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. 81-82)
 Biggest issue = noncompliance from workers
 Focused on technical details
 Fayol’s General Management
 14 Fundamental principles (p. 82-83)
 Prescriptions for effective organizational structure and design
 Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory
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Organizations = bureaucratic machines
Organizations require speed, precision, certainty, continuity
Organization’s should feature six features (p. 83-84)
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