Organization Rational System

Organizational Rational Systems Student: Professor: Course title: Date: Organizational Rational Systems The rational system approach or perspective is a long-established organizational philosophy that focuses on goal achievement as the purpose of an organization. Formality is implied and the behavior in the organization is created as a consequence of the predefined limits (Scott & Davis, 2007). From the viewpoint of a rational system, organizations are basically instruments that are designed to achieve definite goals. In essence, the Rational System Perspective maintains that there are 2 main elements that characterize a rationalized system. First is Goal Specificity: definite, explicit goals support rational behavior in business organizations by offering guidelines on structural design that actually lead to specify the functions that have to be performed in the organization and the way resources are to be allocated (Locke, 1982). Second is Formalization, which is understood as an effort of making behavior more predictable through regulating and standardizing. Formalization, in essence, provides stable expectation – a precondition to rationality. The rational system perspective asserts that the organization is itself the focal system. Organizations are collectivities that are oriented to pursuing relatively definite goals and exhibit social structures that are relatively highly formalized (Scott & Davies, 2007). Potamkin Automotive – a car dealership Potamkin Automotive is a large automotive dealer group with its head office in Miami, Florida. Potamkin Automotive has annual sales that exceed $1.5 billion and it has 40 franchise locations in five states (Potamkin Automotive, 2014). The company operates in America’s best growth markets. These are (i) Springfield, Pennsylvania; (ii) Harlem and Manhattan in New York; (iii) Kendall, North Miami Beach, Miami Lakes, and Doral in Florida; (iv) El Paso and Houston in Texas; and (v) Sacramento, Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in California. Potamkin Automotive employs more than 1500 persons. It is a private company and has been in operation since the year 1954 (Potamkin Automotive, 2014). Potamkin Automotive can be viewed as a rational system. For this dealership, the goal is to make profits by selling motor vehicles. In this process, each staff member of the car dealership has a role that is clearly defined. The role of the manager is to train, motivate the supervise the salespersons. The role of the salespersons is to meet customers and clients, and sell the motor vehicles. Theoretically, the individual personalities of each person who works at Potamkin Automotive must not be a significant factor given that every employee has a place within the system, and only needs to perform h...