An organization is defined as being “a deliberate arrangement of people to accomplish some specific purpose” (Robbins & Coulter, 2007, p. 17). A business is an organization of people under a structure that is distinctive to the company’s goals. Over the course of human history the nature of organizations have evolved from being viewed as mechanistic to learning organizations.

An impersonal approach to organizations was apparent during the times of dictatorship and tyranny from the rulers of ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilizations, who forced slaves to work to build pyramid structures. The ruling families continued to have power until a democracy was established. As the politics changed within each nation so did their methods of conducting business.

It appears authoritarianism continued to be dominant in earlier times because of less competition from other businesses and more workers willing to work under extreme circumstances in order to provide support to their families. This allowed for organizational leaders to have one hundred percent control over how jobs were to be assigned as well as enforcing strict rules and regulations over employees.