Essay on Role of Individual in Organisations

Essay on Role of Individual in Organisations – We are living in a world of organisations. Our society is an organisational society. “We are born in organisations, educated by organisations, and most of us spend much of our lives working for organisations.

We spend much of our leisure time paying, playing and praying in organisations. Most of us will die in an organisation, and when the time comes for burial, the largest organisation of all – the state – must grant official permission writes Amitai Etzioni in the ‘Modern Organisations’.”

Modern civilisation depends largely on organisations as the most rational and efficient form of social grouping. The organisation creates a powerful social instrument by coordinating a large number of human actions. It combines its personnel with its resources, weaving together leaders, experts, workers, machines and raw materials.

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At the same time, it evaluates its performance and orients its efforts to achieve its goals. Organisations serve the various needs of society and its citi­zens more efficiently than smaller and more natural human groupings, such as families, friendship groups and communities.

Still, organisations are not a modern invention. “The pharaohs used organisations to build the pyramids. The emperors of China used organisations a thousand years ago to construct great irrigation systems. And the first Pope created a universal church to serve a world religion”. Modern society has more organisations and these fulfill a great variety of societal and personal needs. These organisations involve a great proportion of citizens, and affect a large seg­ment of their lives.

Organisation Goals and Individual Motives:

Organisations have their own goals. There is a close relationship between organisation goals and individuals motives. But some writers are of the opinion that the organisations do not have any goals and only the individuals possess them.

It is true that the participants in an organisation have a variety of personal goals. It is also true that their conceptions of the group goals or organisation goals may not be exactly alike.

Still, the concept of organisation becomes meaningless unless there is a significant amount of agreement about the “common objectives” of cooperation. Unless the participants in an organisation are convinced of its purpose or objectives or goals, they cannot work for it collectively.

The term ‘organisation’ implies some coordination of activities. “Coordination” means orien­tation to common goals and specialisation of contributions to the common effort. As long as the individuals are bound by the rules and regulations of, and work according to the ways of the organisation in cooperation with others, so long the organisation can be said to have its own goals or purposes.

Thus, it is not by a chance that the unskilled and skilled workers, the technicians and the mechanics, the supervisors and the engineers, the clerks and the accountants and others work to­gether in an iron and steel industry.

Every organisation has its own specific goals or purposes. The organisation is carefully worked out and designed for the realisation of its goals. Example: The University as an organisation has the goals of promoting education, spreading knowledge, conducting researches and so on.

Army as an orgnisation, has goals such as the nation and fighting against the enemies in wars. It must be noted that all the members of the organisation may not have the same conception regarding its goals. For example, the army officials may not have a total conception of the goal of the army.

Their concep­tions of the comprehensive goal of the army may be simply ‘ winning’ something – a hill, a battle, a bridge, a victory and so on. We must, however, remember that the attainment of group goals is almost always a matter of degree.

Organisation and Individual Motives:

The individual motives play an important role in the functioning of the organisation. As Harry M. Johnson has pointed out “the members of an organisation must be induced, coerced, or forced to participate in it.” Some of the motives for participating in an oranisation are similar to the motives for economic activity. People participate in organisations when they are going to gain something out of them.

For example, the desire for remuneration in cash or kind, prestige, the desire to show the skills already acquired the -desire to have good connections with men of prestige, etc., represent some of the motives of the people in participating in organisations.

People tend to identify themselves with the organisation in which they participate. There is a close affinity between people’s motives on the one hand and their identification with the organisation on the other.

The degree of their identification with the organisation depends on the nature and intensity of the motives for participating in them. The following factors are significant in under­standing an individual’s strong or weak identification with an organisation:

The individual’s identification with the organisation is stronger if- (i) a number of individual needs are satisfied in it, (ii) the organisation goals are perceived as shared, (Hi) the prestige of the organisation is perceived to be the greater, (iv) there is a greater frequency of interaction in the organisation, and (v) there is less competition within the organisation.

The individual motives play an important role in the fulfillment of organisation goals. People cannot work in organisation without any motives, purposes or thinking. They do not work in it automatically or mechanically or in an impulsive manner.

It is wrong to presume that in an organisation like hospital, the doctors, nurses, servants, and other assistants, work in without any motive, inten­tion or purpose. It is not by accident that they are made to work together in one place.

These people may work together in the hospital for various purposes. The intentions or motives of looking after the patients, serving the people, earning money, securing name, fame and recognition, etc., make them to work together.

In order to accomplish its goals an organisation such as the hospital has to inspire, motivate and provide incentives to its members. It can do so by highlighting the importance of medical service, elevating the status of the doctors, providing attractive working conditions and facilities, and paying handsome salaries and so on.

Organisation Equilibrium:

The success of an organisation depends not only on the proper coordination and cooperation of its members but also on the cooperation of “others’. The ‘others’ must also be made to contribute to the smooth functioning of the organisation.

For example, success of an industry depends not only on the employees and the employers but also on ‘others’ such as the customers of its finished products. Similarly, the library depends on its readers; the army, on the people for whose sake it fights battles; the college, on the parents of the students, and so on.

An organisation can be said to have attained “equilibrium” when it is able to maintain the continued contributions of all its participants – members and others, by providing them various kinds of inducements to work for its success.

Equilibrium, in this sense, may be achieved at various levels. Further, the state of equilibrium may change over time. The scope of an organisation’s activi­ties may remain roughly constant or may grow or diminish at another level.