Introduction to U.S. Business Organizations (for-profit and nonprofit)
© Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting,
LLC.
Adapted from the Field
Guide to Leadership and Supervision.
Introduction
Managing a successful business (nonprofit or for-profit) -- or building up the health of an already established business -- requires healthy, ongoing leadership and management, planning, product and service development, marketing and financial management. To carry out these practices in a healthy manner, it's important to first understand the basic "territory" in which these practices are carried out.
These practices are all "systems" that occur within the larger system of the organization. This is not academic talk -- this is a highly practical point to understand. To truly understand and be effective at these practices, it helps greatly if leaders, managers and employees have some basic understanding of the overall "system" of the business, its common traits, dimensions, "personalities" and life cycles. Too often, this basic nature is not understood. Instead, people tend to focus only on the day-to-day events and when problems occur, they don't see the "larger picture" in order to resolve these problems effectively.
This importance of this understanding is evident when you recognize that many graduate business programs start out with an overview of the organizational system (often, these programs start out with course called, for example, "Organizational Theory").
Sections of This Topic Include:
Basics
Basic
Definition of Organization (including some optional reading about
systems thinking)
Begin at the Beginning
Various
Ways to Look at Organizations (as systems, organisms, etc)
Two
Basic Types of U.S. Business Organizations -- For-Profit and Nonprofit
Legal
Forms and Traditional Structures of U.S. Businesses (for-profit
and nonprofit)
Common
Dimensions in Organizations (features to consider about organizations)
Unique
Features About Each Organization
Key
Concepts in the Design of an Organization
Organizational
Culture (the "personality" of the organization)
Life
Cycles of Organizations
Organizing Function of Management
Principles and Practices of Organizational Design
Organizational Design -- Guidelines (includes many links about organizational design)
Special Topics
Future
of Organizations -- A New Paradigm?
- - - Characteristics
of the Future Organizations
- - - New
Structures (networks, virtual org., self-managed teams, learning
org, self-designing org)
Basic
Overview of Nonprofit Organizations
Various (and Contrary) Perspectives
Various (and Sometimes Contrary) Perspectives
Development of Management Thought
Postmodern
Organizational Theory
Major Organizational Theories
For the Category of Organizational Development:
Related Library Topics
Recommended Books
Managing Organizational Change
Managing Organizational Change
Field
Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides complete, step-by-step guidelines to identify complex issues in for-profit or government organizations and successfully resolve each of them. This book is also helpful to organizations that are doing fine now, but want to evolve to the next level of performance. This is one of the truly comprehensive, yet practical, books about this complex subject! Includes online forms that can be downloaded. Many materials in this Library's topic about guiding change are adapted from this comprehensive book.
Field
Guide to Consulting and Organizational Development With Nonprofits
- by Carter McNamara, published by Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Provides complete, step-by-step guidelines to identify complex issues in nonprofit organizations and successfully resolve each of them. This book is also helpful to organizations that are doing fine now, but want to evolve to the next level of performance. This is one of the truly comprehensive, yet practical, books about this complex subject! Includes online forms that can be downloaded. Many materials in this Library's topic about guiding change are adapted from this comprehensive book.
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Growing Your Organization
The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.
Also See
Capacity Building (Nonprofit) -- Recommended Books
