Organizations in action - Boek Thompson - Organizations in Action - Domains of organized action: active coping with elements in the task environment

6 important questions on Organizations in action - Boek Thompson - Organizations in Action - Domains of organized action: active coping with elements in the task environment

What is the relationship between domain of organization and task environment?



The domain of organization determines the task environment. Given the domain, an organization depends on input and output. Uncertainty in the task environment arises due to concentration and dispersion in supply and demand on the input and output side.


When the domain is unique, the task environment is unique as well.

What are the four elements of the task environment? And what does this concept entails?

1. Competitors
2. Customers
3. Regulatory institutions
4. Suppliers
Task environment denotes the parts of the environment which are relevant or potentially relevant for goal setting or goal attainment.

The supply and demand on both input and output side determine the dependency and own power in the task environment. The goal is to lower dependency and increase own power. How can this be done when having concentrated vs dispersed supply and demand on the output side?

Both supply and demand are concentrated: high dependency, they're condemned to each other. Decrease dependency by contracting, joining.

Supply is concentrated, demand is dispersed; Low dependency, users depend on suppliers.

Supply is dispersed, demand is concentrated; high dependency, suppliers depend on users. Decrease dependency by co-optation.

Both supply and demand are dispersed: perfect competition, prestige.
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What three elements define the organizational domain? And what does this concept mean?

1. The type of demand
2. The user population
3. The type of goods and services

Organizational domain refers to a set of selections regarding the identity and strategic goals of an organization.

Why are the domain and task environment important for designing organizational structures?

- It determines in what kind of environment the organization functions
- It determines the design boundaries (is not yet structural design)
- It determines what kind of primary process the organization has to perform (long linked, intensive or mediating).

Given this information, it becomes possible to start designing the organizational sructure:
- Micro to macro; pooled, sequential, reciprocal
- Macro should fit the environment

So, its the point of departure.

How do these concepts (domain and task environment) reapper in STSD?

In STSD this is the strategic orientation that functions as point of departure for
- Establishing functional requirements
- Establishing organizational processes that should be structured  
- Finding/designing flows at macro level which are starting point for meso and micro level.

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