Organizations

Organizations are social units in which work tasks are planned and structured and people are managed to achieve organizational goals (e.g., productivity, service provision) and to satisfy individual needs (e.g., pay, satisfaction). Organizations utilize and coordinate the abilities and motivation of individual group members to achieve more than could be achieved by simply aggregating the outcomes of independent individual efforts. Basic organizational characteristics include the vertical division of labor (e.g., executives, middle managers, workers), the horizontal division of labor (e.g., departments, task units), a decision-making structure and lines of authority, as well as more or less formalized rules and policies. Different types of organizations include corporations, not-for-profit corporations, governments, nongovernmental organizations, armed forces, educational institutions, resistance movements, and criminal enterprises. Organizations typically consist of multiple ...