In Defence of Organisation Theory: A Reply to the CriticsThis book provides a concise, clear survey and defence of organizational theory. That theory and its associated research has in recent years become subject to strong criticism. Rival perspectives on organizations have been put forward. One of these stresses that organizations need to be understood as made up of individual people. Another asserts the need to see organizations as part of the conflicts and radical struggles in society. These alternative views have led to a host of critiques of conventional organization studies. It is attacked as being tautological, philosophically naive, ideological, and managerially biased. To date there has been no substantial reply to these criticisms by a protagonist of organization theory. This volume uniquely fills that gap. In part one the author examines and rebuts each of the major lines of criticism. In part two the rival approaches suggested by the critics are themselves subjected to an analysis of their limitations. The book concludes with a new model of organizational design which provides a synthesis of previous research. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 17 | |
| 27 | |
| 35 | |
| 47 | |
| 69 | |
| 75 | |
| 85 | |
A critique of alternative programmes in the study | 105 |
Sociology of Organizations | 114 |
Marxian Organization Theory | 123 |
The Strategic Choice Thesis | 135 |
The design of organizations | 155 |
Conclusions | 173 |
Index | 193 |
Organization Theory as ideology | 94 |
Common terms and phrases
actors Administrative Science Quarterly approach argued argument ation behaviour Blau Blau's bureaucratic Burns and Stalker Burrell and Morgan causal central Child Clegg and Dunkerley concepts conflict context contingency contingency theory contradictions conventional Organization criticism critique decision-making differentiation discussion diversification divisional Dunkerley 1980 empirical employees enquiry Etzioni explanation formal framework functional functionalist goals Hage human ideology individual Industrial Industrial Sociology integration interpretive sociology issue ization Lawrence and Lorsch literature Lorsch managerial Marxian Marxism neo-Marxian neo-Marxism nomothetic notion objectives organization structure organization studies Organization Theory organizational analysis organizational design organizational sociology paradigm performance perspective phenomena philosophical political position problems programmatic programme propositions Radical Structuralism reification relations relationships role Rumelt scientific Social Action Theory social system society sociological theory sociologists Strategic Choice struc structural-functional structural-functional theories structural-functionalism structural-functionalist structuralist study of organizations systems theory theoretical theorists theory of organization variables workers
Popular passages
Page 74 - Thirdly, and more hopefully, our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing, and the connexions they have found worth marking, in the lifetimes of many generations: these surely are likely to be more numerous, more sound, since they have stood up to the long test of the survival of the fittest, and more subtle, at least in all ordinary and reasonably practical matters, than any that...
Page 40 - The concept of function as here defined thus involves the notion of a structure consisting of a set of relations amongst unit entities, the continuity of the structure being maintained by a life-process made up of the activities of the constituent units.
Page 136 - ... organization. Paradoxically enough, some of the very theories which promise to make man's own work more intelligible to himself and more amenable to his intelligence are infused with an intangible metaphysical pathos which insinuates, in the very midst of new discoveries, that all is lost. For the metaphysical pathos of much of the modern theory of group organization is that of pessimism and fatalism.
Page 35 - Contrary to the widely held belief that synthesis and mediation between paradigms is what is required, we argue that the real need is for paradigmatic closure. In order to avoid emasculation and incorporation within the functionalist problematic, the paradigms need to provide a basis for their self-preservation by developing on their own account.
Page 18 - ... a system of consciously coordinated activities or forces of two or more persons.
Page 74 - Our common stock of words embodies all the distinctions men have found worth drawing, and the connexions they have found worth marking, in the lifetimes of many generations; these surely are likely to be more numerous, more sound, since they have stood up to the long test of the survival of the fittest, and more subtle, at least in all ordinary and reasonably practical matters, than any you or I are likely to think up in our armchairs of an afternoon . . .'" The social meaning of such a doctrine...
Page 37 - Later scientific theories are better than earlier ones for solving puzzles in the often quite different environments to which they are applied. This is not a relativist's position, and it displays the sense in which I am a convinced believer in scientific progress.
Page 62 - A dimension of differentiation is any criterion on the basis of which the members of an organization are formally divided into positions, as illustrated by the division of labor; or into ranks, notably managerial levels; or into subunits, such as local branches, headquarters divisions, or sections within branches or divisions.
Page 36 - They are alternatives, in the sense that one can operate in different paradigms sequentially over time, but mutually exclusive, in the sense that one cannot operate in more than one paradigm at any given point in time, since in accepting the assumptions of one, we defy the assumptions of all the others.
Page 35 - We firmly believe that each of the paradigms can only establish itself at the level of organizational analysis if it is true to itself. Contrary to the widely held belief that synthesis and mediation between paradigms is what is required, we argue that the real need is for paradigmatic closure.