Organization Theories In The Making

Understanding of the history and development of organization theory has recently made advances through work emerging on the history of management thought as well as through the institutionalization of critical approaches to organizations and organizational knowledge. This book provides a new reading of the historical development of organization.

This new text takes a unique practice-based approach, identifying questions, problems and issues that are perceived as pertinent by practitioners, and using these as the starting point to identify the relevant theories.

Organization Theory: Tension and Changeprovides the most current and concise analysis of the development and evolution of organizational theories, forms, and practices, from the rise of the factory system to the emergence of the virtual global organization. Using a wide variety of examples and applications from private- and public-sector organizations, the text emphasizes the tensions, contradictions, and paradoxes inherent in all organizational arrangements. In addition to the classic themes such as scientific management, human relations, rational bureaucratic models, and environmental models, the book explores emerging organizational forms based on lean and flexible production, post-bureaucracy, alliancess, and networks, virtual organization and information technologies, corporate cultures, learning organizations, transnational commodity chains, and post-modernism.

Public sector organizations are fundamentally different to their private sector counterparts. They are multi-functional, follow a political leadership, and the majority do not operate in an external market. In an era of rapid reform, reorganization and modernization of the public sector, this book offers a timely and illuminating introduction to the public sector organization that recognizes its unique values, interests, knowledge and power-base. Drawing on both instrumental and institutional perspectives within organization theory, as well as democratic theory and empirical studies of decision-making, this text addresses five central aspects of the public sector organization: goals and values leadership and steering reform and change effects and implications understanding and design. This volume challenges conventional economic analysis of the public sector, arguing instead for a democratic-political approach and a new, prescriptive organization theory. A rich resource of both theory and practice, Organization Theory for the Public Sector: Instrument, Culture and Myth is essential reading for anybody studying the public sector.

From agency theory to power and politics, this indispensable guide to the key concepts of organization theory is your compass as you navigate through the often complex and abstract theories about the design and functioning of organizations. Designed to complement and elucidate your textbook or reading list, as well as introduce you to concepts that some courses neglect, this historical and interdisciplinary account of the field: - Helps you understand the basics of organization theory - Allows you to check your understanding of specific concepts - Fills in any gaps left by your course reading, and - Is a powerful revision tool Each entry is consistently structured, providing a definition of the concept and why it′s important to theory and practice, followed by a summary of current debates and a list of further reading. This companion will provide you with the nuts and bolts of an understanding that will serve you not just in your organization studies course, but throughout your degree and beyond. Key concepts include: agency theory; business strategy; corporate governance; decision making; environmental uncertainty; globalization; industrial democracy; organizational change; stakeholder theory; storytelling and narrative research; technology and organization structure.

Offering more than 40 works on organizational behaviour, this text provides the framework for understanding the articles' place in the history of the field and the impact that particular articles have had on the field of organizational behaviour.

This title shows how, over the last 25 years, the field of organisation theories (OTs) has been providing stimulating, thoughtful, and innovative perspectives. It also invites graduate students and early career researchers to learn how recent theories view and portray the organisation.

This book reviews the evolution of organization theory literature and explains other theories of organization and the implicit wisdom of the instructor's favorite theory. It helps the reader to understand the relevance of organization theory to the problems of administering public organizations.