An organization is a collection of people working together in a coordinated and structured fashion to achieve one or more goals.

Organizations exist to allow accomplishment of work that could not be achieved by people alone.

As long as the goals of an organization are appropriate, society will allow them to exist and they can contribute to society.

Organizations are strongly influenced by the people that form part of them.

Organizations can take in part the personality of the people within them and the attitudes, perceptions and behaviors affect how an organization will operate.

Organizations use management to accomplish the work that is required to achieve the goals.

The general environment is the nonspecific dimensions and forces in its surroundings that might affect its activities.

The task environment consists of specific organizations or groups that are likely to influence an organization.

The general environment consists of:

The task environment consists of the following actors;

A board of directors is only required of organizations that are incorporated; however, many other firms have them. The board of directors is elected by the stockholders and is charged with overseeing the general management of the firm to ensure that it is being run in a way that best serves the stockholders' interests.

When the organization's employees hold the same values and goals as its management, everyone wins. However, when managers and employees work toward different goals everyone suffers. The composition of the organization's employees is changing, and managers must learn how to deal effectively with these changes.

The culture of an organization is the set of values that helps its members understand what the organization stands for, how it does things, and what it considers important.

A strong organizational culture can shape the firm's overall effectiveness and long-term success and help employees to be more productive.

Culture develops and blossoms over a long period of time. It often starts with the organization's founder, however, corporate success and shared experiences also shape culture.

In order to manage corporate culture, managers must first understand the current culture. If the culture is one that is in the best interest of the firm, managers can reward behavior that is consistent with the existing culture in order to enforce it.

If the culture needs to be changed, managers must know what it is they want the culture to be and then bring in outside people, adopt slogans, or tell stories among other things that will help to change the culture into the type management wants.

Planning means setting an organization's goals and deciding how best to achieve them.

Decision making, a part of the planning process, involves selecting a course of action from a set of alternatives.

Organizing is grouping activities and resources in a logical fashion.

Leading is the set of processes used to get people to work together to advance the interests of the organization.

Controlling is monitoring the progress of the organization as it works toward its goals to ensure that it is effectively and efficiently achieving these goals.

Top managers (CEO, VP) control the organization by

. These managers make important decisions about which activities the organization should be involved in, such as acquisitions, research and development, and expanding capacity.

Middle managers (plant manager, operations manager) are the largest group of managers in most companies. They primarily take the goals and strategies designed by top managers and put them into effect.

First-line managers (foreman, supervisor) supervise and coordinate the activities of operating employees. The majority of their work is direct supervision of the work of their subordinates.

Marketing managers help to find ways to get consumers and clients to buy the organization's products and services.

Financial managers deal with accounting, cash management, and investment functions.

Operations managers are concerned with creating and managing the systems that create an organization's products and services. IE's are often in these positions. They achieve their goals through production control, inventory control, quality control, and plant site selection and layout.

Human resource managers are responsible for hiring and developing employees.

Administrative managers are generalists who have some basic familiarity with all functional areas of management rather than specialized training in any one area.

Other kinds of managers have specialized management position.

Large businesses e.g. Microsoft, Wells Fargo, United Airlines.

Small and start-up businesses must run as efficiently as large businesses (if not more efficiently) because they have less of a margin for error. Some small businesses grow into large businesses over time.

Government organizations are supported by tax dollars

Educational organizations need to be run efficiently because the funds they are supported by, tax dollars

Some Healthcare Organizations