1. + Kelly Davis Organizational Theory Spring 2010 Beyond Contingency Theory

2. + Definition/Major Concepts Organizational design should account for: The environment Organizational goals Technology People involved in organization May use “If, then…” formula Focus on structure & fitness

3. + History of Contingency Theory Sociology Weber’s Ideal Type Bureaucracy Aston school Strategy Emphasis on formulating a firm’s competition strategy to its environment Focus on specific practices Resource-based view Economics Transaction cost economics

4. + Current Perspectives Mixed support for classic contingency arguments Additional contingencies emphasized E.g.-Exploration and exploitation structure

5. + Current Ideas Complementarity: org. design should account for the interdependencies in organizations to determine fitness Certain parts of org. should be considered as whole rather than in parts Equifinality: there’s more than one way to skin a cat “The environment (or any other contingency, such as technology or stage of life cycle) determines the functions the organizations must perform, but not its specific structures” (p. 584).

6. + Current Perspectives Networks: inter-firm relationships and clusters influence design Co-evolution: as organizations act, they influence their environments, so orgs. and environments can co-evolve

7. + Applying Contingency Theory to the Information Economy What are some of considerations regarding organizational structure now that we have service- based “intangible” business models? People (consider geographic space and different time zones, virtual teams, etc.) Shareholders Organizational leadership Intangible assets Clusters/Industry

8. + Recent Theoretical Advances Smaller focus on structure, greater emphasis on “structuring” Greater attention on tradeoffs in design Consideration of human component or organizational “software” Appreciation of organizational variety Need for innovation

9. + Answering big OT questions: Why do organizations exist? Why are firms the same/different? What causes changes in organizations? Why do some firms survive and others don’t? What are the emerging issues?