Organization Theory, Tension and Change (David Jaffee)
Chapter 1
Pages 1-41
Organizational theory has become a multi-perspective or multi-paradigmatic field of study: there
are a wide variety of ways to approach the central elements of an organization different
approaches to studying organizations lead to debates and arguments over the essential
characteristics of organizational life
W. Richard Scott outlines the central elements which include:
Social structure: activities, relationships, and interactions that take on a regular pattern
formal social structure: aspects of the social structure that are often formally specified
because they are designed to accomplish a particular organizational task informal social
structure: contains those patterned activities and relationships that emerge naturally, and
which are created by organizational members (they do not exist in written documents,
organizational charts, or job descriptions)
Participants: humans who ‘people’ the organization most organizations rely heavily on
the human factor of production because organizations depend on human labor power
(physical and mental) and because humans (participants) do not automatically exert their
labor when they enter an organization, organizations and their owners face the challenge of
trying to figure out how to extract this human energy; persistent organizational problem
Goals: ‘conceptions of desired ends’, that is, what is the organization trying to achieve?
however, organizations do not have goals, purpose, or intent; ‘organizational goals’ are
human goals, they are usually the goals of those who own or control the organization
since goals are formulated by humans, organizational participants may not share the same
goal goal conflict
Technology: means used by the organization to transform the raw materials of the
organization (physical, informational, or human) into some final product all organizations
use techniques (methods, machines, hardware, software, computers) to process resources
and materials technology shapes many other aspects of the organization
Environment: all things outside the boundaries of the organization that are shaped by or
influence an organization
Scott also made a scheme for categorizing organization theories based on 3 perspectives
(metatheoretical framework: grand theory of how people theorize about organizations):
1. Rational system perspective: organizations are collectivities oriented to the pursuit of
relatively specified goals and exhibiting relatively formalized social structures goals and
formal social structures are the key organizational elements
2. Natural system perspective: organizations as collectivities whose participants share a
common interest in the survival of the system and who engage in collective activities,
informally structured, to secure this end more sociological perspective with its emphasis
on the informal activities of participants, the way behavior in organizations deviates from
formal rules and structures, and the role human participants play in creating organizations
values and cultures
3. Open systems perspective: organizations are coalitions of shifting interest groups that
develop goals by negotiations; the structure of the coalition, its activities, and its outcomes
are strongly influenced by environmental factors emphasis on the environment denotes
an organization that must negotiate with human participants and other organizations
,Richard H. Hall: an organization is a collectivity (group of humans who have something in common)
with a relatively identifiable boundary (boundaries distinguish who is inside and who is outside the
organization establishes common membership), a normative order (rules; implies shared beliefs
and values about the appropriate way to behave and accomplish organizational activities), ranks of
authority (hierarchy), communications system, and membership coordinating systems (procedures)
these mechanisms are designed to reconcile the potential conflict between collective and
individual interests the collectivity exists, on a relatively continuous basis in an environment (it is a
social structure), and engages in activities that are usually related to a set of goals; the activities have
outcomes for organizational members, the organization itself, and for society Hall identifies 3
aspects of organizational reality: structures, processes, and outcomes
Gareth Morgan: argues that how we define, understand, and conceptualize organizations depends
on our mental images of the essential shape and feature of organizations he believes that most
definitions and theories of organization can be associated with an organizational metaphor:
1. Machine metaphor: views organizations as technical instruments used to produce some
outcome the elements of the organization work together with mechanical-like efficiency
to achieve a particular goal people use organizations to coordinate their actions to obtain
something they desire or value rational system perspective
2. Organization as an organism: organizations are like living things that need resources to stay
alive and flourish the survival of an organization depends on the level of competition and
resources combination of natural system and open systems perspective
3. Organization as a brain: organizations are defined as information-processing, decision-
making, or learning entities focus in this metaphor is on the ability to access, use, and
process information for the purpose of learning, decision making, and assessment
organizations make decisions organizational success requires the right kind of decision-
making structures, data gathering apparatus, analytical tools, and collective mind-set able to
translate information into improved organizational processes
4. Organization as a cultural system: organizations are a network of shared meanings that are
sustained through the development and the use of a common language and everyday social
interaction organizations are a set of people who share many beliefs, values, and
assumptions that encourage them to make mutually reinforcing interpretations of their own
acts and the acts of others; organizations are not objective structures but collections of
humans who construct reality with shared meanings and assumptions in order for
organizations to operate, members must define a problem to be solved and they must come
to some mutually agreeable understanding about the best and most appropriate way to
solve the problem natural system perspective
5. Metaphor of political systems: organization is a complex network of competing and
cooperating individuals and coalitions in which conflict is the natural occurrence power
and understanding of its nature and consequences are important in understanding the
organization in organizations, individuals and groups and groups compete for resources,
for attention, for influence, and there are differences of opinion as to the priorities and
objectives to be attained clashes of values and believes occur sometimes emphasis is
on conflict and competition for resources between groups that have different values,
interests, and priorities
6. Organization as a psychic prison: in demanding physical and emotional energy, the rules and
methods of organizations may shape our psyche and control our mental processes
organizations limit our freedom of thought and constrain our body and soul this metaphor
can be used to launch critique or can be used to identify the way we develop patterns of
thought that hinder effective organizational learning and performance
7. Organization as an instrument of domination: the organization is the instrument that
advances the interests of one group at the expense of another; those who can own, control,
and manage organizations advance interests (not the collective will or the general interest)
, organizations control, exploit, dominate, and dehumanize this metaphor is employed
by radical critics of large bureaucracies and global corporations
8. Organization as flux and transformation: organizations are in a constant state of flux or
change
Karl Marx: in terms of the transition from feudalism to capitalism, he emphasized the transfer of
social power from the ownership of land to the ownership of capital ownership of the means of
production in the industrial capitalist society defines the dominant social class: the capitalist class
(capital) those who do not own this must sell their labor power for a wage by entering into
employment relationship with the capitalist owners: the working class (labor) because labor
depends on capital it is an asymmetric and dependent relationship that allows for the subordination
and exploitation of the working class the ability of the capitalist class to exploit workers and
extract surplus value is the basis for profitable production, further investment, and capital
accumulation profitable production requires the control of workers by capitalists
organizational structures and strategies are designed to control the mental and physical labor of
workers the advancement of organizational methods for exploitation had the effect of unifying
the collective resistance of the working class; there is a tension between the effort to increase
efficiency and profitability, and the human labor reaction to these efforts Marx argues that
workers under capitalism suffer from alienation (a sense of separation and detachment) because
they are unable to exercise their distinctive abilities (workers have no control over the process
workers engage only in a small piece of a larger production process and alienate from the larger labor
process)
Émile Durkheim: believed that social solidarity in traditional agricultural society was based on the
similarity in life experiences derived from common activities in a rural community people doing
the same kinds of work develop a common set of beliefs and sentiments that encourage consensus
and integration while minimizing individual differences and conflict: mechanical solidarity in an
industrial society there are growing differences because individuals take on a variety of different
economic roles this undermines the basis of mechanical solidarity and threatens social order and
social integration can produce opposing interests and generate social conflict Durkheim
believed that solidarity would emerge based on interdependence; members of society depend upon
each other for the fulfillment of their needs organic solidarity Durkheim concluded that all
forms of social organization required social integration and social solidarity, and this would be based
on a collective conscience of shared beliefs and sentiments among organizational members that
would serve as a normative form of social control
Max Weber: in most organizations some people command and some people obey these authority
differences are granted legitimacy: how some people are able to exercise the right to command
while others are willing to accept their duty to obey previous societies established authority on
the basis of charisma (based on the personality characteristics of leaders) or tradition (based on
custom or inherited status) in modern industrial societies was rationalization important; authority
was rational-legal (based on the application of rational principles linking means and ends
authority was accepted because it was regarded as necessary to accomplish specific goals) those
occupying positions of authority did so on the basis of their knowledge and ability to rationally direct
social action bureaucracy was based on a rational-legal foundation, and it is the organizational
embodiment of rationality in modern society Weber also believed it suppressed individual
freedom and creativity fundamental organizational tension by people that struggle to resist the
‘iron cage’ of bureaucratic control
Structural functionalism: Talcott Parsons’s model of social system functions, AGIL: adaptation
(refers to the way systems gain access to the resources they need points to the way an
organization will interact with its environment to access resources required for production), goal
, attainment (refers to the establishment and achievement of objectives objective of rational
bureaucratic organizations that construct formal structures to achieve specified goals), integration
(refers to the problem of ensuring the cohesiveness and coordination of society’s members and
activities necessary if organizations are to retain social solidarity and articulate their various
activities), and latency (refers to the way the system sustains and reproduces itself over time through
the transmission of culture and values would involve the socialization and cultural processes
designed to ensure organizational longevity) functionalist model fails to consider the tensions and
contradictions produced by organizations that ultimately contribute to social disorder and instability
(Marx showed how economic production in a class society entails exploitation and alienation which
generate class conflict, Durkheim believed a division of labor that enhanced productive efficiency
also threatened social solidarity, Weber argued that bureaucratic organizational techniques were
dehumanizing) Parsons conceived of organizations as institutions that were responsible for
carrying out a function and together these organizations contribute to the maintenance of social
order Robert Merton: manifest functions (obvious and officially stated purpose of an organization
or institution) and latent functions (unintended, unexpected, and unannounced functions of an
organization)
Conflict theory: based on the assumption that all societies are characterized by ongoing conflict
between groups and persistent social change, because individuals develop different political
interests based on racial, ethnic, class, religious, gender, occupational, or regional affiliation; socially
valued resources tend to be relatively scarce which generates conflict and competition over access to
and the distribution of these resources; social institutions are organized to serve the interests of
those who own and control scarce resources; the struggle between those who possess and those
who do not possess the resources creates instability and change those who are successful at
securing ownership of the scarce resource use organizations as a way to dominate on instability and
exercise control over those who lack these resources organizations are made up of members who
occupy different positions organizational members will develop a variety of conflicting political
interests and may engage in various forms of competition resource ownership is the foundation
for the domination and control of the capitalist class by the working class these classes develop
divergent political interests and struggle over control of the workplace and the distribution of profits
this stimulates changes
Symbolic interactionism: microlevel approach aimed at analyzing individual-level social interaction
it assumes that social order is based on the interpretations we assign and the meanings we
transmit in the process of social interaction without a shared understanding of verbal and body
language, nonverbal cues, gestures, expressions, and demeanor, there would be no social life as we
know it the symbolic language and behavior will depend upon the role or identity that a person
wants to assume or the context in which that person is operating Karl Weick’s enactment and
sensemaking: human organizations place events and stimuli in a framework that is commonly
understood and widely shared in order to motivate and generate human action a language, a
sense of mission, objectives and ways to achieve these objectives, are constructed and defined
(‘enacted’) so that organizational members can make sense of what it is they do and explain what it
is they have done organizations provide a setting, context, language, and set of routines that fuel
the cognitive energy of organizational members how an organization looks, the way it is
structured, and its methods and techniques for achieving some goal, are subjected to symbolic
interpretation
Chapter 2
Intraorganizational level: internal interactions and characteristics of an organization organization
is viewed as a largely closed system
