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Essentials of Organisation Behaviour/Organisation Behaviour

Notes Organisations may manufacture products such as steel or deliver services, such as managing
money or providing insurance. To understand how organisations do these things require an
understanding of the open system components of the organisation and the components of its
task environment. Levitt sets out a basic framework for understanding organisations, a framework
that emphasizes four major internal components.
They are
1. Task: The task of the organisation is its mission, purpose or goal for existing.
2. People: The people are the human resources of the organisation.

3. Technology: The technology is the wide range of tools, knowledge and/or techniques
used to transform inputs into outputs.
4. Structure: The structure is how work is designed at the micro level as well as how
departments, divisions, and the overall organisation are designed at the macro level.

Did u know? The organisation system works by taking inputs, converting them into finished
products and delivering outputs to its task environment. Inputs consist of human,
informational, material and financial resources used by the organisation. The finished
products are the materials and resources as they are transformed by the organisation’s
technology component. Once the transformation is complete, they become outputs for
customers, consumers and clients. The actions of suppliers, customers, regulators and
other elements of the task environment affect the organisation and the behaviour of
people at work. Transforming inputs into high quality outputs is critical to an organisation’s
success.

Figure 1.2: H J Levitt, "Applied Organisational Change in Industry: Structural,
Technological and Humanistic Approaches"

Task Environment
Competitors
Unions Regulatory agencies Clients

Structure
Inputs:
Material
Capital
Output:
Human Task Technology Products
Services

People (actors)

Organisational Boundary

Source: J G March, (ed.,) Handbook of Organisations, Rand McNally (1965) Page 1145.
1.1.2 The Formal and Informal Organisation

The formal organisation is that part of the system that has legitimacy and official recognition.
The informal organisation is the unofficial part of the organisation which was first fully
appreciated as a result of the Hawthorne studies conducted during the 1920s and 1930s. It was
during the interview study, the third of the four Hawthorne studies, that the researchers began

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