Basic Dimensions in Organizations

Sections of this topic

    Common Dimensions in Organizations

    Much of the content
    of this topic came from this book:
    Consulting and Organization Development - Book Cover

    © Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

    When we think about a house, we usually take certain features into consideration, e.g., how many rooms it has, the color of its walls, slope of its roof, etc. A person can consider the following dimensions when analyzing an organization.

    Sections of This Topic Include

    Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Dimensions of Organizations

    In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Dimensions of Organizations. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.

    Also consider
    Related Library Topics


    Richard Daft in his book, Organizational Theory and Design (West Publishing, St. Paul, Minnesota, 1992), organizes these dimensions into categories of structural and contextual.

    Structural dimensions:

    Centralization
    – the extent to which functions are dispersed in the organization, either in terms of integration with other functions or geographically

    Formalization
    – regarding the extent of policies and procedures in the organization

    Hierarchy

    – regarding the extent and configuration of levels in the structure

    Routinization

    – regarding the extent that organizational processes are standardized

    Specialization

    – regarding the extent to which activities are refined

    Training

    – regrading the extent of activities to equip organization members with knowledge and skills to carry out their roles

    Contextual Dimensions

    Culture
    – the values and beliefs shared by all (note that culture is often discerned by examining norms or observable behaviors in the workplace)

    Environment
    – the nature of external influences and activities in the political, technical, social and economic arenas

    Goals

    – unique overall priorities and desired end-states of the organization

    Size

    – number of people and resources and their span in the organization

    Technology

    the often unique activities needed to reach organizational goals, including nature of activities, specialization, type of equipment/facilities needed, etc.


    Additional Perspectives on Dimensions of Organizations


    For the Category of Organizational Development:

    To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

    Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.