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February 08, 2005
Structural Analysis Readings
- "Mechanistic and Organic Systems" by Tom Burns and G.M. Stalker
- "The Concept of Formal Organization" by Peter Blau and W. Richard Scott
- "The Five Basic Parts of the Organization" by Henry Mintzberg
Posted by Dan at 10:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Organizational Behavior Readings
Readings post-1957:
- "A Theory of Human Motivation" by Abraham Maslow
- "The Human Side of the Enterprise" by Douglas McGregor
- "Groupthink: The Desperate Drive for Consensus at Any Cost" by Irving Janis
- "Management and Leadership" by John Kotter
- "The Individual and the Organization" by Chris Argyris
Posted by Dan at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 07, 2005
Year of the Rooster Patriots
One of the great side benefits of my program is that it attracts a fair number of international students and people of fairly diverse backgrounds, so you learn about lots of different cultures and their traditions and celebrations. Yesterday, some of the Asian students who celebrate Chinese/Vietnamese New Year--Phi-Hong Ha, Yuan-Chou Chung, Pen-Fan Sun, and Chun-Yi Chen--threw a New Year's Party, complete with traditional Chinese and Vietnamese foods and candies.
Adding to the party was the fact that it was also Super Bowl Sunday, so the game was projected onto a wall, six feet high. Football and spring rolls...tasty!
Posted by Dan at 03:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Interpreting Systems
Organizations are a type of social form and are systems. The system/organization is composed of four things: ideas, materials, people, and the environment. These four things vary greatly depending on the interpretation of "system" that is used to view them. Dick Buchanan has come up with four "places" from which to examine systems:
- System as a Condition. Systems are created and driven by the values therein.
- System as a Set. Systems are determined by human beings and thus are unnatural and arbitrary. Humans bring multiple points of view to the workings of the system.
- System as a Group. Systems are concerned with structure; the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
- System as Assemblage. The whole of the system is the sum of its parts.
You can use these four interpretations throughout to examine theories and views of organizations and their parts. How people design organizations comes out of how they think of organizations (systems). Organizations argue with each other about what an organization is.
Posted by Dan at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Neoclassical Organizational Theorists Readings
Readings from post-WWII through the 1950s.
- Selections from The Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard
- "Foundations of the Theory of Organizations" by Philip Selznick
- "Bureaucratic Structure and Personality" by Robert Merton
- "The Proverbs of Administration" by Herb Simon
- "A Behavioral Theory of Organizational Objectives" by Richard Cyert and James March
Posted by Dan at 01:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack