Organizational Dynamics’ domain is primarily organizational behavior and development and secondarily, HRM and strategic management. The objective is to link leading-edge thought and research with management practice.
Organizational dynamics is defined as the process of continuously strengthening resources and enhancing employee performances. It can also be described as how an organization manages and promotes organizational learning, better business practices and strategic management.
The Essential Elements
There are four fundamental business activities that contribute to an organization’s dynamics.
First, planning requires management to structurally define departments and divisions. Managers set measurable goals that will define future actions and decisions. Organizational planning may involve inventory control, production scheduling, revenue forecasts and expense management. Managers use these plans as the actionable foundation for all their regular duties.
Second, goal execution involves implementing, evaluating and following up with expected deliverables. In order to accomplish this, managers must allocate resources and responsibilities to employees based on skills and schedules.
Third, leadership involves hands-on, exemplary oversight that drives innovation, knowledge and performance.
Fourth, resource control refers to how executives and management establish systems that gather data which is used to determine if goals are met.
Business Function Specializations
Every company will have managers who are responsible to monitor and control certain business functions. At the heart of an organization’s dynamics lies human resources management, which is concerned about optimizing employee performances. HR managers are trained to improve individual and organizational effectiveness through applying relevant behavioral sciences and HR management principles.
Project managers drastically impact a company’s dynamics and overall performance. Successful project managers will ensure quality through careful planning that addresses risk, communications and progress management. They also create open forums that empower vendors, employees and shareholders to share information. Project managers directly impact the financial health through financial monitoring and integrated cost controls.
An Industry Case Study
Within the procurement industry and supply chain organizations, employee and communication dynamics must be continually streamlined in order to avoid problems and increase program effectiveness.
Procurement managers seek to create united cultures that share logistical goals and technology objectives.
Every day, supply chain managers must engage in efficient source selection, inventory management and vendor monitoring.
Alternatively, transportation managers must clearly understand regulatory requirements and shipper limitations in order to maintain adequate resources and product volumes.
Every more challenging, international supply chain managers must successfully deal with cross-cultural and supplier issues within the global logistics environment. For instance, they may be required to manage the organizational dynamics of global hazardous materials shipments.
Organizational dynamics refers to the patterns of movement over time in the interactions between the people who are the organization, the community of practice. Such patters could be described, for example, as regular patterns of dependence and conformity, or as irregular patterns of aggression and noncompliance.
Strategy vs. dynamics —
Organizational dynamics is contrasted with organizational strategy or, simply, strategy. Organizational dynamics is about patterns of movement in the activity in the joint activity people undertake, organizational strategies, and its purposes over time and how actors involved are engaged in, and think about, this movement. This addresses people’s identity, who people think they are, etc..
Traditional view of disciplines —
Organizational dynamics is often treated as a separate discipline from the understanding of individuals or strategic management, calling it organizational behavior. In a similar manner, strategic management is often distinguished from operational management.
Doing away with artificial distinctions —
Organizations are made up of people, people’s behavior makes up organizational behavior, managers are people, strategies address the organization, and strategies require operational execution. For the purpose of understanding how to strategically manage an organization, these are not separable disciplines which can be addressed separately. They are interwoven into one discipline – herein titled strategic management.