Organization

An organization is a social system intentionally formed to achieve stated objectives through the coordinated activities of its members. Organizations establish roles, authority, and formal processes to align efforts, allocate resources, and reduce the uncertainty inherent in collective work. They can be as small as a project team or as large as multinational enterprises or government institutions.

Core components include goals or missions, a structure that determines lines of authority and communication, processes and routines that guide work, a division of labor, and resources such as people, information, and capital. Governance arrangements—boards, executives, policies—set accountability and direction. Culture, comprising shared values and norms, influences behavior and decision making.

Organizations vary widely in form. Formal organizations have codified structures and rules; informal organizations emerge from social relationships and shared interests. They can be for-profit businesses, non-profit organizations, government agencies, or hybrids such as NGOs and international bodies. Size, geographic scope, and autonomy affect design and coordination needs.

Design choices address how work is coordinated. Common considerations include the degree of centralization or decentralization, span of control, specialization, standardization and formalization, and the use of teams or networks to facilitate communication. Theories of organization range from classical and bureaucratic models to contingency and resource-based perspectives, each explaining how structure supports strategy, environment, and technology.

Organizations evolve through life cycles of creation, growth, maturity, and renewal or dissolution. Performance is judged by efficiency, effectiveness, adaptability, and stakeholder value. In a global and digital context, organizations must manage cross-cultural collaboration, knowledge transfer, and information systems to sustain coordination and learning.