---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 9:51 AM Subject: Chester Barnard - Resilience ( as organizational efficiency ) through motive satisfaction ? To: [email protected], Michel Bauwens <[email protected]> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Barnard <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Barnard>Barnard looked at organizations as systems of cooperation of human activity, and noted that they are typically short-lived. It is rare for a firm to last more than a century. Similarly most nations last for less than a century. The only organization that can claim a substantial age is the Roman Catholic Church<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church>. According to Barnard, organizations are not long-lived because they do not meet the two criteria necessary for survival: effectiveness<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effectiveness> and efficiency <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_efficiency>. Effectiveness, is defined the usual way: as being able to accomplish stated goals. In contrast, Barnard's meaning of organizational efficiency differed substantially from the conventional use of the word. He defined efficiency of an organization as the degree to which that organization is able to satisfy the motives <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motives> of the individuals. If an organization satisfies the motives of its members while attaining its explicit goals, cooperation among its members will last. -- P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss: http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation Updates: http://del.icio.us/mbauwens; http://friendfeed.com/mbauwens; http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens