Philip Selznick: Formal

Philip Selznick was American sociologist. Explore interesting quotes on formal.
Philip Selznick: 40 quotes0 likes

“The formal administrative design can never adequately or fully reflect the concrete organization to which it refers, for the obvious reason that no abstract plan or pattern can—or may, if it is to be useful—exhaustively describe an empirical totality. At the same time, that which is not included in the abstract design (as reflected, for example, in a a staff and-line organization chart) is vitally relevant to the maintenance and development of the formal system itself.”

Philip Selznick

Source: "Foundations of the Theory of Organization," 1948, p. 25

“The relations outlined on an organization chart provide a framework within which fuller and more spontaneous human behavior takes place. The formal system may draw upon that behavior for added strength; it will in its turn be subordinated to personal and group egotism.”

Philip Selznick

Source: Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, 1957, p. 29

“An organization is a group of living human beings. The formal or official design for living never completely accounts for what the participants do. It is always supplemented by what is called the “informal structure,” which arises as the individual brings into play his own personality, his special problems and interests. Formal relations co-ordinate roles or specialized activities, not persons.”

Philip Selznick

Source: Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation, 1957, p. 8

“[Formal structures of formal organizations] never succeed in conquering the non-rational dimensions of organizational behavior.”

Philip Selznick

Source: "Foundations of the Theory of Organization," 1948, p. 25

“The action of the officials tends to have an increasingly internal relevance, which may result in the deflection of the organization from its original path, which, however, usually remains as the formally professed aim of the organization.”

Philip Selznick

Source: "An Approach to a Theory of Bureaucracy," 1943, p. 51

“Trade unions, governments, business corporations, political parties, and the like are formal structures in the sense that they represent rationally ordered instruments for the achievement of stated goals.”

Philip Selznick

Source: "Foundations of the Theory of Organization," 1948, p. 25