Organizational theory | EPFL Graph Search

Organizational theory refers to a series of interrelated concepts that involve the sociological study of the structures and operations of formal social organizations. Organizational theory also seeks to explain how interrelated units of organization either connect or do not connect with each other. Organizational theory also concerns understanding how groups of individuals behave, which may differ from the behavior of an individual. The behavior organizational theory often focuses on is goal-directed. Organizational theory covers both intra-organizational and inter-organizational fields of study. In the early 20th century, theories of organizations initially took a rational perspective but have since become more diverse. In a rational organization system, there are two significant parts: Specificity of Goals and Formalization. The division of labor is the specialization of individual labor roles, associated with increasing output and trade. Modernization theorist Frank Dobbin wrote that "modern institutions are transparently purposive and that we are in the midst of an extraordinary progression towards more efficiency." Max Weber's conception of bureaucracy is characterized by the presence of impersonal positions that are earned and not inherited, rule-governed decision-making, professionalism, chain of command, defined responsibility, and bounded authority. Contingency theory holds that an organization must try to maximize performance by minimizing the effects of various environmental and internal constraints, and that the ability to navigate this requisite variety may depend upon the development of a range of response mechanisms. Dwight Waldo in 1978 wrote that "[o]rganization theory is characterized by vogues, heterogeneity, claims and counterclaims." Organization theory cannot be described as an orderly progression of ideas or a unified body of knowledge in which each development builds carefully on and extends the one before it.

Sustainable Development, Planning and Poverty Alleviation

Jean-Claude Bolay, Eléonore Labattut

In 2018, the world population is around 7.6 billion, 4.2 billion in urban settlements and 3.4 billion in rural areas. Of this total, according to UN-Habitat, 3.2 billion of urban inhabitants live in southern countries. Of them, one billion, or nearly a third, live in slums. Urban poverty is therefore an endemic problem that has not been solved despite all initiatives taken to date by public and private sectors. This global transformation of our contemporary societies is particularly challenging in Asia and Africa, knowing that on these two continents, less than half of the population currently lives in urban areas. In addition, over the next decades, 90% of the urbanization process will take place in these major regions of the world. Urban planning is not an end in itself. It is a way, human and technological, to foresee the future and to act in a consistent and responsible way in order to guarantee the well-being of the populations residing in cities or in their peripheries. Many writers and urban actors in the South have criticized the inadequacy of urban planning to the problems faced by the cities confronting spatial and demographic growth. For many of them the reproduction of Western models of planning is ineffective when the urban context responds to very different logics. It is therefore a question of reinventing urban planning on different bases. And in order to address the real problems that urban inhabitants and authorities are facing, and offering infrastructures and access to services for all, this with the prospect of reducing poverty, to develop a more inclusive city, with a more efficient organization, in order to make it sustainable, both environmental than social and economic. The field work carried out during recent years in small and medium-sized cities in Burkina Faso, Brazil, Argentina and Vietnam allows us to focus the attention of specialists and decision makers on intermediate cities that have been little studied but which are home to half of the world's urban population. From local diagnoses, we come to a first conclusion. Many small and medium-sized cities in the South can be considered as poor cities, from four criteria. They have a relatively large percentage of the population is considered to be poor; the local government and its administration do not have enough money to invest in solving the problems they face; these same authorities lack the human resources to initiate and manage an efficient planning process; urban governance remains little open to democratic participation and poorly integrates social demand into its development plans. Based on this analysis, we consider it is imperative to renovate urban planning as part of a more participatory process that meets the expectations of citizens with more realistic criteria. This process incorporates different stages: an analysis grounded on the identification of urban investment needed to improve the city; the consideration of the social demands; a realistic assessment of the financial resources to be mobilized (municipal budget, taxes, public and international external grants, public private partnership); a continuous dialogue between urban actors to determine the urban priorities to be addressed in the coming years. This protocol serves as a basis for comparative studies between cities in the South and a training program initiated in Argentina for urban actors in small and medium-sized cities, which we wish to extend later to other countries of the South.

2019

Optimalisation des formes d'organisation dans l'industrie de la construction

Philippe Pot

A piece of work carried out by the construction industry, whether a building or a civil engineering project, is not a mass-produced item. It is always a unique piece of work, by dint of its response to the specific needs of the owner and its potential users, its integration or otherwise into a built environment, and its construction on ground whose geo-technical properties are always specific. This unique piece of work, carried out outside on a site subject to numerous hazards, must nevertheless meet the programme's fixed objectives first time round. Unfortunately, unlike most industrial products, it is usually, even nowadays, the outcome of a fragmented approach: designers and builders of the shell of the building and those engaged in the finishings are in fact involved in a segmented and sequential process, without any real interaction between the various disciplines, to the detriment of overall quality and the cost of the end-product. The author of this thesis has had the opportunity, in his professional career in the management of major construction companies, of testing most organisational forms in the sector. He has observed that, depending on the model chosen, they exercise a more or less beneficial effect on quality, costs and time-frames for completing the works, as well as on the capacity for innovation of the participants themselves. The first objective of the thesis was to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the most common organisational models in the construction industry and to identify factors in the success of the construction process. The second objective was to suggest an original organisational model which would make optimum use of these factors, taking into account modern organisational theory and project management. The first section of the thesis is an historical study of organisational forms of construction from antiquity to the modern times, and examines in particular the relationships between those actively and directly involved (owner, designers and builders) and their relationships in turn with those involved indirectly (users, public administration, finance providers, environmental and heritage protection organisations, laws and standards, etc.). This historical perspective makes a useful contribution because, although much has been written on architecture and architects, especially the most famous among them, and sometimes on engineers, work looking systematically at the organisational forms used in the construction industry over the centuries is rare. This study demonstrates that the fragmented organisation of construction characteristic of the 20th century is merely an accident in the long history of construction; the twenty-five preceding centuries almost always favoured close collaboration between designers and builders and the wonderful works they left behind demonstrate the wisdom of this approach. Study of the history also provides us with a list of the main success factors and the demands to which the successful organisation of construction must respond. The second part endeavours to verify the relevance of the needs drawn, in the light of modern organisational theory, from project management and creativity, and to complete the list. It goes on to analyse on that basis the strengths and weaknesses of the organisational models most commonly used in the modern construction industry and demonstrates that organisation as a design and build, is in the best position at this stage in the research to meet the needs of owners. The third section verifies, through case studies of five pieces of work recently completed or under construction, whether this organisational model effectively satisfies the expectations of those involved in the construction project, simultaneously examining potential improvements. To that end, a series of interviews was conducted in each case study, with a view to eliciting the views of representative participants: owner, operator, user, project manager, architect, engineer and sub-contracting trades. The process was completed with an analysis of the attitude of some public sector owners to the design and build organisational model. Finally, the lessons drawn from these case studies were used to complete the list of success factors already identified. A final section sets out an original organisational model named Integrated Construction Management (ICM), which recommends an inter-disciplinary approach to construction and responds to the success factors identified in the first three sections. It involves a new division of the production process, which provides the owner with a broader and more cost-effective range of innovative architectural and construction options. It also delivers a series of practical recommendations to assist in the application of the proposed model. In conclusion, Integrated Construction Management places the owner at the centre of a transparent and progressive production process, simultaneously removing the majority of the risks involved in construction. Through its inter-disciplinary approach, it offers innovative solutions together with improvements to the overall quality of the piece of work itself on favourable economic terms. Finally, it enables the owner to take informed decisions and to use his or her financial resources as and when the feasibility of the project is confirmed. It is hoped that, as a result, these advantages will be demonstrated through pilot projects carried out using the ICM model, which will without doubt make possible further improvements in performance.

EPFL2005