Module 2
Three Lenses on Organizational
Analysis and Action
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
Our Personal “Schemas”
• Schema defined
 A cognitive structure that represents how individuals
construct their own maps of the social world
• How schemas lead us astray:
 Schemas become outdated
 Schemas are resistant to change
 Schemas become universal rules
 Schemas are incomplete
Class Note: Introduction
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2–2
Three Classic Lenses on Organizations
Strategic Design
Lens
Political
Lens
Organization
Cultural
Lens
Class Note: Introduction
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2–3
Choosing a View of the Organization
• The strategic design lens
 How the flow of tasks and information is designed
 How people are sorted into roles
 How these roles are related
 How the organization can be rationally optimized to
achieve its goals
Class Note: Introduction
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2–4
Choosing a View (cont’d)
• The political lens
 How power and influence are distributed and wielded
 How multiple stakeholders express their different
preferences and get involved in (or excluded from)
decisions
 How conflicts can be resolved
Class Note: Introduction
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2–5
Choosing a View (cont’d)
• The cultural lens
 How history has shaped the assumptions and
meanings of different people
 How certain practices take on special meaningfulness
and even become rituals
 How stories and other artifacts shape the feel of an
organization
Class Note: Introduction
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2–6
The Strategic Design Lens
Strategic Design
Lens
Political
Lens
Organization
Cultural
Lens
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2–7
Key Elements of Organization Design
• Grouping (differentiation)
 Drawing boundaries around clusters of tasks or
activities to define jobs, departments, processes
• Linking (integration)
 Creating links across organizational boundaries
• Alignment
 Positioning elements of the organization (such as
rewards and incentives) to provide access to the
resources and the incentives to do the tasks assigned
Class Note: The Strategic Design Lens
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2–8
Elements of Organization Design (cont’d)
• Task
 Basic element of organization design
 Smallest unit of activities that need to be performed if
organization is to realize strategic goals.
• Tasks vary in:
 Complexity
 Level of routinization
 Interdependence
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2–9
Elements of Organization Design (cont’d)
• Task interdependence varies from low to high
• Kinds of interdependence:
 Pooled: interdependent tasks are undertaken at the
same time
 Sequential: one task is completed and then handed off
for the next stage
 Reciprocal: tasks are conducted in repeated
interaction with each other
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2–10
Forms of Interdependence
Pooled
Sequential
Reciprocal
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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Figure 2.1
2–11
Strategic Grouping
• Basic grouping structures:
 By expertise/function
 By output/product
 By market (geography or customer)
• Hybrid grouping structures:
 Matrix organization
 Front/back structure
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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2–12
Functional Grouping Structure
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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Figure 2.2
2–13
Business or Product Division Structure
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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Figure 2.3
2–14
Marketing Group Structure
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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Figure 2.4
2–15
Functional/Product Matrix
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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Figure 2.5
2–16
Front/Back Structure
Back End
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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Front End
Figure 2.6
2–17
Strategic Linking
• Linking: designing formal/informal structures and
processes to connect and coordinate units
• Linking mechanisms:
 Formal reporting structures that follow organization’s
hierarchy
 Liaison roles
 Integrator roles
 Permanent and temporary cross-unit groups
 Information technology systems
 Planning processes
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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2–18
Strategic Alignment
• Alignment: ensuring that units and individuals
have necessary resources and motivation
• Alignment systems:
 Organization performance measurement systems
 Individual rewards and incentives
 Resource allocation
 Human resource development
 Informal systems and processes
Class Notes: The Strategic Design Lens
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2–19
Strategic Organizational Design Process
• Process of design involves costs:
 Disruption of normal flow of business
 Risk to long-term relationships with key customers and
suppliers
 Stress and anxiety
• Reasons for organization redesign:
 Response to growth of organization
 Management succession stimulates change
 Required as a result of internal problems
 Current design no longer fits external environment
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2–20
The Political Lens on Organizations
Strategic Design
Lens
Political
Lens
Organization
Cultural
Lens
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2–21
Organization as Political System
• Politics may be perceived as dark side of an
organization
• Unwillingness to deal with political aspects of
organization is a serious handicap for anyone
trying to take action in an organizational setting
• Core concepts of the political perspective:
 Interests
 Power
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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2–22
Organization as Political System (cont’d)
• First step: recognizing that interests are important
 Organizational behavior grounded in interests
 Collective interests are those shared by others in a
group or category
 Stakeholders: groups that have a shared “stake”
affected by the organization
Internal stakeholders—those within an organization
 External stakeholders—suppliers, customers, communities,
shareholders

• Next step: analyzing what interests are and what
priority they have individually and collectively
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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2–23
Organization as Political System (cont’d)
• Power: ability to influence behavior of others
• Sources of power:
 Personal characteristics
 Scarce and valued expertise
 Past performance/track record
 Formal position in organization
 Informal position in organization or social network
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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2–24
Organization as Political System (cont’d)
• Influence from social network often more
significant than authority from formal position
• Key factors in power of social networks:
 Size of network
 Number of powerful people in network
 Position in network
 Redundance vs. efficiency
 Acting as an information bridge in a “structural hole” in
an organizational network
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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2–25
Redundant vs. Efficient Networks
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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Figure 2.8
2–26
Sources of Power
• Personal Characteristics
 Energy and physical
stamina
 Focus
 Sensitivity to interests of
others
 Flexibility
 Ability to tolerate conflict
 Ability to submerge one’s
ego in order to get
something accomplished
Class Notes: The Political Lens
Source: Jeffrey Pfeffer, Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in
Organizations (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1992), 165–185.
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
• Scarce and Valued
Expertise
• Track Record
• Formal Position in
Organizational Hierarchy
• Informal Network Position
Figure 2.9
2–27
Using the Political Lens
• Successful political strategies for taking effective
action in organizations can include:
 Mapping interests and power
 Getting “buy-in”
 Finding allies and building a coalition
 Building a network
 Building negotiation skills
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2–28
Commitment Chart
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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Figure 2.10
2–29
Stakeholder Mapping Tool
Class Notes: The Political Lens
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Figure 2.11
2–30
Informal Network
• Network analysis shows how informal
organization gets things done
• Network analysis focuses on three types of
relationship networks:
 Advice network—those on whom others depend to
solve problems
 Trust network—employees who share political
information and back one another in a crisis
 Communication network—employees who talk about
work-related matters on a regular basis
The Press: Informal Network
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2–31
The Formal Network
The Press: Informal Network
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2–32
The Advice Network
The Press: Informal Network
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2–33
The Trust Network
The Press: Informal Network
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2–34
How the CEO Views
the Trust Network
The Press: Informal Network
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2–35
The Trust Network According to Calder
Fleming ———————— Hoberman
The Press: Informal Network
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2–36
The Cultural Lens on Organizations
Strategic Design
Lens
Political
Lens
Organization
Cultural
Lens
Class Note: The Cultural Lens
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2–37
A Definition of Culture
• Culture refers to the symbolic or expressive side
of human life
 Actions, objects, and ideas that carry specific
meanings to particular groups and hence stand for
something
• Culture provides a template on which meanings
are read and actions are based
Class Note: The Cultural Lens
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2–38
Cultural Perspective
• Cultural perspective focuses on meanings people
assign to their respective work experiences
• Key to cultural perspective is symbolism
• Symbols:
 Are cultural objects or artifacts whose form,
appearance, logic, and type can be categorized
 Are produced and used by people and groups within
organizations for certain purposes
 Are always put forth in a particular period and context
 Mean different things to different people
Class Note: The Cultural Lens
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2–39
Organizational Culture
• Culture and control—changing culture to
motivate workers:
 Alter the organizational structure to bring employees
closer to centers of control and decision making
 Create preferred organizational culture directly by
recruitment, selection, training, placement, etc.
 Promote conceptual models of thought and action for
employees to follow

Employees that exhibit exemplary behavior become models of
desirable behavior
Class Note: The Cultural Lens
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2–40
Organizational Culture (cont’d)
• Subcultures
 Groups of people who share common identities based
on characteristics that transcend or override their
prescribed roles and relationships
 May form along class or ethnic lines because of
cultural similarities
• Focus on subcultures emphasizes segmentation
of organization culture
 Divisions form by organizational role, gender, religion,
ethnicity, age, etc.
Class Note: The Cultural Lens
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2–41
Cultural Diagnosis of Organizations
• Six important features of the cultural lens on
organizations:
 Symbols and meaning
 Identity
 Social control
 Subcultures
 Cultural relativity
 Habits and history
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2–42
Some Underlying Dimensions of
Organizational Culture
1. The organization’s relationship to its
environment
2. The nature of human activity
3. The nature of reality and truth
4. The nature of time
5. The nature of human nature
6. The nature of human relationships
7. Homogeneity vs. diversity
The Press: Organizational Culture
Source: Tables adapted from Edgar H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership.
Copyright © 1985 by Jossey-Bass, Inc., Publishers. Used with permission.
Copyright © 2005 South-Western. All rights reserved.
Table 2.2
2–43
The Action Company Paradigm
The Press: Organizational Culture
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Figure 2.1
2–44
The Multi-Company
Paradigm
The Press: Organizational Culture
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Figure 2.2
2–45
Dynacorp Organization Chart
Case: Dynacorp Revisited
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Figure 2.1
Transparency 2.30
2–46
Dynacorp U.S. Customer Operations
Case: Dynacorp Revisited
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Figure 2.2
Transparency 2.31
2–47