organisation theory Flashcards
post modern definition of organisation
describes how interactions produce multiple realities
Organisations are sites for enacting power relations, oppression, irrationality and communicative distortion – or arenas of fun and playful irony.
interpretive definition of organisation
describes how interactions produce shared realities
modernists definition of organisation
prescribe how managers can foster effective cultures, improve performance, efficiency etc.
Organisations are objective real entities operating in a real world; when well designed and managed, they are systems of decision and action driven by norms of rationality, efficiency and effectiveness.
modernists view on purpose of organisational theory
The purpose of OT is to find general laws and methods, and techniques of management and control.
Modernists take ideas and methods derived from the hard sciences and apply them to organisation theory which is a social science.
post modernist purpose of organisation theory
The purpose of organisation theory is to destabilise managerial ideologies and modernist modes of organisation, to reveal marginalised and oppressed viewpoints and to deconstruct the role of language in organisations.
Argue that it is not possible to use techniques derived from the hard sciences, which search for an objective truth, because in social life there is no single reality
double hermeneutic
transmission of ideas and practices
theory double hermeneutic
Social scientists’ interpretations: the development of organization theory that describes, explains and criticizes the various forms that organizations take. The domain of organization theory
practical hermeneutic
The domain of organizational practices Social actors’, or agents’, interpretations: the meaningful construction of action that results in the everyday practical, creation and maintenance of organizations by their members.
ontology
concerned with what is real or true and the nature of reality, asks questions like “ what is existence and what is the nature of it
epistemology
concerned with the nature of knowledge and different methods of gaining knowledge asks quesgtions like “what do you know and how do you know it”
realist
Phenomena exist ‘out there’ independent of our perceptual or cognitive structure and attempts to know.
We might not already know its characteristics but this reality exists, is real, and awaits to be discovered by us.
Traditionally associated with the ‘scientific’ method. Widely used in social sciences – where it is considered by many scholars to be relatively problematic.
positivist
Observers can stand back and neutrally observe what they understand to be an external reality.
Positivists can observe without influencing what they observe.
Scientists can objectively test theory by gathering data (‘facts’).
‘the facts speak for themselves.’
Scientists should (and can) remain distant from the data they collect in order to maintain objectivity and avoid bias.
interpretivist
Associated with a relativist ontology – reality is socially constructed.
Knowledge is not objective or value free, but is transmitted to us through ideas, discourse, and experience.
There are no simple facts, only different interpretations of the world.
Aim of research is to understand the ways in which different people interpret the world.
It is not possible to make valid causal statements or predictions about the social world.
