When you stop and think about it, organisations are curious creatures:-

• sometimes we care so much about them (countries and churches) that we would die for them
• they are our chosen way of organising ourselves to trade necessary supplies (companies) and provide necessary services (hospitals, social services)
• some build their lives around them, others use them to provide for their needs, others use them as tools (or even toys ?)
• they can be constituted as charities, businesses, partnerships, clubs, societies, co-operatives, etc.
• they can be led by entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, directors, trustees, managers, committees, and so on.
• every organisation has its foundation myth, where new recruits are told how and why the organisation began
• every organisation creates policies, and systems to implement them
• some organisations have charters, rules, covenants etc. which bind their operations
• it will use money and effort to achieve its goals
• and, we always complain about them
• are they entities ? do they have their own existence ?
• each organization has multiple stages birth, growth, development, maturity, challenges, combinations (mating and cross-fertilisation), crystallization, decay, and then possibly transformation, otherwise death

This is a sort of check list to study and evaluate organisations we come in contact with.