Org Theory For Prelims

Front 1

9 Frames

Back 1

1. Structural Frame/Machines (Boleman and Deal/Morgan)
2. Human Resources Frame (Boleman and Deal)
3. Political Frame (Boleman and Deal/Morgan)
4. Symbolic Frame/Cultures (Boleman and Deal/Morgan)
5. Organisms (Morgan)
6. Brains (Morgan)
7. Psychic Prisons (Morgan)
8. Flux and Transformation (Morgan)
9. Domination (Morgan)

Front 2

Weick loosely coupled systems

Back 2

The more 2 events share variables, the more closely coupled they are. A loosely coupled system can isolate its trouble spots and prevent trouble from spreading.

Front 3

Garbage can model (March & Olsen 1976) (Cohen, March, and Olsen 1972)

Back 3

an organization "is a collection of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which they might be the answer, and decision makers looking for work". Problems, solutions, participants, and choice opportunities flow in and out of a garbage can, and which problems get attached to solutions is largely due to chance.

Front 4

Organized anarchies

Back 4

characterized by three general properties; problematic preferences, unclear technology, and fluid participation. More specifically, in situations which fail to adhere to the conditions of more classical models of decision making in some or all of three important ways: preferences are problematic, technology is unclear, or participation is fluid.

Front 5

Contingency theory (Hansen 1979)

Back 5

the relationship of the parts must give order and meaning to the whole system. The system makes adjustments to fit into the environment.

Front 6

Boleman and Deal Frames

Back 6

A set of ideas or assumptions that people carry in their head to help them understand a particular theory

Front 7

What are the four frames in Boleman and Deal?

Back 7

1. Rational/Structural
2. Human Resources
3. Political
4. Symbolic

Front 8

Rational/Structural Frame

Back 8

systems rely on goals, roles, and relationships derived from an organization’s environment and technology

Front 9

Human Resources Frame

Back 9

Relies on human fit with organizations

Front 10

Political Frame

Back 10

Relies on power, conflict, and resource distribution

Front 11

Symbolic Frame

Back 11

Assumes irrationality of organizations and relies on rituals, ceremonies, stories, heroes, and myths

Front 12

Structural Perspective/Frame

Back 12

organizational chart, dividing work and coordinating thereafter

Front 13

Bureaucratic (structural) Perspective (Boleman and Deal, 2003) Assumption

Back 13

1. Organizations exist primarily to accomplish established goals and objectives
2. Organizations increase efficiency and enhance performance through specialization and a clear division of labor
3. Appropriate forms of control and coordination ensure that diverse efforts of units and individuals mesh
4. Organizations work best when rationality prevails over personal preferences and extraneous pressures
5. Structures must be designed to fit an organization's circumstances (including goals, technology , environment)
6. Problems and perforance gaps arise due to structural deficiencies and can be remedied through analysis and restructuring

Front 14

Structural Perspective origin

Back 14

1. Taylor and the industrial analysts (time and motion, specialization, span of control, authority, specialization, delegation of responsibility)
2. Weber (fixed division of labor, hierarchy of offices, set of rules to govern performance, seperation of personnel from official property rights, technical qualification for selecting personnel, employment as primary occupation and long term career)

Front 15

Key concepts of Structural Perspective

Back 15

1. Differentiation v. Integration
2. Differation is operationalized through job descriptions, procedures, routines, rules.
3. Integration is operationalized through Vertical and Lateral coordination

Front 16

Differentiation

Back 16

Managers group units together. Can do this based on skill, time, clients, geography, or process.

Front 17

Vertical Coordination

Back 17

Authority, rules and policies, planning and control systems

Front 18

Lateral Coordination

Back 18

meetings, task forces, coordinating roles, matrix structures, networks

Front 19

Structural Imperatives

Back 19

1. Size and age
2. Core Processes (technology that transforms raw materials into desired ends)
3. Environment
4. Strategy and goals (honorific, taboo, stereotypical, existing)
5. Information Technology
6. Workforce Characteristics

Front 20

Structural Delimmas

Back 20

1. Differentiation v integration
2. Gap v overlap
3. Underuse v Overload
4. Lack of clarity v. lack of creativity
5. Excessive autonomy v. excessive interdependence
6. Too loose v. too tight
7. Goal-less v. goal bound
8. Irrisponsible v. unresponsive

Front 21

Structural Configurations

Back 21

1. Mintzberg's Fives
2. Mintzberg's Structural configuration
3. Helgesen's web of inclusion

Front 22

Mintzberg's fives

Back 22

operating core, middle line, strategic apex, techno structure, support staff

Front 23

Mintzberg's structural configuations

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simple structure, machine bureaucracy, professional bureaucracy, divisional form, adhocracy

Front 24

Helgesens web of inclusion

Back 24

Find info

Front 25

Teamwork and interdependence in the Structural model

Back 25

Baseball = loosely integrated federation
Football = sequentially linked organization
Basketball = highly reciprocal, spontaneous, mutually adjusting but total group effort

Front 26

Determinatnts of successfull teamwork in Structural

Back 26

1. Nature and degree of task-related interactions
2. Geographic distribution of unit members
3. where does autonomy reside
4. How is coordinatio achieved
5. What is best description: conglomerate mechanistic, organic
6. What sport expression captures task of managmenet: filling out lineup card, preparing game plan, influencing games' flow

Front 27

Characteristics of high performing teams

Back 27

1. Shape purpose in response ot a demand or opportunity
2. Translate prupose into specifc, measurable performance goals
3. Are of manageable size
4. Develop the right mix of expertise
5. Develop common commitment to working relationships
6. Hold themselves collectively accountable

Front 28

Organizations as machines - Morgan

Back 28

organizations are designed and operated like machines

Front 29

Advantages of Organizations as machines - Morgan

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1. Produce the same product time and time again
2. Precision is at a premium
3. There are straight forward task to perform

Front 30

Disadvantages of Organizations as machines - Morgan

Back 30

1. Difficulty adapting to change
2. Mindless unquestioning of bureaucracy
3. Dehumanizing Effects

Front 31

Classical Management Thoery

Back 31

focuses on the design of the total organization

Front 32

Scientifc Managers focus on...

Back 32

the design and managmeent of individual jobs (Frederick Taylor says owrkers aren't supposed to think)

Front 33

Symbolic Perspective (Boleman and Deal, 2003) - Assumption

Back 33

1. What is most important is not what happens but what it means
2. Activity and meaning are loosely coupled: events have multiple meanings because people interpret experience differently
3. In the face of widespread uncertainty and ambiguity, people create symbols to resolve confusion, increase predictability, find direction, and anchor hope and faith
4. Many events and processes are more important for what is expressed than what is produced. They form a cultural tapestry of secular myths, heroes and heroins, rituals, ceremonies and stories that help people find meaning, purpose and passion.
5. Culture is the glue that holds an organization together and unites people around shared values and beliefs.

Front 34

Symbolic Constructs (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 34

1. Myths, visions, values
2. Heroes Heroines
3. Stories and Fairy Tales
4. Rituals
5. Ceremonies
6. Metaphor, Humor and Play

Front 35

Organizational Process as Theater (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 35

1. Meetings are often garbage cans that attract people, problems and solutions and outcomes depend on what people problems and solutions are the meeting (Cohen and March garbage can model)
2. Planning is a ceremony any reputable organization must conduct periodically to maintain legitimacy
3. Evaluation gives the impression of rationality, efficiency and accountability
4. Collective bargaining is a carefully crafted ritual that delivers the performance that the audience (labor and management) demands
5. Power: you are powerful if others think you are

Front 36

Leading Principles for Symbolic Frame (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 36

1. How someone becomes a group member is important
2. Diversity provides a team's competitive edge
3. Example, not command, holds a team together
4. A specialized language fosters cohesion and commitment
5. Stories carry history and values and reinforce group identity
6. Humor and play reduce tension and encourage creativity
7. Ritual and ceremony lift spirits and reinforce values
8. Informal cultural players make contributions disproportionate to their formal roles
9. Soul is the secret of success

Front 37

Human Resources Perpsective (Boleman and Deal, 2003) - Assumptions

Back 37

1. Organizations exist to serve human needs rather than the reverse
2. People and organizations need each other: organizations need ideas, energy, and talent; people need careers, salaries, and opportunities
3. When the fit between an individual anda system is poort, one or both suffer. Individuals are expoited or exploit the organization, or both become victims.
4. A good fit benefits both. Individuals find meaningful and satisfying work and organizations get the talent and energy they need to succeed.

Front 38

Theories Associated with the Human Resource Frame (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 38

1. Maslow (Physiological, safety, belongingness, esteem, self-actualization)
2. Theory X: people are lazy and prefer to be led (a. hard version: rely on coercion, threats b. Soft version: try to avoid conflict and satisfy peoples' needs
3. Theory Y: essential role of management is to arrange organizations so that people can achieve their own goals best by directing their efforts towards organizational rewards

Front 39

Practices/Examples Associated with the Human Resources Fram (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 39

1. TQM
2. NUMMI
3. OD

Front 40

Skills of the Manager in the Human Resources Frame

Back 40

1. Hire the right people: know what you need and be selective
2. Keep employees
3. Invest in employees
4. Empower Employees
5. Promote Diversity

Front 41

Political Frame Assumptions (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 41

1. Organizations are coalitions comprised of diverse individuals and interest groups.
2. There are enduring differences among coalition members in values, beliefs, information, interests, and perceptions of reality.
3. Monst important decisions involve the allocation of scares resources - who gets what.
4. Scarce resources and enduring differences make convlict central to organizational dynamics and underline power as the most important asset.
5. Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining, negotiation, and jockeying for position among competing stakeholders

Front 42

Significant forms of Power in the Political Frame (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 42

1. Two political roles cental to organizational politics: (a. Authorities: agents of social control b. Partisans: recipients of social control)
2. Sources of Power

Front 43

Sources of power in Political Frame (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 43

1. Position power - authority
2. Information or expertise - power of information and knowledge
3. Control of rewards - hiring, firing, raises, etc.
4. Courcive - strikes, sitins, etc.
5. Alliances and network
6. Access and control of agendas
7. Framing - control of meaning and symbols
8. Personal - charisma, verbal skills, visionaries, etc

Front 44

Key words in the Political Frame (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 44

1. Zones of indifference - those areas/issues that few people care about
2. Overbound - power highly concentrated, everything tightly regulated
3. Underbound - power is diffuse, systems loosely controlled

Front 45

Skills of the Manager as Politician (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 45

1. Agenda Setting
2. Mapping the political terrain
3. Networking and building coalitions
4. Bargaining and negotiation

Front 46

Roles of the Organization in the Poligical Frame (Boleman and Deal, 2003)

Back 46

1. Organizations as arenas: they house diverse interests and agendas
2. Organizations as political agents: operate in larger arenas or ecosystems

Front 47

Forms of Political Rule in Organizations as Systems of Government (Morgan, 2006)

Back 47

1. Autocracy
2. Bureucracy
3. Technocracy
4. Codetermination
5. Representative democracy
6. Direct democracy

Front 48

Interests involve 3 Domains in Organizations as Systems of Government (Morgan, 2006)

Back 48

1. Task interests: connected with work one has to perform
2. Career interests: Aspirations and visions of the future
3. Extramural interests: Personalities, attitudes, preferences

Front 49

Sources of Power in Organizations as Systems of Government (Morgan, 2006)

Back 49

1. Formal Authority
2. Control of scarce resources
3. Use of org structure, rules regulations
4. Control of decision processes
5. Control of knowledge and information (how, when, where information flows)
6. Control of boundaries (interface between different units of an org)
7. Ability to cope with uncertainty (environmental & operational uncertainties)
8. Control of technology
9 Interpersonal alliances, networks, and control of informal organization
10. Control of counter organizations (unions, government controlled monopolies)
11. Symbolism & the management of meaning
12. Gender
13. Structured factors that define the stage of action
14. Power one already has

Front 50

Unitary, pluralistic & radical frames help us understand organizations in Organizations as Systems of Government (Morgan, 2006)

Back 50

1. Unitary organizations have cohesive culture that respects management rights to manage
2. Radical organization have strong divisions of labor
3. Pluralistic organizations often employ lots of professionals with higher degrees of autonomy

Front 51

Scientific Theories employed in the Biological/Institutional perspective (Morgan, 2006)

Back 51

1. Evolutions (Morgan)
2. Biology (Morgan)
3. Contingency Theory (Morgan)
4. Population Ecology Theory (Morgan)
5. Darwinism/Natural Selection (Smith)
6. Punctuated Equilibrium (Smith)
7. Isomorphism (Gates)

Front 52

Open Systems in the Biological/Institutional perspective (Morgan, 2006)

Back 52

Organizations must achieve appropriate relationship with environment to survive
1. Emphasis on enviornment in which organization exist
2. Defines organization in terms of interrelated subystems
3. Attempt to establish congruences between different systems and identify potential dysfunction

Front 53

Open system

Back 53

must attend to the enviornment in which org operates - mutual dependence

Front 54

Homeostasis

Back 54

self regulation and ability to maintain a steady state

Front 55

Entropy/negative entropy

Back 55

closed systems wither (entropy)

Front 56

Structure function differentiation and integration

Back 56

also concepts in biological frame

Front 57

Requisite variety

Back 57

internal regulators must be as diverse as the environment in which they operate

Front 58

equifinality

Back 58

different ways to get to a given end state

Front 59

system evolution

Back 59

depends on ability to move to more complex forms of differentiation and integration - cycle of variation, selection, retention of selected characteristics

Front 60

Contingency Theory in Biological Frame (Morgan, 2006)

Back 60

Adapting organizations to environments

1. Organizations are open systems that must deal with internal and external environments
2. No one best way to organize - depends on task or environment
3. Management's top concern is to align - to create good fits
4. different approaches to management needed to perform different tasks in organizations
5. Different types/species of organizations needed in different types of environments

Front 61

Natural selection in Biological Frame (Morgan, 2006)

Back 61

The population ecology view of organization

1. Natural selection argues that contingency focuses too much on the org and not enough on the environment
2. Natural selection argues that environments select organizations and this can best be done by analysis at the level of populations of organizations and their wider ecology
3. Population ecology - organizations rely on getting sufficient resources from teh enviornment so they compete with other organizations - survival fo the fittest...Survival of the fittest based on cyclical model of variation selection, retention and modification
4. So organizational analysis shifrts form explaining how individual organizations adapt to environments to understand how different species rise and decline and importance
5. This has led to studies on population ecology: populations of organizations and thier birth rates, death rates, and factors that influence org life cycles, growth and decline
6. Critics of population ecology say it i too deterministic, assumes resource scarcity when some resources are renewal - This led to more optimistic view - organizational ecology

Front 62

Organizational Ecology in Biological Frame (Morgan, 2006)

Back 62

The creation of shared futures
1. Population ecology and contingency both view organizations in tension with their environment, but organizations live in ecosystem
2. Ecosystems evolve so some argue evolution is pattern of relations embracing organizations and their environments
3. organizations and environments engage in patter of co-creation - each produces the other
4. So collaboration occurs not just competition
5. Collaboration can make turbulence more manageable

Front 63

Two criticisms for Organizations as Brains

Back 63

1. Decision making views have a left-brain bias
2. Limited intelligence of humans in this frame does not take into account new systems of information management

Front 64

Three types of learning in organizations as brains

Back 64

1. Single Loop
2. Double Loop
3. Holographic brains

Front 65

Single Loop Learning 4 key concepts

Back 65

1. System must have capacity to sense, monitor, scan significant aspects of the environment
2. Must be able to relate this information to operating norms that guide system behavior
3. Must be able to detect significant deviations from these norms
4. Must be able to initiate corrective action when discrepancies are detected

Front 66

Double Loop Learning 4 capacities

Back 66

1. Scanning and anticipating environmental change - environmental change is a norm that must be addressed in an active manner, looking for future trends
2. Challenging operating norms and assumptions - must understand norms and mindset of organization in order to be able to question them (TQM promotes this) but organization must support risk taking and change)
3. Encouraging “emergent” organization contradicts traditional notion of control - rather intelligence, evolves, so management must create reference points, not controls, and reference points must include ability to question the reference points - it is a balance of having noble intentions moderated by understanding limits
4. Designs that facilitate learning management must adopt philosophy that parrots double loop learning

Front 67

Organizations as Holographic Brains 5 Principles

Back 67

1. Build the whole into all the parts
2. The importance of redundancy
3. Requisite Variety
4. Minimum Specs
5. Learning to Learn

Front 68

Concepts and Constructs in the Bureaucratic Perspective

Back 68

Roles
Goals
Levels
Technology
Differentiation/Integration
Efficiency
Hierarchy

Front 69

Concepts and Constructs in the organizations as organisms Perspective

Back 69

External environment
Internal environment
Ecology
Adaptation
Contingency Theory
Organizational Fit
Survival of the fittest
Species

Front 70

Concepts and Constructs in the Brains Metaphor

Back 70

Scanning
Information processing
Information loops
Corrective action
Monitoring systems
Networked intelligence

Front 71

Concepts and Constructs in the Cultures Metaphor

Back 71

Metaphors
Symbols
Stories
Rituals
Ceremonies
Humor

Front 72

Concepts and Constructs in the Politics Metaphor

Back 72

Power
Coalitions
Scarce Resources
Negotiation
Bargaining
Allocation
Conflict
Interests

Front 73

Concepts and Constructs in the Human Resources Frame

Back 73

Human needs
Organizational needs
Good fit
Bad fit
Individual benefits
Organization benefits
Individual suffers
Organization suffers
Subsystems

Front 74

Concepts and Constructs in the Psychic Prison Frame

Back 74

Vision leads to blindspots
Quest for immortality
Archetypes
Patriarchy
Leader dependency
Messiah expectations
Fight/Flight
Transitional objects

Front 75

Concepts in the Flux and Transformations Frame

Back 75

Self-referent
Systems of interaction
Order out of chaos
Loops
Dialectics
Opposites define each other

Front 76

Concepts and Constructs in the Domination Frame

Back 76

Interests of the elite
Charismatic domination
Domination through rules/traditions
Class and control
Work hazards
Occupational disease
Workaholism