Annals of Business Administrative Science
Online ISSN : 1347-4456
Print ISSN : 1347-4464
ISSN-L : 1347-4456
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  • Nobuo Takahashi
    Article type: research-article
    2024 Volume 23 Issue 2 Pages 21-34
    Published: April 15, 2024
    Released on J-STAGE: April 15, 2024
    Advance online publication: April 04, 2024
    JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

    What exactly is an organization? To answer this question, we will refer to organizational theory formulated and developed in the 20th century. Chester Barnard believed that human groups appear to be organized rather than disorderly crowds because members with a common purpose are working purposively. Herbert A. Simon, who expanded on this idea, considered that making purposive decisions is rational as long as the purposes are accomplished step by step from top to bottom along a hierarchy of ends. However, he pointed out that this hierarchy of ends was incomplete and was, sometimes, contradictory. Regarding technology as an alternative to this, James D. Thompson came to the opinion that if organizations are purposive, their core should consist of one or more technologies. Karl E. Weick depicted the technology-formation process as an organizing process. People will initially repeat, for their various purposes, an interlocked behavior cycle as a common means. If the cycle is stable, people with differing goals will be able to use it, leading to the assembly of a larger module and a gradual shift to a common purpose.

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