Goals in Organizations

Early writings on organizations repeatedly make this point in that, it is argued, organizations need to be seen and analysed as devices for achieving or attaining goals. Weber (1947) and Michels (1949), for example, refer to the rationality that exists in and surrounds organizations: such rationality can, in part, be accounted for by the existence of organization goals and the attempts by organization members to achieve these goals. The formal theorists of administration such as Taylor and Fayol also exhibit a tendency to stress the existence and rational pursuit of organization goals. Indeed, summarizing the position of such writers, Georgiou (1973, p. 292) asks: &s;How could the structure of rules be elaborated, the patterns of power determined, the labour divided, the rules devised, if there did not exist a preconceived goal, calling the organization into existence and determining its structure and operations?&s; As Thompson suggests, from the very beginning the organization was an instrument, a deliberate and rational means for attaining known goals. In some versions the goals are explicitly stated: in others, the goals are assumed to be self-evident as, for example, the assumption that the goal of the private business firm is to maximize profits (Thompson, 1967, p. 397).