Basic concepts of organization and co- operation

1. Message 7Basic concepts of organisation and co-operation
Organisations are the distinctively structured and regulated form of
purposeful interaction of individuals and groups. Said differently,
organisations are purposeful co-operation of (groups of) people
based on shared structures, rules, interests and values. The first and
foremost objective of organisations (as of all systems) is striving for
survival by fulfilling their purpose. Economic organisations must ful-
fil a double purpose, they must produce the product or service they
have been created for, and in doing so they must produce an eco-
nomic yield that allows extended reproduction.
Co-operation means working together for achieving individual and
common advantage.
Organisation
It seems self-evident that organisations are a structured and regu-
lated form of people interacting with each other. And for facilitating
co-operation it is essential to understand organisation this way. But
there are many more theories – in economics, law, political science,
etc. - stating that organisations are characterised by a distinct
framework of structures and rules. And if people are mentioned at
all, they are in such a framework. In this view, organisations are
containers with people in them.
On the other extreme, there is a sociological theory on micropolitics
(Bosetzky 1995; Burns 1961) that primarily conceives organisations as
a number of individual people and groups of people with conflicting
individual or group interests battling for power and influence so that
the whole of the organisation, its basic purpose and raison d’être,
seems to disappear in a haze of contradicting views, interests and
orientations.
With our definition, we want to stress the fact that certainly hierar-
chical structures and rules make a difference, but it is just as cer-
tain that through all micro-political irritations it is people who stand
for the success or failure of organisations. Success or failure may
depend on many factors, but in the first place they depend on the
quality of work and on the quality of the organisation in which this
work is done. It is the quality of co-operation which really makes the
difference.
We are looking at organisations with the eyes of facilitators, experts
of communication who have the task to lead groups to successful co-
The quality of
co-operation makes
the difference.
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operation. It is a view from a perspective of responsibility. Hence,
our definition of organisation has a simple question in the back-
ground: Which understanding of organisation helps to make the or-
ganisation successful?
Co-operation
Successful co-operation, within or between organisations, is built on
a number of aspects which must come together and be accomplished
by the co-operating partners (Becker et al. 2007). First of all, with-
out communicating about their interests in co-operation, partners
will not be able to establish joint projects achieving predefined aims
and solving perceived
common problems.
Transparency,
knowing what is im-
portant to know for
the common purpose
the network is
pursuing, is a
necessary condition
for each partner’s
capacity of measuring
the perceived
advantage of
networking and co-operation as compared to competition. Possible
conflict situations can only be settled in a sustainable way if there is
mutual readiness to except compromise and to invest in terms of
money, time and emotions into the common endeavour. Networks
are exchange mechanisms striving for a win-win situation. Without
commitment and mutual reliability, trust as a necessary condition of
sustainability will not be growing. And without trust none of the
other aspects will prosper.
Facilitating can become an essential factor of building a trust-based
culture of co-operation because it is completely oriented towards
creating transparent problem-solving processes along with an open
way of dealing with conflict. Facilitating establishes simple and
transparent rules of fair exchange which in many cases become the
procedural charter of networks. Obviously, facilitating cannot guar-
antee reliability, but experience shows that transparent communica-
tion creates higher degrees of commitment and hence, reliability.
Mutual reliability (reciprocity) is the most important condition for
creating and maintaining trust relationships and creating social capi-
tal.
Cf. Message 15:
Learning networks –
constructing social
capital
Cf. Message 9:
Communities of
practice and
self-organisation
A culture of co-operation is a necessary condition for developing
communities of practice into communities of performance, i.e. not
just of working together but working together to achieve something
in common.