Research On The Functional Boundaries Of Administrative Organizations

Organization boundary is a basic problem in the study of organization theory.In fact,organization change is the rearrangement of organization boundary.Administrative organization is an important type of public organization.Each administrative organization is essentially a set of functions.Therefore,"functional boundary" can be used as a key element to study the reform and development of administrative organization.The current academic research on the theory of organization boundary shows a fragmented trend,and there is no complete theoretical system.Among these "fragments",this thesis use the economist Coase's view of enterprise boundary and transform it into "the dynamic evolution theory of administrative organization functional boundary",and constructs a relevant analysis model."The cost of internal and external coordination of organizations" is the logical starting point for this article which leads to the determination,displacement,conflict,change and termination of functional boundaries.There are complex mechanisms between each stage.The functional boundaries of early administrative organizations were mainly determined by the division of labor specialization,such as the "three provinces and six ministries" system in ancient China.With the development and progress of society,the "functional boundary" need more and more legality.In the late 1980 s and early 1990 s,China formulated the earliest "three definite plans",which became the "legal boundary" of administrative organizations with Chinese characteristics.The formulation of "three definite plans" was based on the comprehensive influence of political factors(Party's will),administrative factors(social public demand),structural factors(macro,meso and even micro-organizational structure),technical factors and interest game factors.On the other hand,the closer the legal boundary is to the theoretical equilibrium point where the internal and external coordination costs are equal,the more stable the actual boundary is and the more unstable on the contrary.The so-called boundary instability here is the displacement of the boundary.If the statutory functions of the organization are more than the optimal functions corresponding to the theoretical equilibrium point,the internal coordination costs will be too high;if the statutory functions of the organization are less than the optimal functions corresponding to the theoretical equilibrium point,the external coordination costs will be too high.Whether internal or external coordination costs are too high will affect the performance of the organization.In order to make the work more smoothly,the organization needs to find ways to reduce coordination costs.The main ways are the follows: firstly,through the construction of internal or inter-organizational coordination mechanism to realize self-regulation;secondly,through the active or passive increase or decrease of functions,that is,when the cost of external coordination is too high,to increase the amount functions.when the internal coordination costs are too high,to decrease the amount functions appropriately.The first way can be called "benign displacement" and the second way can be called "non-benign displacement".Although the operation result of the coordination mechanism is relatively benign,it does not exclude some problems such as overstaffed coordination agencies and inefficiency,which may lead to boundary conflicts;the nonbenign displacement caused by the increase or decrease of functions will lead to boundary conflicts more directly.Of course,structural factors,interest game factors and organizational culture factors will also be injected at this time to further form and aggravate conflicts.At the same time,which cannot be ignored is that defects of the legal function boundary itself,such as gaps,overlaps,ambiguities of legal functions,which will directly cause and aggravate conflicts.When conflicts develop to a certain extent,changes are needed.In fact,the change of the boundary is also the process of redefining the legal boundary.At this time,several factors that are active in the determination of the boundary will become active again and play a role in the process of change.One by-product of the boundary change is the end of the boundary,which will result in the disappearance of some departments and their functions,and consequently the disappearance of their functional boundaries.The end of the boundary is also a way to redefine the legal boundary.In order to verify the reality of this dynamic evolution process,this thesis takes the central transportation department as an example.Through the analysis of the full text,the final conclusion is: firstly,round after round of institutional reform is inevitable,which is the embodiment of the life cycle of administrative organizations.At the same time,institutional reform will follow the law of mutual change of quality and quantity.When each department makes the functional boundary infinitely close to the theoretical equilibrium point through round after round of reform,it will obtain relatively long-term stability,qualitative change will happen at this time.In the process of quantitative change in a new round,it is no longer to search for equilibrium points but the guidance of new technologies that will affect the change of boundaries;secondly,the best degree of "giant" in the system of giant departments is that the boundaries of department functions infinitely close to equilibrium points,which can be called "bounded rational giant departments";thirdly,in order to reduce the cost of organizational coordination,it is better to construct mechanisms than increase and decrease functions,but increase and decrease functions can more directly promote change.However,how to accurately find the theoretical equilibrium point is a practical problem.Modern technologies such as big data may achieve relatively reliable results.