Sz Organizational Communication Chapter 3

Front 1

Scientific Management perspective

Back 1

Theoretical approach to organizations that emphasizes organizational design, worker training for efficiency, chains of command, and division of labor. These perspective rests on the assumption that work and organizations can be rationally or "scientifically" designed and developed.

Front 2

Time and motion

Back 2

Technique for determining the efficiency of production through work observation and time measurements; used to develop work standards that can be measured for efficiency.

Front 3

Fayol's bridge

Back 3

Horizontal communication between peers.

Front 4

Bureaucracy

Back 4

Organizations based on formalized rules, regulations, and procedures, which make authority rational as opposed to charismatic or traditional.

Front 5

Chain of command

Back 5

Formal authority and reporting structure of an organization.

Front 6

Human Behavior perspective

Back 6

Theories of organizations that emphasize the interactions of individuals, their motivations, and their influence on organizational events.

Front 7

Hawthorne effect

Back 7

Group norms that influence productivity apart from the physical production enviroment.

Front 8

Theory X-Theory Y

Back 8

McGregor's description of management assumptions about workers. Theory X characterizes assumptions underlying Scientific Management theory, and Theory Y is associated with assumptions common to Human Behavior perspectives. Theory X managers assume that workers dislike work and will avoid responsible labor. Theory Y managers believe that workers can be self-directed and self-controlled.

Front 9

Participative management

Back 9

Likert's theory of employee-centered management based on effectively functioning groups linked together structurally throughout the organization.

Front 10

Intergrated Perspectives

Back 10

Theories that attempt to explain how people, technologies, and environments integrate to influence goal-directed behavior.

Front 11

Decision-making approach

Back 11

Simon's concept that organizational behavior is a complex network of decisions, with decision-making processes influencing the behavior of the entire organization.

Front 12

Bounded rationality

Back 12

Assumption that people intend to be rational, but with limited information-processing capacity, human decision making is based on selevtive perception and therefore exhibits "limited" rationality.

Front 13

Sociotechnical integration

Back 13

Theoretical attempt to balance human social-psychological needs with organizational goals; an assumption that organizational production is optimized through optimizing social and technical systems.

Front 14

Contingency theory

Back 14

Approach that rejects the "one best way" to organize in favor of the view that no specific set of prescriptions is appropriate for all organizations. As such, organizations must adapt to changing circumstances and the needs of individuals and the environment in which the organization operates.

Front 15

Systems theory

Back 15

Describes organizations as made up of subsystems that take in materals and human resources, process materials and recources, and yield a finished product to the larger environment.

Front 16

Autopoiesis

Back 16

Process describing each element in a system simultaneously combining the maintenance of itself with the maintenance of the other elements of the system.

Front 17

Dissipative structures

Back 17

Descriptions of structures when a loss of energy and form contributes to disequilibrium, which in turn contributes to growth and new structures and forms.

Front 18

Self-organizing or self-renewing systems

Back 18

Processes occurring when disturbances amplify stimulating reconfigurations to deal with new information.

Front 19

Chaos theory

Back 19

Description of systems disturbed from stable states to states of unpredictability.

Front 20

Learning organizations

Back 20

Organizations gaining knowledge from continuous processes of information exchange between the organization and its environments.

Front 21

Cultural approaches

Back 21

Theories that describe how organizational members collectively interpret the organizational world around them to define the importance of organizational happenings. Approaches to theory that explain organizational behavior in terms of the influence of cultures that exist both internally and externally to the organization.

Front 22

Theory Z

Back 22

Ouchi's theory derived from comparisons between Japanese and American organizations Theory Z organizations retain individual achievement and advancement as a model but provide a continuing sense of organizational community not typical of many U.S. organizations.

Front 23

Postmodern and Critical Perspectives

Back 23

Theories that focus on power and domination and on challenges to hierarchy, bureaucracy, and management control.

Front 24

Feminist Perspectives

Back 24

Theories that critique the gendered assumptions of modern organizations and call for the recognition and valuing of multiple voices and perspectives.