Difference Between Formal And Informal Organization

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Every organization of some size and duration (such as a church, university, business, army, trade union) has both “Formal” and “Informal” relations and both “Formal Structure” and an “Informal Structure”
The formal structure is the official patterns which determine the line of authority and communication within the organization. Definite offices are provided for, like president and Treasurer; official are assigned their powers and duties; the limits of their authority are set; and rules are prescribed for the conduct of the organization. The members of these organizations are thus related to each other in certain formal ways. They have official roles to play and official tasks to perform. Where such official patterns prevail in an organization, it is called a “formal organization” (Leonard Brown and Philip Selznick, 1958).
Urwick cited in Miller and Form (1969), define (Formal) Organization as “dividing up all of the activities which are assigned to individuals”.
Chester Barnard (1968) “an Organization is formal when the activities are coordinated towards a common objective”. He found that the essence of formal organization is conscious common purpose and that formal organization comes into being when persons are able to communicate with each other, willing to act and share a purpose but Informal organizations are necessary to the operation of Formal organizations as a means of communication of cohesion and of protecting the integrity of the individual formal organizational

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