Despite the concept of organizational goals is one of the cornerstones of organization theory, it remains a riddle what their peculiarity consists in. That is why it gets particularly urgent to scrutinize their nature. The paper gives an orderly and systematic conceptual analysis of the approaches to organizational goal from the historical and critical perspective. Is presented the matrix picture of their evolution in the heart of which is the “zigzag effect”: each posterior stage returns to the essential elements rejected by those preceding it, and the last stage, being diametrically opposite to the first, is, at that, as well as the latter, akin to the intermediate stages. The opportunities afforded by the current paradigm have been exhausted and it seems to run to an impasse. A new approach to break it is outlined: organizational goals are closely interknit with personal, but not reducible to them and bear fundamentally transpersonal character, while the mechanism of involving the preferences of individuals and groups in goal-setting is based on the self-contained interests of the organization they pertain to. The findings, conclusions, and generalizations obtained can serve for a necessary ground to researchers seeking to get deeper into the essence of what bonds organizational life and activity. The material empowers practitioners to comprehend the difficulties of framing cohesive goal and find efficient ways to overcome them. It is of value also to the teachers seeking to present a more exact and elaborate view of teleological foundations of management and organization theory.

Keywords: organizational goals, personal aspirations, group preferences, impersonal functions, organization theory.

Contents

Introduction

Recapitulation: The Extremes Converge

Recapitulation: The Opposite Variations on the Impersonal

Recapitulation: A Circle within Another

The Clue to the Riddle