The administrative process is influenced by characteristics of the organization itself and the people within it, both of which in turn are shaped by the broader environment from which they are drawn. There are major organization variables: the basic goals and tasks of the organization (product line, markets to be served, etc.); the technology for creating and delivering the organization’s product or services (work layout, production processes, etc.); and the structure of departments and roles required to coordinate and control the technology.

Over time, these organization variables tend to take on an identity of their own, apart from the administrators who created and developed them. That is, the organizational characteristics of a hospital are likely to remain much the same even though the top administrator is replaced, and a geographically decentralized retail firm is unlikely to change quickly into a functionally organized manufacturing company, even though its entire top-management group is reconstituted. Moreover, most of us would be willing to make some predictions about the administrative problems and processes of an organization knowing nothing more than its basic goals, technology, and structure. At the very least, we would be willing to bet that the manner in which the administrative role was performed would be quite different in a research and development laboratory, a bank, and an automobile assembly plant.

The relationship between organization variables and the administrative process is interactive. It would appear that if administrators can create the organization’s goals, technology, and structure, then certainly they should be able to modify each of these variables in response to perceived changes in the organization’s environment. However, in most mature organizations, such internal changes are likely to be marginal, except in the face of major environment shifts such as a dramatic change in consumer buying habits, resource availability, or population trends. In fact, as we shall discuss in more detail later, even when confronted with major environmental changes, administrators may perceive some organization variables to be relatively intractable.

Human Variables – The administrative process is also influenced and constrained by a set of people variables: the abilities, attitudes, and personalities of organization members. These characteristics are affected by the environment from which organization members are drawn, and, in the short run, they too are difficult to change. Over time-and within limits-members skills can be upgraded; attitudes can be influenced; and age, sex, and racial proportions can be modified. However, at any given time, administrators must deal with what basically exists within the human subsystem while attempting changes at the margin. Here again, knowing nothing more than the characteristics of organization members, we might be tempted to make guesses about the conduct of administration. We would, for example, expect a hospital.administrator to deal with his medical staff differently than with his office personnel.

Integrative Mechanisms – The administrator is both powerful and impotent. When he sets organizational goals or changes structure, the administrator is wielding power unavailable to other members of the organization. But having done so, he is then at the mercy of these decisions. That is, once people and processes are in place, major alterations of these variables are achieved only at a high cost. Consequently, an administrator who is intent upon obtaining an effective integration of organization and human variables should be aware of the range of alternatives available to him in performing this task.

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Category: Business Management
Keywords: Business,investing,company,organizing,organization,administrator,manager,leader,Motivation,Attitudes