Organization Theory – Part 1 Chapter 4 Discussion/Recap

Scientific and Classical Management  Organizations = “machinelike objects driven by management plan and control” (p. 80)  Members/Employees = Parts of machine  Efficient work design + organizational structure = Effective organizational performance  Management/authority drive organization  Money as employee’s biggest motivation

Scientific and Classical Management  Taylor’s Scientific Management  One best way to perform job, scientifically selected personnel, compensation based on incentive (not hourly), & labor divided/planned by management (p )  Biggest issue = noncompliance from workers  Focused on technical details  Fayol’s General Management  14 Fundamental principles (p )  Prescriptions for effective organizational structure and design  Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory  Organizations = bureaucratic machines  Organizations require speed, precision, certainty, continuity  Organization’s should feature six features (p )  Authority + predictability = positive organizational outcomes

Transitional Theories  New considerations from scientific and classical theories  Power  Compliance  Different behaviors of organizational members  Importance of communication

Transitional Theories  Follett’s Administrative Theory  Reciprocal response and universal goal of integration  Building and sustaining democracy  Shared power  Possible? Good? Bad?  Employee representation  Barnard’s Executive Functions  Individual behavior (differs)  Willingness to comply  Communication

Human Relations Movement  Social processes > management design  The Hawthorne Studies  Importance of interpersonal communication, group dynamics, and members’ attitudes  Different meaning assigned to conditions and experiences  People oriented management  Consider social needs, listen to workers, involve in decision making, friendliness  Wal-Mart?  Criticized and called highly manipulative management communication strategies  Agree? Disagree?

Human Resource Development  Participation  better performance  improved morale  improved performance (form of self development)

Human Resource Development  Maslow’s Need Hierarchy  Physiological (lowest level), safety, social, esteem, self-actualization (highest level)  Lower level needs  higher level needs  McGregor’s Theory X and Y  Manager’s assumptions about employees (human nature)  Theory X (workers less motivated; managers use more control)  Theory Y (workers want to do their job; more self-control and trust)  Likert’s Four Systems  System four most ideal  Open communication  Decentralized decision making and control processes  Free information flow  Participative management

Prescriptive Theories vs. Contingency Theory

Organization Theory – Part 2 Chapter 5 Discussion/Recap

Metaphors of Biology  Concerned with “structure, function, and development of human systems and the people who constitute these systems” (p. 104)

System Theory  Wholeness  Synergy  Hierarchy  Elements – Subsystem – System – Environment  Employees – Groups/Depts./Divisions – Organization – Pubic/Environment  Openness  Exchange with environment; adapt to environment  Feedback  Negative – maintenance – regulatory  Positive – adaptation – change and growth  Role of Communication  “…all of the human processes that define an organization arise from communication”  Communication forms/impacts relationships, interactions of subsystems, feedback

Products of System Theory  Weick’s Theory of Organizing  Equivocality Reduction  Fundamental Propositions  Little equivocality = Rely more on rules  More equivocality = more communication (interlocked behavior cycles) required  Equivocality impacts usefulness of rules  Evolutionary Metaphor  Humans as active, not passive  Retrospective Sense Making  Reflect on organizational experiences and actions; process meaning  Luhmann’s Social Systems Theory  Systems comprised of communication  Communication as episodes; can be stable or change  Decision contingencies

Evolutionary Psychology  ‘Human behavior and culture influenced by innate psychological mechanisms’ (p. 119)  Use mechanisms to handle problems  Examples (p. 120)  Primitive emotional contagion  Reciprocal altruism  Preference for similarity  Sensitivity to prestige hierarchies