1. ORGANIZATION STUDIES A multidisciplinary perspective comprising interplay of: diverse levels – personal psychology to international networks diverse methodologies – case studies to populations diverse theories – individual motives to chaotic systems This course emphasizes macro-level organization theories, shunning the social psychology of the workplace Units of action are teams, whole organizations, populations Persons act as agents on behalf of their organizations Emergent properties at higher levels of analysis; EX: centralization “Throwing people back out” – are models of individual attitudes & behaviors indispensible for understanding organizational actions? EX: Do organizations trust, support, deceive one another?

2. SOURCE: Knoke (2001: Fig 2-1) Organization Populations    Organizations THE ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIETY Organizational Field

3. Core Concepts Defined Organization: A goal-directed, boundary-maintaining, activity system (Aldrich 1979) Org Form: Rules or procedures for obtaining and acting upon inputs in order to produce an organizational product or response (Hannan & Freeman 1977) Org Population: A homogeneous set consisting of all organizations of a specific form or type Org Field: Aggregate of orgs constituting a recognized area of institutional life (DiMaggio & Powell 1983); Org Field-Net: Configuration of interorganizational relations among org’l field members (Kenis & Knoke 2002) Org Society: Totality of all the organizations in a community, or nation, or the international system

4. Organizational Forms Org forms can be classified on numerous characteristics. Analyst choices depend on theoretical or empirical objectives. ► McKelvey ’ s (1982) classification required huge number of measures to create org taxonomy akin to biological species ► Hannan & Carroll (2000) proposed socially constructed corporate identities – externally developed and enforced codes Some prominent typologies of organizational forms: LEGAL: proprietorship, partnership, corporation, nonprofit, public INDUSTRIAL: NAICS replaced SIC in 2000 STRUCTURAL-RELATIONAL: coercive-remunerative- normative; organic-mechanical; instrumental-expressive (SMOs); Mintzberg’s (1979) five basic forms

5. STRATEGIC APEX MIDDLE LINE OPERATING CORE SUPPORT STAFF TECHNOSTRUCTURE Board of Directors President Executive Committee President’s Staff VP VP Operations Marketing Plant Regional Managers Sales Managers Foremen District Sales Managers Strategic Planning Controller Personnel Training Operations Research Production Scheduling Work Study Tech. Clericals Legal Counsel Public Relations Industrial Relations Research & Development Pricing Payroll Reception Mailroom Purchasing Agents Machine Operators Assemblers Salespeople Shippers Figure 1.2. The Five Basic Parts of an Organization SOURCE: Modified afterMintzberg (1979:20 & 33)

6. ELEMENTS of THEORY Dozens of organization theories purport to account for some generalized dimension of organizational behavior THEORY: Concepts and logically interrelated set of propositions (hypotheses) that explain some significant aspects of observable phenomena Concept: Key element defined by nominal equivalence or list of necessary & sufficient attributes Proposition: Sentence with two or more concepts and a transitive verb connecting them. ► Org Size df = Aggregate amount of resources (physical, fiscal, human) ► Centralization df = Most decisions in org are made hierarchically ► P1: As orgs grow larger, decisionmaking becomes more centralized. ► P2: The more centralized the org, the lower its rate of innovation

7. Are “Org Theories” REALLY Theories? Compared to such natural sciences as physics and chemistry, social theories lack ideal-typical axiomatic-deductive structures. Org theories vary greatly in range of theoretical formalism: ► Positivist perspectives (e.g., economics & org’l ecology) strive for logical rigor & quantification precision ► Interpretive approaches seek accurate representation of subjective meanings that people attach to their org’l worlds Cumulation of theoretical perspectives might be enhanced by systematizing the underlying assumptions and expectations. EX: Peli et al. (1994) applied formal logic to org’l ecology and uncovered an error in one core proposition

8. A TYPOLOGY of ORG THEORIES Closed System ModelsOpen System Models Levels of Analysis 1900-1930 Rational 1930-1960 Natural 1960-1970 Rational 1970-present Natural Social Psychological Scientific Management (Taylor 1911) Decision Making (Simon 1945) Human Relations (Whyte 1959) (Likert 1967) Bounded Rationality (March-Simon 1958) Organizing (Weick 1969) Structural Bureaucratic (Weber 1922) Administrative (Fayol 1919) Cooperative Systems (Barnard 1938) Human Relations (Mayo 1945) Contingency (Lawrence-Lorsch 1967) Comparative Structure (Woodward 1965) (Pugh et al. 1969) (Blau 1970) Socio-technical Systems (Miler & Rice 1967) Ecological Neoclassical Theory of the Firm (Marshall 1890) (Coase 1937) Transaction Cost (Williamson 1975) Evolution (Campbell 1969) (Aldrich 1979) Social Embeddedness & Network Theories (Benson 1975) (Granovetter 1985) Population Ecology (Hannan-Freeman 1977) ResourceDependence (Pfeffer-Salancik 1978) Institutional (Selznick 1949) (Meyer-Rowan 1977) (DiMaggio-Powell 1983) SOURCE: Adapted after Scott (1998:107)