Advantage And Disadvantage Of Bureaucracy

Organization context can be thought of as "the ecology of the organization," comprising dimensions of activities and events that exist outside an organization's boundaries as well as dimensions that are unique to the organization. Contextual dimensions of an organization include the domains and dimensions of the external environment and the relationships organizations have with other organizations (i.e., the organization set) in the environment. Each of these contextual dimensions has important implications for the ways managers engage in planning, organizing and staffing, directing, and controlling the organization.

For most managers of organizations, the external context, or environment, is represented by the market for which they are trying to provide a good or service. Yet the external context can also include events and activities that do not exist in the market the organization is serving. For instance, a television station operates in a context in which viewers, advertisers, program producers, and news services all affect the broadcasting by the television station. Similarly, governmental regulations, technological changes in unrelated industries, national events, and other organizations that provide information and entertainment may also affect the operations of the television station. Contextual conditions are important because they influence the methods by which managers can effectively use resources to plan, organize and staff, direct, and control organization activities.We can think of an organization's context as an array of interrelated conditions, perceived or not perceived' by organization managers, that influence activities and organization performance. By interrelated, we mean that the contextual conditions of an organization affect one another and, at times, managers must account for this interrelationship in their decision making. Contextual conditions that influence an organization or a manager may be fairly constant