Organizations are hard to see. We see outcroppings, such as a tall building, a computer
workstation, or a friendly employee, but the whole organization is vague and
abstract and may be scattered among several locations, even around the world. We
know organizations are there because they touch us every day. Indeed, they are so
common that we take them for granted.We hardly notice that we are born in a hospital, have our birth records registered in a government agency, are educated in
schools and universities, are raised on food produced on corporate farms, are treated
by doctors engaged in a joint practice, buy a house built by a construction company
and sold by a real estate agency, borrow money from a bank, turn to police and fire
departments when trouble erupts, use moving companies to change residences, and
receive an array of benefits from various government agencies.22 Most of us spend
many of our waking hours working in an organization of one type or another