Images of Organization
Let’s think about organizations as if they were organisms. We find ourselves thinking about them as living systems, existing in a wider environment on which they depend for the satisfaction of various needs. And as we look around the organizational world we begin to see that it is possible to identify different species of organization in different kinds of environments. Just as we find polar bears in arctic regions, camels in deserts, and alligators in swamps, we notice that certain species of organization are better “adapted” to specific environmental conditions than others.
Theories of motivation such as that pioneered by Abraham Maslow presented the human being as a kind of psychological organism struggling to satisfy its needs in a quest for full growth and development. This theory, which suggested that humans are motivated by a hierarchy of needs progressing through the physiological, the social, and the psychological, had very powerful implications, for it suggested that bureaucratic organizations that sought to motivate employees through money or by merely providing a secure job confined human development to the lower levels of the need hierarchy. Many management theorists were quick to see that jobs and interpersonal relations could be redesigned to create conditions for personal growth that would simultaneously help organizations achieve their aims and objectives.