What qualifies for organizational dysfunctions, when it comes to workings of an organization? To understand that, we need to understand the original intended “purpose” or “agreed upon goals”. Organizational dysfunctions, can then be defined as an ‘unintended’ outcome that runs significantly contrary to the purpose of the organization. Also, failure and dysfunction do not mean the same. The latter is much more systemic, having to do with the design and culture of the organization. And the result often is not just poor performance, but serious crisis quite a times for the organization or its stakeholders. (Also see, how aligned is your organization?, 2017, HBR)
Poor organizational design and structure results in a bewildering morass of contradictions: confusion within roles, a lack of coordination among functions, failure to share ideas, and slow decision-making bring managers unnecessary complexity, stress, and conflict. Often those at the top of an organization are oblivious to these problems or, worse, pass them off as challenges to overcome or opportunities to develop.
Gill Corkindale, The Importance of Organizational Design & Structure, 2011, HBR
Organizational Dysfunctions & Systems Thinking (click to expand)
Organizational Dysfunctions & Systems Thinking
Before talking about organizational dysfunctions, we need to understand the concept of systems thinking – a much recent mental model which got introduced to the management world in 1990s, in Peter Senge’s masterpiece, The Fifth discipline (the book provides blueprint for Managing change, Building adaptive organizations coping with VUCA world and Improving performance and happiness in the workforce – the combination of these characteristics, is what constitutes ‘learning organizations’). Also see, the essentials for building high performance organizations here.
We have been largely trained to break down the problems into small parts (with the aim to improve optimization, efficiency). This makes complex tasks manageable, the reductionist approach works great for efficiency objectives (but not as much for effectiveness, as that forms the whole view), but we no longer see connections and the big picture.
Now Systems also influence behavior. To understand a specific occurence, we need to understand the entire ecosystem, not just part of the pattern. Bcos a system of archetypes of multiple micro functions, interrelated to get to the overall objective, we need a mind-shift from seeing parts to wholes, from reacting to creating. It means concurrently seeing the trees and the forest, the detailed and broad patterns. Organizations, on a similar lens, are archetypes of multiple systems at work, and hence, subject to dysfunctionalities, impeding in realizing its objectives.
Organizational Trust (& not Engagement): An essential to High-Performance Workplaces
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Organizational Dysfunctions: Goals & Goals Alignment – Part 1 of 2
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Organizational Dysfunctions: Critical Behaviors & Business Outcomes
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Organizational Dysfunctions : The conundrum of Accountability & Ownership – Part 2
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Organizational Dysfunctions : The Rewards & Recognition paradigm – Part 1
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Organizational Dysfunctions : Designing Goals
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Organizational Stages & Presets : Why do lot of ‘successful’ organizations often underachieve?
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Organizational Dysfunctions : The conundrum of Accountability & Ownership – Part 1
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Organizational Dysfunctions : The Rewards & Recognition paradigm – Part 2
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Organizational Dysfunctions: Goals & Goals Alignment – Part 2 of 2
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