Organization and Organizations
Organizing, organization and organizations
Organizations have a role in society, but it is an artificial role, or a
role that is needed for efficiency, rather than being something of
inherent importance to society.
Do as much organizing as possible but only do what is essential. Do what is
easy, and do not waste time and money trying to do things that cannot be done
reasonably easily. Move on to the next stage, and come back later to do more
organizing.
The process of organizing needs to be iterative. In the organize stage,
identify who or what organization is doing things and where the
resources are going to come from.
The result of organizing is organization. But getting into a state of
organization is frustrating in a complex arena, and in any chaotic
situation organizing has to go on for ever.
Organizations are structures that help to do things, to get things done.
They can have many forms, and the best organizations are ones where
the metrics of performance are the best ... that is where the value of
the results are the most relative to the resources used.
Organizations have a role in society, but it is an artificial role, or a
role that is needed for efficiency, rather than being something of
inherent importance to society.
A critical determinant of success
An individual rarely has much power or influence. An individual cannot be
very efficient. The industrial revolution was successful because of the invention
of all sorts of new technology, and also helped by the emergence of ways to
organize large groups of people and to manage and control these huge
organizations.
Getting the organization right and staying in control using effective
management techniques is a key to success.
Just as a community serves to be a way to manage activities that support socioeconomic progress when there are many people in a geographic location ... an
organization serves as a way to manage more specific activities either within a
community or over a bigger area.
Community
There is a need for the community to have a good level of organization, and
there is also a need for the community and the area to have organizations that
can do things.
It is in organizations at the community level where the most important
activities of socio-economic progress are seen. The organizations at
the community level have already described (starting on page 65) and
will not be repeated again here.
Some, perhaps many, of the organizations at the community level are
part of a larger area, national or international organization.
Business organizations
The economy of a modern prosperous country is based very much on
the success of its business organizations. Virtually all modern wealth
is created by business organizations ... and is a part of the national
wealth by virtue of its location and the domicile of its owners and its
employees.
Governance organizations
The civility of a modern prosperous country is assured by its governance
organizations. For these to work well they must be fair and they must reflect the
values of the culture. The exact form of governance organization needs to evolve
over time, and be arrived at by a process that achieves consensus between all the
parties affected. The process is complicated, and the stakes are high when there
is a lot of wealth involved.
At the National Level
The organizations of government
There has been a lot of focus by the coalition on establishing the organizations of
government in Iraq so that the country could become peaceful and prosper.
There has been a focus on the idea that this government would operate on
“democratic” principles and therefore the country would be a success.
At some level, there has been progress ... I think ... but I really do not know.
There really is rather little information that is reliable and validated about what
has been accomplished that I can easily access.
But this ought not to matter too much, because socio-economic progress takes
place, not at the national level, but at the community level and is driven by
people and organizations carrying out useful activities all over the country.
Government ministries
Government ministries have, broadly speaking, sector responsibility, and are the
apex organization of the sector with responsibility for the whole country. The
performance of these organizations will have a considerable impact on the
performance of the sectors all over the country. There are a number of issues
that need to be monitored: (1) the budget allocated to the ministry; (2) the
allocation of resources to various programs that are supported by the ministry;
(3) the spatial allocation of money round the country; (4) the performance of the
programs, and the relationship between costs incurred and value delivered.
Area organizations
There may be value in having area organizations so that programs can be more
suited to the area. In the governance of many nations there is a system of
regions, or states, or provinces that has government structures for the area that
supplement those that are at the national level.
There is a lot to be said for area organizations because of the possibility that they can be more sensitive to issues of physical geography, local cultures, religious beliefs and history. Designed well, and implemented well, area organizations can be a great benefit to the socio-economic performance and to fair governance.
The downside is that area organizations can also be another level of overhead that adds little, and make it easier for funds to be misappropriated and used uselessly.
The oil sector
The oil sector is big and the fund flows coming out of the Iraq oil sector are large
by any standard. The government is expected to earn more than $40 billion from
its oil revenues in 2007 ... and perhaps more than anything else it is this fund
flow that is causing a lot of the instability in Iraq and in the region.
Big contractors
Big national contractors can do a lot of the work that is required for the
reconstruction of Iraq. With money they can buy any technical support and
equipment they need, and they can employ local staff to get the work done. A
few big contractors can concentrate economic power in Iraq in ways that are not
good for competition and maybe not good the Iraq.
Health sector
The health sector is coordinated at the national level ... but operates at the local community level.
Education
The education sector is coordinated at the national level ... but the students all come from communities.
At the Supra-National Level
The global corporation
The global corporation has proved to be a very efficient way of generating
wealth ... but the success of the global corporation in generating wealth for its
stockholders has been out of proportion relative to the contributions these
organizations have made to the common good.
A global corporation has all sorts of ways of moving wealth from one
jurisdiction to another and in so doing deprive some countries of the wealth
they need and deserve while facilitating the expansion of wealth for
stockholders.
The efficiency of these organizations and their ability to create wealth is
impressive ... but their role in creating the maximum of socio-economic value is
much less impressive.
The oil industry giants
The oil industry giants have a lot of power in the global market place ... and
though there will, one day, be a shortage of crude oil ... at the present time there
is crude oil in considerable abundance. The money is made as much as anything
during the refining, transport and marketing of the refined products.
While the producer countries have the crude oil ... it has little value as long as it
stays in the ground ... and it is the oil industry giants that presently have the
control of the markets.
The oil industry giants are huge. Each of the major international companies in
the oil industry are bigger by almost any economic measure than most of the
countries in the world ... and by virtue of their scale they are powerful. And
while Europe and North America have spawned the biggest oil giants in the
past, more and more there will be giants also from countries like Russia, China
and India.
Banks and financial institutions
There are a growing number of global giants in the banking and financial
services sector. They have the potential to be a powerful force for good ... but
what is good for an economy when they choose to fund an economy is bigger,
more powerful and worse when the capital they control is in flight.
Big banking and finance is very impersonal ... and though the industry has been
very profitable for a number of years, and very good for some of the
stockholders and senior management and traders, it is far from clear how much
damage has been done by the industry at the bottom of the global economic
pyramid.
Drugs, arms and human trafficking
The illegal international trade in drugs, arms and human beings is very large,
and very profitable. Trade in these areas is illegal, but goes on with the
authorities charged with stopping the trade quite impotent. The profits can fund
almost anything ... and anything goes, including murder.
In the case of Iraq, what this means in practical terms is that any weaponry
needed is easily obtained ... it just requires money, and money is one thing that
Iraq has in abundance.
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