Città
Problemistics - Problémistique - Problemistica
The Art & Craft of Problem Dealing
Managing
Definition (H. I. Ansoff and R. G. Brandenburg)
Definition (Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig)
Definition (Encyclopaedia of World Problems and Human Potential)
Classification (T. Burn and G. Stalker)
Features (James G. March and Herbert A. Simon)
Features (H. I. Ansoff and R. G. Brandenburg)
Related Concept: organization (Kenneth Boulding)
Related Concept: organization (Herbert A. Simon)
Related Concept: organization (Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig)
Related Concept: organization (Encyclopaedia of World Problems and Human Potential)
[1968] H. I. Ansoff and R. G. Brandenburg, A Language for Organisation Design, in Eric Jantsch ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
“Management activities are the guidance and control processes of the organization.” (p. 355)
[1979, Third Edition] Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig, Organization and Management, McGraw-Hill
“Management involves the coordination of human and material resources toward objective accomplishment.” (Chapter 1, p. 7)
[1986, Second Edition] Union of International Associations eds. Encyclopaedia of World Problems and Human Potential, K. G. Saur, München
“Management is concerned essentially with the way in which the total organization reacts to its environment to achieve its objectives, as well as with the internal operations of the subsystems of the organization.
Management includes the following processes (as well as concern with their interrelationships): setting objectives, planning strategy, establishing goals, developing a company philosophy, establishing policies, planning the organizational structure, providing personnel, establishing procedures, providing facilities, providing financial resources, setting standards, establishing management programmes and operational plans, providing control information, and activating people.
Specific management activities include: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, budgeting, and innovation.” (KC0867)
[1972] T. Burn and G. Stalker in Michael Gilbert editor, The Modern Business Enterprise, Penguin, Harmondsworth
"... two formally contrasted forms of management system. These we shall call the mechanistic and organic forms."
"A mechanistic management is appropriate to stable conditions." (p. 339)
"The organic form is appropriate to changing conditions, which give rise constantly to fresh problems and unforeseen requirements for action which cannot be broken down or distributed automatically arising from the functional roles defined within a hierarchic structure." (p. 340)
“... the two forms of system represent a polarity, not a dichotomy; there are ... intermediate stages between the extremities.” (p. 342)
[1966 , First published 1958] James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations, Wiley & Sons, New York
“If its model of reality is not to be so complex as to paralyze it, the organization must develop radical simplification of its responses. One such simplification is to have:
a) a repertory of standard responses,
b) a classification of program-evoking situations,
c) a set of rules to determine what is the appropriate response for each class of situations.”
(Chapter 6, p. 164)
[1968] H. I. Ansoff and R. G. Brandenburg, A Language for Organisation Design, in Eric Jantsch ed., Perspectives of Planning, OECD
List of Organisational Measurements
1. Steady-state efficiency: "measures efficiency when the levels of throughput and the nature of throughput (the products made and the customers) remain relatively stable over time." "The optimal structure is one which would produce a specified level of throughput at least cost."(p. 359)
2. Operating responsiveness: "measures the abilities of an organization to make quick and efficient changes in the levels of throughput." (p. 360)
3. Strategic responsiveness: "measures the firm’s ability to respond to changes in the nature (rather than volume) of its throughput, such as, obsolescence of products, changes in product technology, emergence of international markets, opportunities to enter new lines of business, changes in legal and social constraints under which the organization is forced to operate." (pp. 360-361)
4. Structural responsiveness: "measures the capabilities of an organization to change itself." (p. 361)
[1961, First published 1956] Kenneth Boulding, The Image. Knowledge in Life and Society, The University of Michigan Press
“An organization might almost be defined as a structure of roles tied together with lines of communication.”
(Chapter 2, p. 27)
[1965, Second Edition ] Herbert A. Simon, Administrative Behaviour, The Free Press, New York
“... the term organization refers to the complex pattern of communications and other relations in a group of human beings. This pattern provides to each member of the group much of the information, assumptions, goals, and attitudes that enter into his decisions, and provides him also with a set of stable and comprehensible expectations as to what the other members of the group are doing and how they will react to what he says and does.” (Introduction to the second edition, p. XVI)
[1979, Third Edition] Fremont E. Kast and James E. Rosenzweig, Organization and Management, McGraw-Hill
“Organizations are:
1) goal-oriented people with a purpose;
2) psychosocial systems, people interacting in groups;
3) technological systems, people using knowledge and techniques;
4) an integration of structured activities, people working together in patterned
relationships.” (p. 7)
“An organization can be thought of as the merger of two concepts:
(1) the group as a set of persons;
(2) the structure as a set of positions.” (p. 287)
[1986, Second Edition] Union of International Associations eds. Encyclopaedia of World Problems and Human Potential, K. G. Saur, München
Organization. "The condition or manner of individual elements being arranged into a coherent unity or functioning whole of interdependent parts. Characteristics of organization, whether of a living organism or a society, are notions like those of wholeness, growth, differentiation, hierarchical order, dominance, control, etc. many of which do not appear in conventional physics but are preponderant in most biological and social phenomena."
(KC0240)