Talking About Organizations Podcast

Sep 2/2023

Talking About Organizations has always been a free resource, available to students and scholars of organizations and management for almost 10 years now! Unfortunately, it is not free to produce, so we are turning to you, our listeners, to please help us keep the show on air, ad free, and without any paywalls!If you value[...]
We conclude our look at Lawrence Peter’s The Peter Principle by discussing why the Principle is timeless is its quality. Our contemporary experiences with hierarchies may have changed due to greater mobility of workers, but the Principle itself provokes our thinking about management. We also discuss how Peter used satire to present his points and[...]
The diligent administrative assistant moves up to supervisor but fails. The assembly line worker is promoted to foreman but cannot do the job. A teacher earns a deputy principal position in a school but falls flat on their face. Why is that? Why does this seem to happen across organizations?In The Peter Principle, Lawrence J.[...]
We will provide our take on The Peter Principle, the book that provided the old adage, “In a hierarchy, everyone rises to their level of incompetence.” While the book was written as satire, it touched a nerve of many people frustrated about organizational life. A fun episode!
We conclude the episode by looking to the present day and how the negotiations over work visibility has evolved since the turn of the 21st century. Have the emergence of social media, emergence of general computing platforms over the proprietary systems from the 1990s, and increased competitive pressures driving quests for efficiency challenged or reinforced[...]
In this episode, we focus on the emerging discourse from the 1990s on how automated systems would potentially change the very meaning of work. The discussion is on a seminal work of Susan Leigh Star and co-author Anselm Strauss, “Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology of Visible and Invisible Work,” published in CSCW’s[...]
We will discuss Susan Leigh Star’s “Layers of Silence, Arenas of Voice: The Ecology of Visible and Invisible Work,” published in Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in 1999. The article deals with the challenges and risks of automating work processes without due consideration of all the invisible work done in an organization that systems designers might overlook.
Since Edelman’s two articles were published, a lot of research has followed into the ever-evolving environment engulfing organizations and the legal systems they operate under. It is more important to comply with the letter of the law or its intent? Why do organizations expend so much energy trying to avoid legal liability rather than pursue[...]
In this episode, we explore two articles from Lauren Edelman, “Legal Ambiguity and Symbolic Structures: Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights Law” from 1992 and “The Endogeneity of Legal Regulation: Grievance Procedures as Rational Myth” from 1999. These studies showed a wide variety of organizational responses to the enactment of civil rights legislation, but that certain[...]
Coming soon! We examine the works of Lauren Edelman who explored organizations and their responses to new laws that impact their relationships with employees. Using civil rights laws as an illustration, she shows how ambiguities in the law and unclear enforcement mechanisms contribute to organizations having to define and measure compliance themselves, leading to outcomes[...]
Professional competition both within the personal problems jurisdiction and from outside it (e.g., insurance and accounting) continued to shape the availability and quality of mental health care to the present day. Yet the landscape has changed – social stigmas against those seeking mental health care seem to have waned. Yet, the cost and lack of[...]
In this episode, we return to Andrew Abbott’s The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor from 1989 to study in depth one of his case studies that may illuminate the present-day mental health crises gripping many nations from the COVID-19 pandemic. “The Construction of the Personal Problems Jurisdiction” chronicles how[...]
We return to Andrew Abbott’s System of Professions and examine the third of his case studies that informed his conceptual framework for understanding professional work and jurisdictional claims. “The Construction of the Personal Problems Jurisdiction” chronicled how social changes from the Industrial Revolution led to the maladjustment and isolation felt by many. As a result,[...]
The 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman became a seminal text for several emergent subfields such as impression management and symbolic interactionism, while also greatly influences studies of organizational behavior. But it was also a product of its time, with its many examples and explanations rooted in societal norms[...]
Erving Goffman’s 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life was an important attempt at explaining both apparent and hidden human behaviors across social and organizational settings. Through a comprehensive framework employing theater as a metaphor, he describes the roles of people as performers and members of an audience who try to shape the[...]
Our next episode features Erving Goffman’s 1959 book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life that presents a comprehensive framework for understanding human interactions and impression management. Through numerous examples, he explains how humans in social settings try to read and shape the environment so they can act accordingly within it and generate the desired[...]
In the conclusion of this episode on Meyer and Rowan’s “Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony,” we review some of the studies that followed and how well the author’s arguments have stood the test of time. We explore contemporary examples that show how conformity to institutionalized rules is necessary for organizations to survive,[...]
In this month’s episode, we discuss John Meyer and Brian Rowan’s famous 1977 article “Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony.” In it, they argued that “institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs function as powerful myths, and many organizations adopt them ceremonially” (p. 340), even if they result in organizations becoming less efficient[...]
We explore John Meyer and Brian Rowan’s famous 1977 article “Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony.” Coming at a time when rational theories of organizing faced multiple challengers, Meyer and Rowan proposed that institutionalization of socially accepted (or demanded) norms played a significant role in driving formal structures. The article has led to[...]
We sit down with Woody Powell and Bob Gibbons who, since 2016, have been organizing the summer institute on Organizations and Their Effectiveness at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) in Stanford, California. We ask them to reflect on the history of CASBS and the summer institute, the value of fostering interdisciplinary[...]
We conclude our discussion of Alvin Gouldner two-part article, “Cosmopolitans and locals: Toward an analysis of latent social roles.” In the second part of the article, Gouldner presented an initial proposal for a taxonomy of four types of locals and two types of cosmopolitans as a way kickstart the broader research agenda. However, this groundbreaking[...]
Alvin Gouldner wrote the article, “Cosmopolitans and locals: Toward an analysis of latent social roles” in 1957 to propose that through the 1950s latent roles had been seriously overlooked by scholars. Manifest roles, described as those roles and role identities that are directly related to one’s defined position in the organizational structure, had been the[...]
We will discuss a two-part article by Alvin Gouldner titled “Cosmopolitans and Locals: Toward an Analysis of Latent Social Roles.” Before 1957, studies on work roles focused solely on manifest roles that emerged directly from the positions held. The hidden or unstated work roles had not been studies. Gouldner’s article argued that this was a[...]
We conclude our discussion of Arthur L. Stinchcombe’s book chapter, “Social Structure and Organizations,” by looking at the present-day impacts. As a foundational text, Stinchcombe’s work has influenced numerous subsequent studies and has been cited tens of thousands of times. In this second part, we discuss how while Stinchcombe’s primary focus was on how societies[...]
In a famous chapter in James G. March’s 1965 book, Handbook of Organizations, Arthur L. Stinchcombe laid out a case for expanding the study of organizations outward to include social structure bringing attention to innovation as well as imprinting and inertia. He posited that societies had significant effects on how organizations emerge and operate and[...]
We will discuss the 1965 pathbreaking essay “Social Structure and Organizations” by Arthur L. Stinchcombe, where he articulated how societies had significant effects on organizations and that organizations in turn had effects on society. Listen to this discussion on a foundational text in organization studies.
We conclude our discussion of Barley & Kunda’s article in Organization Science titled “Bringing Work Back In.” We ask ourselves to what extent are the author’s argument still valid (in short, they certainly are) and how much more urgency there is to understand the work context given the rapid shifts in technology and the reweaving[...]
In their 2001 Organization Science article “Bringing Work Back In,” Steven Barley and Gideon Kunda lamented how the study of work, its organization, and its performance shifted after the 1950s. Work was the center of attention among the classic era of organization studies beginning with Frederic Taylor, but afterward, the focus shifted to post-bureaucratic concepts[...]
Coming soon! We will discuss Steven Barley and Gideon Kunda’s critique about how the study of work, its organization, and its performance were no longer the focus of organization studies and call for a renewed focus on work in current research.
We conclude our discussion of Alfred Sloan’s “My Years at General Motors” with a look at the post-war automotive boom to the present day and the introductions of electric cars, foreign manufacturers establishing operations within the US, and the future of transportation. We also discuss how newer emerging technologies and lean manufacturing initiatives have changed[...]
Alfred Sloan was President, Chairman, and CEO of General Motors from 1923 to 1956. His memoir “My Years at General Motors” tells his story about how he took a corporation consisting of several disparate and competing companies and shaped them into division that manufactured cars tailored to different segments of society. He constantly pursued and[...]
Coming soon! We will dive into the history of the automotive industry with a look at Alfred Sloan’s famous memoir, “My Years at General Motors.” The book chronicles the growth of General Motors and the industry from the 1920s through the 1950s and how the corporation overcame economic crises, World War II, and the post-war[...]
We conclude our discussion of Frederick Herzberg’s book “The Motivation to Work” and the Two-Factor theory of job satisfaction it presents. What are the implications for contemporary managers and workers? To what extent do employers default to dealing with environmental issues to stem complaints rather than takes steps to improve performance and reward achievement?
Frederick Herzberg’s “The Motivation to Work” presents the results of over 200 interviews with engineers and accountants working in the Pittsburgh area regarding what satisfied and dissatisfied them on the job. They would find that factors leading to satisfaction, such as achievement and performance, were very different than those leading to dissatisfaction, such as company[...]
Coming soon! We will discuss the studies that led to Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory of job satisfaction, published in the book “The Motivation to Work” with colleagues Bernard Mausner and Barbara Snyderman. The studies included interviews with over 200 engineers and accountants regarding what satisfied and dissatisfied them on the job.
We conclude our discussion of Joan Acker’s article “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations,” from 1990 and bring the ideas of feminist theories of organization to contemporary times. From economic difficulties to the effects of the pandemic, workers are increasingly having to balance work with the need to provide care to their families,[...]
Joan Acker’s 1990 article “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations” was a significant work in feminist theories of organizations. She charged that prior feminist research had wrongly assumed that organizational structures were gender neutral. Instead, everything about organizations from structures to symbols are inherently gendered, and until that was acknowledged and studied, organizations[...]
We will discuss Joan Acker’s article “Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations,” from 1990. This article signaled a clarion call to change the direction of organizational research to acknowledge the inherent gendering built into processes and structures in the workplace. This would allow for the development of organizations that would be more democratic[...]
We conclude our discussion of the classic book The Management of Innovation from Tom Burns and G. M. Stalker with a look at contemporary myths of innovation, such as the idea that innovation can or should be outsourced to small “start-up” style firms or that innovators or the process of innovation should be separated from[...]
Why do firms seemingly have difficulties converting new ideas into goods or services? The answer is in the classic book The Management of Innovation from Tom Burns and G. M. Stalker that explored the difficulties that firms, industries, and even nations had in innovating due to the disruptions that it brings to power structures and[...]
Coming soon! We will discuss The Management of Innovation from Tom Burns and G. M. Stalker, a classic of innovation theory and the source of an important theoretical construct – the mechanistic and organic systems of management. Their aim was to understand the fit of these systems with different conditions and the conflict and barriers[...]
We conclude our discussion of Invictus by looking through an organizational perspective at sports, social change, and the ways leaders manage organizations to build inclusive cultures. While sports can unite people, we also discuss how sports can also create or exacerbate tensions. How does one reap the possible benefits of sport and connect it to[...]
The 2009 film Invictus tells the story of how the first post-Apartheid President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, used sports as a unifying force to overcome lingering and bitter racial divides in the nation. The movie and the real-life events that inspired it are powerful. We will look at it through an organizational lens and[...]
We go to the movies – looking at the 2009 film Invictus through an organizational lens. It tells the story of Nelson Mandela from the time of assuming the Presidency of South Africa to the nation’s hosting of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. How did Mandela use sport to unite a bitterly divided nation and[...]
We conclude our discussion of Zuboff’s "In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power" by projecting her conclusions to the present day. On the one hand, many of her findings about the creative ways that management reasserts its authority are still relevant today, but she had also offered strategies for[...]
This month, we discuss Shoshana Zuboff’s "In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power" that examines several cases of organizations introducing information technologies in the workplace hoping to improve organizational performance, transparency, and collaboration but instead dehumanized the workplace and ushered in new ways of managerial surveillance. In Part 1,[...]
Coming soon! We will discuss Shoshana Zuboff’s ethnographic study of how work changed with the introduction of information technologies in the 1980s. "In the Age of the Smart Machine" discusses how computers changed the meaning of work for both front line industrial workers and their managers, telling a rich cautionary tale about how these technologies[...]
We conclude our discussion of Lupton’s "On the Shop Floor" by looking at both the importance of the study as a classic example of ethnography and the benefits of participant-observation, followed by the application of Lupton’s findings in the modern post-pandemic workplace. To what extent do contemporary concerns such as the “great resignation” or “quiet[...]
This month, we discuss examine Lupton’s famous study of worker-management relations, On the Shop Floor: Two Studies of Workshop Organization and Output published in 1963. Tom Lupton spent 12 months as a factor worker in two different settings examining why workers intentionally worked at a level below management expectations. He found that social structures formed[...]
We will examine Lupton’s famous study of worker-management relations, On the Shop Floor: Two Studies of Workshop Organization and Output published in 1963. This significantly overlooked study examined social structures in the workplace that kept production levels below that expected by management and why they were permitted. His findings may provide some insights into similar[...]
We conclude our discussion of Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger’s "Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation," focusing on what occurred since the book’s publication. While communities of practice and their development and management have fueled active conversations, this was not necessary the intended direction of the book. In fact, the book raised more questions about situated[...]
This month, we discuss Jean Lave & Etienne Wenger’s Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, published in 1991. This short but powerful book presents a new way of thinking about adult learning as a social activity in which experienced members of a group or community of practice share their knowledge with new members to perpetuate the[...]
We will examine Lave & Wenger’s (1991) renowned book "Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation" that developed a novel theory of learning. This short but powerful book presents a new way of thinking about adult learning as a social activity in which experienced members of a group share their knowledge with new members to perpetuate the[...]
We conclude our presentation of this year’s professional development workshop (PDW) on key approaches to the study of work with a panel discussion. Presenters Steve Barley, Gina Dokko, Ingrid Erickson, and Davide Nicolini answer some challenging questions about work, its management, and related social issues. This PDW was held at the 2022 Annual Meeting of[...]
We continue with two more presentations from this year’s professional development workshop (PDW) on key approaches to the study of work. Ingrid Erickson presents on the Computer Supported Collaborative Work tradition, and Davide Nicolini discusses the Tavistock Institute and associated socio-technical systems tradition. This PDW was held at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Academy[...]
This year’s professional development workshop (PDW) on Classics of Organization and Management Theory explored key approaches to the study of work and was held at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Seattle, Washington in the U.S. It represents the fourth edition of a standing series showcasing the enduring relevance of early[...]
We will present a recording of the presentations and panel discussion of a professional development workshop (PDW) on approaches to the study of work. This was held at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in Seattle, Washington in the U.S.
We conclude our discussion of organizational secrecy using the Manhattan Project during World War II as a case study, focusing mostly on the aftermath. As the devastating effects of employing nuclear weapons is realized, key scientists from the Manhattan Project hoped that they would be banned. Instead, the Cold War ensued and proliferation became a[...]
We are examining organizational secrecy using the Manhattan Project during World War II as a case study. The Manhattan Project came about following the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 and the understanding that Nazi Germany was trying to develop a powerful weapon that could change the course of the war. Naturally, the American effort[...]
We will examine organizational secrecy using the Manhattan Project during World War II as a case study. The Manhattan Project was an effort to devise, develop, and test the world’s first nuclear weapons, an effort whose public disclosure could have been devastating. From the case, we will examine what organizations decide needs to be kept[...]
We conclude our discussion of Follett’s Dynamic Administration with a look at contemporary issues. The COVID-19 pandemic arguably made pragmatists of many of us as we navigated the challenges and shifted to different modes of working! But as the pandemic recedes to an uncertain new normal, now what? Can we sustain and grow ‘power-with’ and[...]
We return to the works of Mary Parker Follett and expand upon “The Law of the Situation” that we covered in Chapter 5. In this episode, we revisit Dynamic Administration with a look at the first five chapters as a whole – focusing on Chapter 1 (“Constuctive Conflict”), Chapter 3 (“Business as an Integrative Unity”),[...]
We return to the works of Mary Parker Follett and explore her ideas on professionalizing business. Expanding on our examination of her “law of the situation” in Episode 5, we look at constructive conflict, organizational integration, and power. Together, these ideas represent a pragmatic approach to business where collaboration is the norm and channels competition[...]
As we conclude our discussion of James D. Thompson’s Organizations in Action, we focus on the final chapters where Thompson proposes his theory of administration whose basic function is proposed as co-alignment. This meant that organizations had to synthesize the needs and perspectives of individual members with the many streams of institutionalized action performed by[...]
We examine James D. Thompson’s Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory from 1967 that established a new direction in organization studies. Beginning with a recapitulation of the theoretical work of the time, Thompson expanded the dominant rational model of organizing with the emerging ideas about human behaviour, complexity, and the relation between[...]
We will examine James D. Thompson’s Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory from 1967 that proposed a new theory of administration based on a synthesis of rational and natural models of organization and ushered management into an open-systems paradigm. A class of administrative science that still informs organizational research today!
In the conclusion of our examination of Herbert Kaufman’s “The Forest Ranger: A Study in Administrative Behavior,” published in 1960, we bring the results of the study to contemporary times and look at how public sector organizations have evolved in the past six decades. As Kaufman would explain in an afterword in the revised version[...]
This month’s episode examines a classic study in public administration, Herbert Kaufman’s “The Forest Ranger: A Study in Administrative Behavior,” published in 1960. The U.S. Forest Service was a widely distributed organization with its many Rangers individually assigned to manage large tracts of public land. It would have been easy for the Forest Service to[...]
This month’s release is on Herbert Kaufman’s study of forest rangers in the 1950s, looking at how the Forest Service worked to keep hundreds of Rangers scattered around the country unified under a common purpose and vision. The study is a classic of public administration and organizational behavior, showing various techniques that public sector organizations[...]
In the conclusion of our examination of Isabel Menzies’ “A Case-Study in the Functioning of Social Systems as a Defence Against Anxiety,” we discuss more contemporary sources of anxiety and the various individual and collective methods used to defend against it. We generally found that what produces stress and how we cope with it may[...]
This month’s episode examines one of the classic studies from the Tavistock Institute, Isabel Menzies’ “A Case-Study in the Functioning of Social Systems as a Defence Against Anxiety.” This famous study of how a teaching hospital developed odd and somewhat dysfunctional methods for protecting its nurses from anxiety and stress by effectively isolating nurses from[...]
This month return to one of the classic studies from the Tavistock Institute, Isabel Menzies’ famous study of how a teaching hospital developed odd and somewhat dysfunctional methods for protecting its nurses from anxiety and stress. Listen here for a quick summary of the episode.
In the conclusion of our examination of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, we look more closely at how the text and its central ideas have been adopted in popular literature covering everything from business competition to personal relationships! But how does one judge whether or not an adaptation is suitable or if it is[...]
This month’s episode examines war and how principles derived from it are presently applied to other organizational and management contexts. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is an ancient text that emerged from the Warring States period that lasted from the 5th through 3rd centuries B.C. and engulfed most of modern mainland China. It embraced[...]
Now released! In our History & Culture series, we will examine Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. War is often used as a metaphor for other forms of competition, such as business and there are plenty of books in popular literature that appropriate Sun Tzu’s ideas for other purposes. But what does the text itself[...]
We are expanding our program and website! Opportunities to help us make TAOP a go-to resource for org. theory and management science! Find out here what we will be doing, and you might win a copy of March & Simon's Organizations! The survey is available here and is open until 13 March 2022: https://forms.gle/GXSAp294rAYNpUhW8
We conclude our examination of Granovetter’s 1973 article, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” by looking at how social networking has grown and changed in the last fifty years. Considering the emergence of information technologies and the different means available to connect with each other, along with the disruptive character of the pandemic, we discuss what[...]
Granovetter’s 1973 article, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” introduced whole new ways of thinking about seemingly simple and straightforward topics and changed the direction of social research. He showed how “weak” ties, occasional connections between individuals among different networks, were powerful means for providing opportunities and new ideas not otherwise available. He also charted a[...]
This is a teaser for Episode 86, where we will examine Mark Granovetter’s “The Strength of Weak Ties” from 1973 that significantly changed the way researchers looked at interpersonal networks. How we connect with one other and for what purposes has taken on new meaning in the last few years. We will therefore give this[...]
We conclude our discussion of March and Simon’s Organizations with a look to the present day to see how well the book’s ideas have withstood the test of time. Are they helpful for explaining “novel” phenomena or ways of organizing? Have today’s qualitative methods made it feasible for researchers to study the more untestable propositions?[...]
In this episode, we discuss the second edition of James March and Herbert Simon’s classic text Organizations. In addition to the well-known concepts such as bounded rationality and satisficing, the book introduces an important critique of the mechanistic view that “classic” organization theory to that point approached organizations and its members. How do decisions get[...]
This is a teaser for Episode 85, on James March and Herbert Simon’s 1958 book "Organizations." It is one of the most-cited texts in organization studies, but apart from the ideas of bounded rationality and satisficing, much of the book is overlooked. In our next episode of the Talking About Organizations Podcast, we will tackle[...]
We conclude our discussion of Louis Brandeis’ “Business – A Profession” by looking at the contemporary situation, greatly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. We consider the effects of stakeholder capitalism, increased worker dissatisfaction and willingness to leave their jobs, and other challenges , and ask ourselves to what extent might Brandeis’ ideas apply today?
What do the terms “Taylorism” or “scientific management” bring to mind? Difficult work environments? Managers push workers to their limits? Do more with less? But these were not the original intentions. The real intentions were to help workers conserve energy and complete their tasks more safely and efficiently. In an upcoming episode we will present[...]
We discuss the life and works of Louis Brandeis who originated the term ‘scientific management’ that aimed at conserving effort and making work life more predictable, reducing worker stress and increasing satisfaction. He also advocated for a more altruistic and professionalized form of business leadership that served both the needs of customers or clients and[...]
We conclude our discussion of Jay Galbraith’s portfolio of books and articles focusing on organizational design with a look at contemporary challenges facing managers. We raise common misconceptions about design, including those also found in Galbraith’s own work. In the process of revisiting the meaning of design, we consider how managers can leverage it to[...]
We discuss several works by Jay Galbraith on the theory and practice of organizational design, which is about creating organizations to provide better outcomes and serve the organization’s purpose and strategy. This episode begins with a focus on one of Jay Galbraith’s earlier publications, an article titled, “Organizational Design: An Information Processing View” for designing[...]
Concludes the presentation of a professional development workshop hosted at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management on female scholars whose works are often overlooked. Includes presentations Maja Korica on Rosemary Stewart, Maria José Tonelli on Isabel Menzies Lyth, and Lisa Cohen on Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
Presents a professional development workshop we hosted at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management. It sheds light on the foundational texts of female scholars for the field of organization and management theory but whose work is often overlooked. Part 1 includes presentations by Emmanuelle Vaast on Jean Lave, Marta Calás on Edith[...]
The COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on societies and the workspace have demonstrated the importance of open conversations on matters of diversity and inclusion. The theme for the 37th Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS), hosted virtually in July 2021 by the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam, was “Organizing for an inclusive[...]
We conclude our discussion of Sumantra Ghoshal’s article, “Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices,” with a further exploration of the purposes of business schools and the question of what exactly is a “good” management practice? If we are to break the feedback loop that Ghoshal is critiquing, where do we begin and what[...]
We discuss a critique of business education -- Sumantra Ghoshal’s article from the Academy of Management Learning and Education, “Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices.” He describes a feedback loop between schools and practitioners that has led to theories based on a “pretense of knowledge” that assumes causality and predictability of the business[...]
We continue our discussion of Jane Addams’ "A Modern Lear" and asked ourselves the same questions she asked. How can one approach a difficult, complex, or dynamic situation and avoid the conflagrations that engulfed the Pullman situation? To what extent can pragmatism contribute to a suitable approach for contemporary labor relations challenges?
We discuss a famous speech by Jane Addams, titled "A Modern Lear," her reflections on the events leading to and during the infamous Pullman Railway Strike of 1894. Using ideas drawn from the emergence of classic pragmatism and Shakespeare’s King Lear as an analogy, Addams took both the ownership and workers to task for the[...]
We continue our discussion of a classic 1954 book by Alvin Gouldner titled, 'Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy.' We asked ourselves to what extent do the patterns that Gouldner and his research team uncovered still apply today, and how much do certain patterns seem to emerge more readily than others.
We discuss a classic 1954 book by Alvin Gouldner titled 'Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy.' This describes the results of an ethnographic study conducted at a gypsum processing plant that included both a mine and a production line for construction materials. Gouldner and his team uncovered three distinct patterns of bureaucratic rules based on the acceptance[...]
We continue our discussion of the 1975 article by J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham in the Journal of Applied Psychology titled, “Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey.” We asked ourselves to what extent does the JDS apply today, by looking at a range of contexts and industries that present tough challenges for today’s[...]
We discuss a 1975 article by J. Richard Hackman and Greg R. Oldham in the Journal of Applied Psychology titled, “Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey.” The purpose of the instrument was to help managers increase the motivational potential of jobs. They developed the JDS through the studies of existing jobs to determine what makes[...]
We continue our discussion of the 1967 article from Charles Perrow, “A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Organizations.” We ask ourselves to what extent does the framework apply to any organization, and can it allow us to analyze organizations within the same industry that are otherwise incomparable – such as mass production firms or[...]
We discuss a 1967 article from Charles Perrow, “A Framework for the Comparative Analysis of Organizations.” Perrow proposed a framework for comparing organizations, largely around “technology” which in contemporary times would be taken to mean the work to be performed. The framework allows analysis of the character of the work being done, nature of the[...]
In Part 2 of our episode on Selznick’s TVA and the Grass Roots, we discuss its implications on contemporary organizational studies. In many ways, the story of TVA mirrors those of many other grass-roots style operations that have taken place since. The “cooptative mechanism” Selznick identified, whereby power or the burdens of power are shared[...]
Philip Selznick's classic 1949 book, TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization contributed to his theory of organization. The TVA -- the Tennessee Valley Authority -- was formed to foster recovery from the Great Depression. But its very existence was controversial as it sat uncomfortably between public and private[...]
We discussed how 1977, the publication date for "The Visible Hand" marked a watershed moment for middle management as it began to decline soon thereafter. Chastised as bureaucratic and a target for downsizing, middle management has been under continuous scrutiny and pressure to the present day. What might Chandler have said about this?
Alfred Chandler’s award-winning book, "The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business" provides an excellent summary of the history of American commerce from the pre-industrial era to the mid-20th century, and how new technologies and a changing society led to the creation of the modern industrial enterprise. The "visible hand" refers to the transparency[...]
In Part 2 of this episode, we take Michael Tushman's (1977) work, "Special boundary roles in the innovation process," and apply the ideas of boundary spanning and roles of individuals in the innovation process to contemporary times. This includes research projects pursued by castmembers Pedro and Gretta, along with our special guest Hila Lifshitz-Assaf that[...]
Discusses an important work from Michael Tushman, "Special boundary roles in the innovation process," published in Administrative Science Quarterly (1977) about how innovation benefits from individuals who communicate across boundaries. With special guest Hila Lifshitz-Assaf who has collaborated with Tushman and did her own dissertation on boundary spanning in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space[...]
In Part 2, we discuss the implications of Weisbord's model for consultancy, particularly internal to the organization. As diagnostic models have gotten more complex, should one rely on external consultants and their expense or internal consultants who have greater knowledge of the organization but are more subject to politics? Also, how can the six-box model[...]
Business literature is now loaded with models and frameworks designed to help organizations identify, analyze, and fix their problems. But it wasn't always this way. In the 1970s, Marvin Weisbord developed and promoted a simple framework and associated suite of tools designed for anyone to investigate what was going wrong. In this episode, we discuss[...]
Part 2 of our episode on Melville Dalton's "Men Who Manage" is now released -- but this time we add a feminist perspective on managers and management. Gretta, Miranda, and Catherine welcome Judy Wajcman into the conversation to discuss her 1998 book, "Managing like a man: Women and men in corporate management," which provides an[...]
2020 ushered in a full year of major change and renewed a lot of conversations about how we work, live, and cooperate in organizations and societies. In that spirit, we discuss Melville Dalton's classic 1959 book "Men Who Manage: Fusions of Feeling and Theory in Administration." The study provided an intimate look at how men[...]
We continue our conversation on Ibarra-Colado's critique by discussing his proposed research agenda and recommendations for imbuing organization studies in Latin America with a regional identity. How should scholars conduct rigorous research in the region free from the constraints of tranditional measure of 'relevance' imposed by the global community of scholarship?
We discuss an important critique of the state of Latin American organization studies leveled by Eduardo Ibarra-Colado in a famous 2006 work "Organization studies and epistemic coloniality in Latin America: thinking otherness from the margins." This manifesto and call to action considers how the current scholarship paradigm controlled by an "Anglo-Euro Centre" severely disadvantages scholarship[...]
In this final release of our 5th year celebration, we welcome the perspectives of several past guests, hosts, and observers of past recordings -- with additional commentary from cast members Pedro, Miranda, Catherine, Leonardo, and Tom. Our guests discussed the experiences (and fun) of participating in the podcast, the podcast's current role and potential future[...]
About a month before the anniversary, we solicited questions from our listeners about things they wanted to know or suggestions for the podcast. Out of the large number of excellent questions received; Dmitrijs, Miranda, Maikel, Jarryd, and Tom broke it down to five that we tackled and discussed in our own Talking About Organizations way.[...]
On October 13, 2020, we celebrate our fifth anniversary with a series of releases over next two weeks. In these release, we offer listeners an insider perspective on the making of our episodes. Dmitrijs, Pedro, Ralph, and Tom discuss how we choose an episode topic, schedule it, record it and conduct post-production, and release it[...]
We conclude our review of this important 2019 documentary by considering additional management theories to explain what happened. Among them are Herzberg's two-factor theory covering hygiene and motivation forms of incentives and Maurice Halbwachs' concept of collective memory and 'spaces' -- such as how the American workers recalled the facility's layout for automotive manufacturing and[...]
American Factory is an important and powerful documentary, telling the story of cultural clashes and labor-management relations as a Chinese firm re-opened and re-purposed a closed automotive plant in Ohio. In this episode, we analyze this story through the lenses of several important organization theories and management science classics.
Andrew Abbott invited us to think more systemically about the interdependencies and how professions compete with each other over "jurisdictions," claims of ownership and responsibility over expert knowledge and its applications. So we conclude this episode with a review of one of Abbott's case studies -- that of the information professions (e.g., librarian, statistician, computer[...]
With the growing success of the Reflections podcast, part of the Talking About Organizations Network, we invited host Tom Galvin to provide an update on big changes coming to the program and website for the fall 2020 season!
In this episode, we look at the first half and first case study of Andrew Abbott's book "The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor." In this episode, the focus is on how Abbott defines the major constructs of his framework -- professionalization, professional work (diagnosis, inference, treatment), and claims of[...]
Join us and Dr. Ella Hafermalz for the conclusion of Episode 66 on workplace isolation. In the second part of the episode, we discuss the role of the office, how sudden mass-exposure to remote work may be exacerbating a host of underlying societal issues, as well as the extent to which technology can help organizations[...]
We continue our series of episodes related to the social change being spurred by the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic that has brought about rapid and immediate social change. In this episode, we explore the social and emotional impacts to the worker on having to work from home. For some workers, the concept of telework is hardly[...]
We conclude our conversation about the Aston School with one of its founding members, Bob Hinings. In this release, we focus on the legacy and impacts of the Aston School on contemporary organization studies and its relationships with other major literature streams such as contingency theory.
The Aston Group from Birmingham, United Kingdom played a major role in the early development of organization theory and management science. Throughout the 1960s, the Aston Group performed numerous studies (the "Aston Studies") of industrial Birmingham and contributed landmark works on organizational structure, organizational analysis, and institution theory. We are honored to welcome one of[...]
In part 2, we explore an article from Edward Powley on activating organizational resilience — “Reclaiming resilience and safety: Resilience activation in the critical period of crisis,” published in Human Relations in 2009. The article describes three different social mechanisms that are put into action according to Powley — liminal suspension, compassionate witnessing, and relational[...]
Crises and disasters are regular occurrences in organizational life, putting leaders into the spotlight and organizations under tremendous pressure to respond appropriately - whether it is to preserve life or salvage reputations. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, we wanted to discuss some classic texts on organizational crises and their management. In this episode, we include[...]
This is part 2 of our case study on the Hudson's Bay Company and remote work where we focus on responses to pandemics by distributed organizations. We explore an article by Paul Hackett, titled “Averting disaster: The Hudson’s Bay Company and smallpox in Western Canada during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,” published in[...]
We discuss two works exploring a firm that exercised remote operations as a matter of course and faced multiple pandemics during its early existence. The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) was chartered in 1670 by King Charles II at a time when the French monopolized fur trading with Native Americans in modern-day Canada. From then, the[...]
We are proud to support the OMT Division at the Academy of Management in producing their own podcast - The OMT Podcast! The show, hosted by Tanja Ohlson from Oxford University, will focus on interviewing members of the OMT division about their life and research. Available now on all major podcast directories as well as[...]
Our discussion of WALL-E concludes with a look at dystopian fiction and how it presents class differences that suggest ways in which some will feel the burden of societal unrest more than others. This is exemplified in the movie by the way that presumably some segments of society were able to leave the wasted Earth[...]
Movies can be effective tools for discussing concepts, ideas, and experiences about organizations and management. In this episode, we cover the 'instant' classic film WALL-E by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. WALL-E is the story of a robot who at one time was part of a massive clean-up effort on Earth while[...]
We conclude on episode on Dan Brass' article, "Being in the Right Place: A Structural Analysis of Individual Influence in an Organization" from Administrative Science Quarterly. In this part of the discussion, we explore Dan's mixed-methods approach that included criticality, transaction alternatives, and centrality (access and control) in the social networks of the organization. The[...]
What is power and influence? Although power appears as a multilevel concept, the early organizational literature tended to view it as wielded by people--measured as skills, traits, or competencies. This would change in the 1980s, in large part to a classic empirical study providing evidence that one's position within an organizational structure was more likely[...]
Part 2 of our discussion of Joan Woodward's classic work on contingency theory, technology, and organization.
Joan Woodward was a pioneer in organization theory, and in this episode we explore her seminal work Industrial Organization: Theory and Practice, originally published in 1965. The book presents the results of an extensive longitudinal study of the technologies, processes, and systems used by over one hundred industrial firms concentrated in southeast England over a[...]
Join us as we conclude talking about one of the most known theories in management and organisational behaviour! Are you theory X or theory Y? Or is there even meaning to such a distinction? What are the normative and political assumptions behind this typology? Tune in to find out more!
In this episode, we examine Douglas McGregor’s most famous work, The Human Side of Enterprise, that proposed two “theories” encapsulating management assumptions about human behavior. His Theory X described the dominant thinking of the 1950s, where managers held a dim view of employees, who were assumed to be disinclined to work and had to be[...]
In the 2019 workshop at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, we paid particular attention to the European(/UK) tradition as this is usually overlooked in our area (especially the work of the Tavistock Institute). We selected authors and groups representing different aspects of this approach with presentations by Sarah Kaplan (on Joan Woodward),[...]
Join Tom, Ella, Maikel and Frithjof as they examine criticisms of the article, particularly Richard Boettger and Charles Greer’s rejoinder “On the Wisdom of Rewarding A While Hoping for B,” published in Organization Science in 1994.
Why do organizations espouse one thing but do another? This is essentially what Steven Kerr asks in his popular 1975 article in the Academy of Management Journal, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B,” on reward systems. Using examples ranging from politics and war to business and public sector settings, Kerr found[...]
Conclusion of conversation about C.C. Spauilding. His ideas are also distinctive as they reflect some form of ‘African management’ principles, the most salient being the emphasis on cooperation, echoing the African idea on cooperation (Ubuntu) and doing business also for the good of communities. The latter was important as African-Americans were/are a particularly vulnerable and[...]
In this episode, we acknowledge the extraordinary contributions of Charles Clinton Spaulding, an important management thought leader who, like many African-Americans prior to the U.S. civil rights movement, has been sadly overlooked in the management canon. From 1923 until 1952, Spaulding served as the President of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, the largest[...]
Join us, and Prof. Stephen Cummings, for Part 2 of this discussion on Lewin's classic article. Many working in the change management arena–scholars and practitioners alike–have likely heard of Kurt Lewin’s three main phases of organizational change: (1) unfreezing, (2) moving, and (3) freezing (also commonly referred to as re-freezing). And indeed, Kurt Lewin presented[...]
In this episode, we are joined by Prof. Stephen Cummings (New History of Management) to address one of the foundational works in social psychology and organizational development - “Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change”. This was the first of two articles that Kurt Lewin published[...]
In Part 2 of the episode we look at how much has changed in organizations from 1980s to the present day. To what extent do Hofstede’s six factors still hold up? How salient is his model of socializing cultures between societies (“nations”) and organizations? To what extent is the construct of organizational culture being misused,[...]
Fresh off a study that identified key factors for comparing national cultures, organizational psychologist Geert Hofstede and his team set off to determine whether similar constructs could be deduced for organizational cultures. The success of this research is detailed in Hofstede's classic 1990 paper, "Measuring Organizational Cultures: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study Across Twenty Cases,"[...]
Tune in for Part 2 of our discussion of Charlie Chaplin's classic film - Modern Times. What does the film have to say about such contemporary topics as gig economy, gender in the workplace and emotional labour? Join us to find out!
Routinely ranked as one of the greatest movies of all time, Charlie Chaplin’s 1936 film “Modern Times” balances great physical comedy with powerful social commentary. Playing his famed “Tramp” role for the final time, Chaplin portrayed a hapless Worker on an assembly line who is tormented both by supervisors and the work itself. After being[...]
Please join us as we conclude discussing Rosemary Stewart's classic work on management in practice. What is the significance of this book? How does it relate to what managers do? Why are we talking about magic wands? Tune in to find out!
Continuing with our discussion of Rosemary Stewart's classic work on management in practice with the wonderful Dr. Maja Korica of Warwick Business School
So what do managers do in practice? How do they spend their time (or put another way, how does their time spend them)? Are there differences in the demands of managers in different positions, or within different organizations? These were the questions that famed management theorist Rosemary Stewart set out to uncover in her research[...]
What are the implications of The Tyranny of Light and what can it teach us about management in an increasingly digitised workplace? Join us as we conclude Episode 51 and reflect on the lasting impact of this work.
The podcast is back for 2019 with Part 2 of Episode 51 on The Tyranny of Light by Hari Tsoukas! If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, please go and do so before playing this episode as this is a direct continuation of that discussion.
"The Tyranny of Light" was a bold 1997 article that challenged conventional wisdom about the oncoming information society. The Internet, personal computers, and the dot-com boom were still new and exciting. With information technologies advancing at an incredible pace, the sky (and the capacity of silicon) was the limit. Internet start-ups were sprouting up everywhere[...]
Do you remember the Principles of Scientific Management? The one from 50 episodes ago? As we continue to celebrate this milestone of the podcast, please join us for a trip down memory lane to Episode 1, originally aired on 13 October 2015! But that's not it - to complement the podcast, we have produced and[...]
To mark our 50th episode, we gathered all seven of us hosts to discuss what we like (and perhaps not) about the podcast and podcasting, what our favorite or most remembered episodes were, and what we have learned along the way. Turns out, one of the key things we learned was how much such a[...]
Conclusion of our discussion of Gideon Kunda’s ethnography of culture engineering in high-tech corporation. What are the practical and research implications of this work?
Innovation, burn-out and power dynamics. Join us for Part 2 as we discuss these and other aspects of Gideon Kunda's ethnography of normative control in high-tech organizations!
Originally published in 1992, Gideon Kunda’s ethnographic study of a high-tech corporation altered the discourse on organizational culture. “Tech,” the firm being studied, was a firm on the rise and saw itself as a leader and ground breaker in the rapidly growing high-tech industries of the 1980s. But as the firm grew from a modest[...]
Having gone through the mechanics behind SST in Parts 1 and 2, we now ask ourselves if there is a more suitable way to measure individual time-span of discretion? Join us as we conclude Episode 48 on the Stratified Systems Theory!
How viable is SST and what are the 'real world' implications of using this theory to structure organizations? Is it really a good idea to use time-span to differentiate between the strata or is there something else? In part 2 of the episode we delve deeper into the Stratified Systems Theory to examine the fundamental[...]
As bureaucracies became more prevalent as a feature of organizations post-WWII, questions surfaced as to how they could be improved. Was there an optimal way to design them? What was the best role of individual members within a bureaucracy? Could individuals be developed to handle higher level roles?Among those asking such questions was Elliott Jaques,[...]
Conclusion of our discussion of Albert and Whetten's paper on Organizational Identity. Learn what did happen at the US Africa Command after all and what are the practical and scholarly implications of this work. What can we learn from it and is it still relevant? For this, and more, tune in to Part 3 of[...]
Part 2 of our discussion of Albert and Whetten's paper on Organizational Identity. Is it identity of organizations or identity in organizations? What about external perceptions of the organization? How do people fill in the blanks in their perception of organizational identity? For this, and more, tune in to part two of our conversation!
"Who are we?" - The pursuit of an answer to this tantalizingly simple question began with a book chapter written in 1985 by organization theories Stuart Albert and David Whetten. "Organizational Identity" established the construct of identity at the orgnizational level and described it as the sum of three types of claims -- claims of[...]
What a treat! An exclusive LIVE episode featuring Paul Adler, Silvia Dorado and Marc Ventresca talking about management classics. This was recorded from a PDW hosted by Pedro at the 2018 AoM Annual Meeting in Chicago, the purpose of which was to raise interest towards classic authors/ideas in the field of organization and management theory.[...]
Conclusion of our conversation with Prof Marianna Fotaki on the Fate of Whistleblowers in organizations. In this last part we offer some practical reflection and Ralph shares a personal story of how he was faced with a choice to either blow a whistle or not.Fred Alford wrote the book Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power[...]
In Part 2 of the episode we delve deeper into the issues of ethics, psychoanalysis, functional and dysfunctional narcissism, romantic heroism, mandated vs 'pure' whistleblowing, and the various consequences of whistleblowing that people who engage in this activity are forced to endure.
Please join us as we begin discussing C. Fred Alford’s extraordinary book Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. The book presents the troubling experiences of whistleblowers whose efforts to stand up for what was right, only to have the organizations turn on them – taking away both their professional and social lives. In this opener,[...]
We wrap up our discussion of Oliver E. Williamson's famous 1981 article, "The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach" with an exploration of related works and on-going research. Included is a review of Tom Malone et al.'s predictive look at "Electronic Markets and Electronic Hierarchies," written in 1987 when the promises of information technology[...]
Please join us as continue our discussion of Oliver E. Williamson's famous 1981 article, "The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach." Williamson proposed several important constructs in the article such as the 'efficient boundary' and how asset specificity shapes organizational behaviors. What did we think of these ideas?
Following on a theme from the previous episode, we explore an important reading that bridges organization theory with economics. This was the explicit aim of Oliver E. Williamson’s famous article, “The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach,” published in the American Journal of Sociology in 1981. The article begins with a statement that the[...]
De-centralization as a guideline or strategy is thought to promote innovation and greater participation. Organizations that de-centralize as a matter of course may view centralized hierarchy as old-fashioned, complacent, even ossified. So, what about the virtues of centralization? One of the main arguments for greater centralization in organizations is that it brings greater efficiency.
In this final part, we step out of the debate and discuss centralization vs. decentralization as ourselves. So what do we think? The results may surprise you!
The debate continues with question N2: "Why do organizations oscillate between centralization and decentralization, and is there a golden mean?". Join in as we shift the context to more contemporary matters. What are the benefits and risks of centralizing or de-centralizing organizations in modern times?
How exciting! The podcasters engaging in debate over whether centralizing is better or should organizations de-centralize? Learn about how this tension shaped the early days of the United States while Ralph and Pedro face off against Dmitrijs and Tom! A special Thank You also goes out to Todd Bridgman and Stephen Cummings who set the[...]
Episode 42 concludes as the podcasters discuss unlearning, present their takeaways and budding research questions based on Levitt & March's review of "Organizational Learning," our fifth episode in the Carnegie-Mellon series. What would it take for organizations to learn 'better'? How might we find out? Where does collective intelligence come in?Also see: Episode 4 on[...]
Episode 42 continues as we debate the gaps and lingering questions in Levitt & March's review of "Organizational Learning," our fifth episode in the Carnegie-Mellon series. What did we think about the author's views on organizational memory? What about the levels of analysis used in the text? Find out our take on these and other[...]
Please join us for the fifth episode in our Carnegie-Mellon School series as we discuss Barbara Levitt and James G. March’s brilliant literature review of “Organizational Learning,” published in the Annual Review of Sociology in 1988. This work surveyed the literature across various streams in organizational learning up through the 1980s. Topics include learning from[...]
Near the end of Episode 41, we discussed the themes of member commitment to the organization and an organization’s commitment to its individual members. This arose in the context of our continuing discussions of the gig economy and its impact on our understandings of organization. The ‘gig economy’ was the subject of several previous episodes[...]
Our discussion of Gareth Morgan's classic 'Images of Organization' concludes as we discuss the modern-day implications of these metaphors. How can we use metaphor to better understand the interactions of organizations in the environment, and of organization and member commitment to each other? We also discuss possible areas of future research.
Our discussion of Gareth Morgan's Images of Organization continues as we explore the individual metaphors and compare them. What makes some metaphors better understood than others? How do they describe the positive and negative aspects of organizing?
Our discussion of Gareth Morgan's Images of Organization begins with an overview of the text and Morgan's use of metaphor to capture the essence of entire streams of literature into a simple idea. We also introduce several of the metaphors and show how together they tell the story of organization theory from the beginning.Join us[...]
Final panel from our Symposium on Continuities, Disruptions and Management in the Gig Economy. This panel focused on methodological issues in researching gig and sharing economy, and featured Gretta Corporaal (Oxford), Mareike Mohlmann (WBS) and Rebecca Prentice (Sussex). Please enjoy!
Please join us for the first panel of the TAOP Symposium on Continuities, Disruptions and Management in the Gig Economy, held at the University of Sussex on 15 December 2017. In this first panel, Arianna Tassinari from Warwick Business School (also Episode 18), Sarah O'Connor from Financial Times, and Natalia Levina from NYU (and part[...]
TAOP Symposium on the Gig Economy was a unique, one-day interdisciplinary symposium on the forms and effects of management in the contemporary sharing (a.k.a. gig) economy that took place on 15 December 2017 at the University of Sussex. Blending individual and panel presentations from leading scholars and commentators with group conversations, we wanted to examine[...]
During Episode 39 we explore a famous 1972 article in Administrative Science Quarterly from Cohen, March, and Olsen on the Garbage Can Model of Decision Making, which contained (above all things) a fully-documented computer program written in FORTRAN 66! The sidecast also included details of how they designed the program what its outputs were.As we[...]
Our discussion of “The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice” by Cohen, March, & Olsen, concludes with our reflections on the article. The model was provocative for its time, but what have we learned in the forty years since now that the garbage can model is better understood and accepted as common practice in organizations?Other[...]
Our discussion of “The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice” by Cohen, March, & Olsen, continues as the podcasters discuss the technical aspects of the model and its implications for modern practice. Also from the Carnegie-Mellon School series: Episode 4 on Organizational Routines, Episode 19 on Organizational Learning, Episode 29 on Business School Design,and our[...]
Please join us for the fourth episode in our series of podcasts focused on works from the Carnegie-Mellon School. For this episode, the podcasters tackle “The Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice” by Michael Cohen, James March, and Johan Olsen, published in Adninistrative Science Quarterly in 1972. The article was a radical departure from conventional[...]
Our discussion of John Van Maanen's "Police Socialization" concludes with a more in-depth look at his methodology and use of 'covert' methods. As a participant-observer, Van Maanen's study included his participation in police training and joining patrols. Covert research challenges the principle of informed consent but may be necessary for conduct research on populations that[...]
Please join us as we continue talking about John Van Maanen's article, "Police Socialization: A Longitudinal Examination of Job Attitudes in an Urban Police Department." For Part 2, we look to other, more contemporary settings where similar socialization activities occur. How has our growing understanding of socialization shaped organizational life since 1975 when this article[...]
Please join us as TAOP returns in 2018 to open a New Year with a discussion of John Van Maanen's classic work from 1975, "Police Socialization: A Longitudinal Examination of Job Attitudes in an Urban Police Department." In Part 1, Pedro, Dmitrijs, Tom and Miranda introduce the article - what Van Maanen tried to accomplish[...]
Please join us as we welcome Professor Peter Adamson of the LMU in Munich and the amazing History of Philosophy without any Gaps Podcast to discuss Xenophon's Oeconomicus. The book conveys an Ancient Greek dialogue between Socrates and a young wealthy man named Critobulus who seeks to expand his wealth. Part 1 presents the background[...]
Now that Peter Fleming has made his points, where do we go from here? That is the subject of Part 3 on "The Human Capital Hoax." The podcasters synthesize the text and offer ideas for future research and practice. An exciting debate you will not want to miss!
In part 2 we continue to discuss “The Human Capital Hoax: Work, Debt, and Insecurity in the Era of Uberization,” by Peter Fleming. The article raised a number of pressing issues, such as the nature and character of modern workplace resistance and the implications of Fleming's thesis on managers and leaders.
Please join us as the podcasters engage on a timely and relevant article, “The Human Capital Hoax: Work, Debt, and Insecurity in the Era of Uberization,” by Peter Fleming. The article is a treatise and pointed critique of the emergence, development, implementation, and negative effects of Human Capital theory, which Fleming presents as having created[...]
Episode 35 concludes with the podcasters presenting their takeaways and possible areas of further research. What did they learn from the readings and dialogue? Where directions might theory and practice follow now, thirty-plus years later?
In the second part of the Episode we continue discussing implications of Hochschild's seminal work on management of emotions. What do football players, military officers and uber drivers have in common? Tune in to find out!
Tune in as we tackle a seminal work on the uses of emotion as part of one’s job, and the social and psychological implications this has on one’s role as a producer of products or provider of services. The Managed Heart,” by Dr. Arlie Hochschild, introduced the concept of emotional labour as a counterpart to[...]
Join Tom as he provides a detailed summary of the discussion we held in Episode 34 on Trist and Bamforth’s work on the effects and consequences that introduction of new organizational technology may have on individual employees. This is a very important piece of research that ties into a number of foundational themes we discussed[...]
Join us as we finish discussing technological change in the coal-mining industry and how it tore apart the social structure of the workers who were supposed to have benefited from the change.
Please join us as we discuss Eric Trist’s and Ken Bamforth’s 1951 article, “Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting,” published in the journal Human Relations. The article explores how a technological change in the coal-mining industry tore apart the social structure of the workers who were supposed to have benefited[...]
Tune in to this Summary of Episode 33 for an overview of Roethlisberger's "The Foreman" and for a summary of our discusssion!
Please join us for Part 2 of this fascinating discussion of Roethlisberger's classic 1945 work on the challenges and environment faced by the foreman in the organization. In this part we go through the rest of the article and discuss the four 'visions' proposed by the author!
Please join us as we open Season 4 with a discussion about Fritz J. Roethlisberger’s classic Harvard Business Review article “The FOREMAN: Master and Victim of Double Talk.” Written in 1945, the article details the challenges that industry foremen faced under intense pressures to perform despite significant technological and social changes that whittled away at[...]
Join Ralph as he sits down with Professors Mats Alvesson (also guest on E28) and Bjorn Erik Mork during the OLKC 2017 Conference in Valladolid, Spain to discuss Mats's keynote speech (and book!) on organizational stupidity. As always is the case with episodes such as these, expect more than a few anecdotes, insightful comments, and[...]
Don't miss this conversation that Dmitrijs and Ella had with Professors Hari Tsoukas and Ann Langley at the wonderful PROS 2017 Conference! In the second special from this symposium, we talk about process view in general and PROS, as an academic congregation, in particular. At the end of the episode, Hari and Ann say a[...]
Please join us for the first of two fascinating special episodes recorded from the International Process Symposium 2017. In the first instalment, Dmitrijs and Ella sit down to talk to Professors Trish Reay (University of Alberta) and Tammar Zilber (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) about institutional theory.
Please join us for the final instalment of Episode 30 and Season 3 where we discuss the relationship between George Orwell's classic 1984 and Corporate Culturalism as discussed by Hugh Willmott and Peter Fleming in their JMS Classics. Specifically, we talk about such things as newspeak and technology, as well as the inherent paradox of[...]
Please join us for this (much delayed) conversation about Hugh Willmott's extraordinarily interesting critique of corporate culturalism - a movement within management thought that sees organizational culture and normative control as the primary means of organizing a workforce! In the first part of the episode we work on developing a common footing and a deeper[...]
oin Tom for a summary of our conversation with the wonderful Denise Rousseau about Herbert Simon's JMS Classic on Business Schools! Make sure to listen to this one if you don't have the time to get through the main episode just yet as the discussion about management education and the many underlying factors that we[...]
In this part of the conversation with the wonderful Denise Rousseau we plunge into the deep end of what business schools are for, what are the moral foundations for management education, the role and value of authority, and the dichotomy between individual vs environmental interpretation of a person. We also discuss the relationship of business[...]
Please join us for this very interesting conversation with the fascinating Denise Rousseau about Herbert Simon's JMS Classic - The Business School: A Problem in Organizational Design (1967). In this episode we touch upon the now pervasive issues of managerial education, the value of teaching administration, as well as the origins of how management became[...]
Join us for a brief summary of Episode 28, where we were joined by Mats Alvesson to discuss his JMS Classic "Organizations as Rhetoric". This is a synopsis of the conversation, covering a number of aspects related to epistemology, types and purpose of rhetoric, and adjacent concepts such as organizational memory and functional (as well[...]
In this concluding part of Episode 28 we further delve into the relationship between rhetoric and knowledge, touching upon such aspects of it as collective memory, the roles people play, fads and fashions, as well as functional stupidity.
For our sixth Journal of Management Studies Classic episode we discussed a set of articles by Professor Mats Alvesson on Organizations as Rhetoric. Focusing on the original work published in 1993, we were very pleased to welcome Mats himself as a guest on this episode!In this paper, Mats made a series of critical claims to[...]
Please join Tom as he summarizes our conversation with Andrew Pettigrew and introduces the key concepts from the reading! What a great way to refresh memory about one of the critical process-based studies in management or to introduce new scholars to the works of Andrew Pettigrew!
Join us for the second part of the conversation about Journal of Management Studies Classic article - 'Context and Action in the Transformation of the Firm' - with Andrew Pettigrew. In this part we go into more depth in discussing management, transformational leadership and the role and nature of context. Andrew is a wonderful guest[...]
Join us for this episode as we sit down (literally, this time!) with Professor Andrew Pettigrew to discuss his discipline-shaping work on context and action in organizations. There is so much in this work! Not only is the article we are discussing a product of a very long-term study conducted in ethnographic tradition, but it[...]
Conclusion of our conversation with Dr Thomas Roulet about Karl Weick's Journal of Management Studies Classic article - Enacted Sensemaking in Crisis Situations. A really fun and interesting episode where we touch upon a number of key concepts in management and organization studies!
Karl Weick's enacted sensemaking is a key concept in management theory, as well as a fundamental idea behind high reliability organizing. Join us as we welcome Dr Thomas Roulet of King's College London to discuss our fourth Journal of Management Studies classic paper - Enacted Sensemaking in Crisis Situations (1988)!
Summary of Episode 25 on a JMS Classic by Porac et al. (1989) 'Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities'. This Episode featured the wonderful Prof Sarah Kaplan and discussed the importance of human interpretation in the strategy making process, as well as a number of other related issues.
This is a conclusion of our discussion of Porac et al. (1989) with the wonderful Prof Sarah Kaplan. Please join us as we explore such concepts as categories and talk about ontology and epistemology, the process studies perspective and strategy in practice among many other things!
Please join us for Episode 25 as we welcome Prof Sarah Kaplan to discuss another JMS Classic work entitled “Competitive groups as cognitive communities, the case of Scottish knitwear manufacturers”. This paper had a great impact in the field of management and organization in general, and on research in cognition and strategy in particular. As[...]
This is a summary of our conversation with Bill Starbuck about his Journal of Management Studies Classic - Learning by Knowledge-Intensive Firms. Great Episode for anyone interested in knowledge, information and collective learning!
Join us as we conclude our discussion about the classic JMS article 'Learning by Knowledge-Intensive Firms' with the author, William Starbuck! A fascinating ending to this episode with an amazing guest - so be sure to tune in!
Join us and William Starbuck as we discuss one of management's contemporary classics - Learning by Knowledge-Intensive Firms (1992)! In this work William Starbuck tackles a number of important issues to do with knowledge, knowledge work and information. A truly fascinating researcher, Bill takes us through his thinking and shares lots of insight derived through[...]
This is a Summary of our inaugural episode of Season 3 - the Journal of Management Studies Classics - where we were joined by Professor Mike Wright to discuss his work on international business and emerging economies.
Please join us and listen to our first Season 3 discussion on a 2013 work published in Journal of Management Studies, by Hoskisson, Wright, Filatotchev and Peng entitled “Emerging multinationals from mid-range economies: the influence of institutions and factor markets”. This episode also sees the participation of one of the authors of the paper, Mike[...]
Please tune in for Episode 22 where we are joined by the fascinating Dr Barton Friedland to discuss Lucy Suchman’s book “Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Action” (2007). In it, she studied the interaction of humans with a state-of-art photocopier. Interestingly, Suchman's studies show that interaction problems are mostly due to the underpinning assumptions about[...]
The slightly belated, yet highly anticipated discussion from after the Connections in Action event is here! Join Pedro, Katharina and Brian as they reflect on what they have learned during their time at the workshop/conference. A really fascinating discussion about methodology, fundamental issues to do with actions and practices, and a bit of philosophy!
What a treat! Joining us for this Special Episode from the fascinating 'Connections in Action' workshop at the University of Warwick are Katharina Dittrich and Brian Pentland (aka Doctor Decade)! To our great delight, Doctor Decade provided the live intro music for this episode and even performed one of his songs (Ruts in the Road)!
This is a summary of Episode 20, where we held two discussions broadly grouped under the umbrella title of High Reliability in practice. Broadly focused on the 1993 classic research by Karl Weick and Karlene Roberts which asked how do complex, high risk organizations manage to work safely and reliably, our discussion in Episode 20[...]
In Part 2 we delve deeper into the article itself (Weick and Roberts, 1993) in order to understand how a high reliability way of organizing can be implemented, what are the steps, and how rigid the rules and procedures have to be. Join us for a detailed and rich in examples discussion of these very[...]
Based around a classic work by Weick and Roberts (1993) on Collective mind in organizations - where the authors observed and analyzed the way people on the deck of an aircraft carrier function in a collective manner - this episode brings you a discussion of how concepts of High Reliability (see also Episode 11) flesh[...]
Join Miranda and Ralph as they summarise our discussion of Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning by James March. This is an excellent little segment to introduce new people to the ideas developed in this classic text, as well as to help add structure to our discussion in the main episode. As a bonus, you[...]
In the second half of our discussion we carry on with the examination of March's model of knowledge exploration and exploitation. Expect more up-close analysis as well as some implications of this way of looking at organizational learning.
For this episode, we read the widely cited article, “Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning,” published in 1991 in the journal Organization Science. In the paper, James March considered the relationships between exploration of new ways of doing things and the exploitation of accepted, standard practices for organizational learning. He did so in order to[...]
Once again joined by the lovely Arianna, we summarize Episode 18 on Gig Economy and Algorithmic Management.
In the second part of our discussion we delve deeper into how management by algorithms impacts individual employees, what are the principles and potential implications of the proliferation of algorithmic management on industrial relations, and whether this can be justifiably called 'Taylorism on Steroids'. Our Special Guest, Arianna Tassinari, brings a unique industrial relations flavour[...]
In this episode we are joined by the wonderful Arianna Tassinari to discuss a recent Financial Times article by Sarah O'Connor on gig economy, algorithmic management and labour relations! Gig economy, as well as its benefits and limitations, has been subject to much debate in social policy and labour relations lately. Facilitated by management via[...]
Join Dmitrijs and Pedro for a first summary duo! as they highlight the key points from Episode 17 on Tokenism by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. If you haven't listened to the episode yet, we really encourage you to do so as this is an important topic and our guest, Dr Deborah Brewis, was absolutely great at[...]
More on gender, tokenism, sexuality, and all things different in organizations! Join us and our Special Guest Dr Deborah Brewis for the conclusion of Episode 17 on “Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women” (1977) by Rosabeth Moss Kanter!
In this episode we are joined by Dr Deborah Brewis to discuss a classic paper by Rosabeth Moss Kanter on gender in organizations - “Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women” (1977). In this article, Kanter explores how interactions within a group or an organization are affected[...]
Another convenient featurette to introduce people to this management classic - contingency theory! Join Ralph as he summarizes our reading by Lawrence and Lorsch, covers key points from the discussion and even adds some (more) of his experience-based insight! Advocates of contingency theory for organizations argue that an optimum approach to structural differentiation depends –[...]
In this episode, we read the classic article “Differentiation and Integration in Complex Organizations” published in 1967 in Administrative Science Quarterly. In this work, Lawrence and Lorsch investigate the relation between organizational characteristics and their environment, and stipulate that an organization’s economic performance is determined by its ability to meet integration and differentiation requirements according[...]
What is it about research that makes it interesting? Or, rather, at which point does a study become interesting (or not)? The more common answer to these questions would most certainly place emphasis on the results and outcomes of a study - i.e. the research is interesting if the findings are interesting. In their 2013[...]
Join Miranda as she summarizes our discussion with Professor Henry Mintzberg - the author of Simply Managing (2013). If you are looking for a brief overview of Henry's scholarship in general and of this book in particular, this summary is for you! Please share and get more people Talking About Organizations!
A very exciting episode featuring Prof Henry Mintzberg! In this conversation we discussed Simply Managing (2013), which is an updated study of managers conducted by Henry Mintzberg based on observing 29 managers at all levels of organizations across a range of industries and organizational structures: business, government, healthcare, and pluralistic organizations such as museums and[...]
A very exciting episode featuring Prof Henry Mintzberg! In this conversation we discussed Simply Managing (2013), which is an updated study of managers conducted by Henry Mintzberg based on observing 29 managers at all levels of organizations across a range of industries and organizational structures: business, government, healthcare, and pluralistic organizations such as museums and[...]
Summary of our discussion of Banana Time (1959) by Donald F. Roy. This paper looks at how individuals, and groups of individuals, motivate and mentally stimulate themselves in the conduct of very monotonous work. Some of the key themes we covered during the full episode are: group dynamics, scientific management, importance and role of play,[...]
A full house of management theory, Banana Time: Job Satisfaction and Informal Interactions, is a classic ethnographic text set against the backdrop of a Tayloristic organization. The author, Donald Roy, provides an account of what it was like to work there for two months all the while dealing with extreme monotony, fatigue and multiculturalism.While this[...]
Our very first Special episode has arrived! Join Dmitrijs and Ralph as they talk to Professors Paul Duguid of UC, Berkeley and Emma Bell of Open University about things like learning, education, unconferences, power and norms, race and gender, MOOC's, and, most of all, about whether conferences are well suited to do what they are[...]
In this Summary of Episode 11, our resident High Reliability expert, Dr Ralph Soule, gives an overview of the context, the study and some of the key problems facing high-risk and high-reliability approaches to organizational design. Ralph mentions that Bierly and Spender (1995) provide a description of submariner culture and how it comes about through[...]
Continuing on with our discussion of High Reliability Organizing with resident expert Dr Ralph Soule. In the final part we go into more detail on how High Reliability can be applied to other organizations, the role of culture and technology.
Join us for Episode 11 as we go into High Reliability Organizing (HRO) with this key 1995 article from the Journal of Management. HRO is a specialist sub-field in organization theory focused on the development of processes and mechanisms that remove and reduce instances of organizational failure. This is quite a big deal as organizations[...]
Join us as we conclude our discussion of this amazing film that is 12 Angry Men! In part two we delve into knowledge and epistemology, power, motivation and leadership (among many other exciting areas). We also continue tracing themes from the film to our past episodes, including Scientific Management of F.W. Taylor, Motivation theories of[...]
Join us for Episode 10 as we go to the Movies! To celebrate our 10th episode we are watching a classic film - Twelve Angry Men (1957). This is one of the film frequently used to illustrate and highlight challenges in consensus building, teamwork and leadership. On top of that, 12 Angry Men is an[...]
This is a summary of our discussion of Elton Mayo's Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization - a second text from the famous Hawthorne Studies. Listen to Miranda cover the key points of the book and of our discussion from the full episode!Summaries are designed to deliver an overview of TAOP Episodes, or as stand-alone[...]
In this concluding part of our discussion of The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization - one of the texts comprising the famous Hawthorne Studies - we devote more attention to Mayo's social commentary, the methodological implications of qualitative empirical research as well as to the remaining three case studies. Learn more about what Mayo[...]
For Episode 9 we turn to the famous Hawthorne Studies - a series of social experiments that gave rise to what is now a Human Resources Management approach to organizing work. Specifically we look at the second book published by Elton Mayo, The Social Problems of an Industrial Civilization. In this book, Mayo reports on[...]
A brief summary of our humongous discussion of The Functions of The Executive (1938) by Chester Barnard. Listen for key takeaways and the synopsis of the reading.
Conclusion of our discussion of The Functions of The Executive (1938) by Chester Barnard. In this final bit of the conversation we wrap the book up and suggest a way how Barnard's sometimes-quirky-and-odd writing can be best interpreted. Enjoy!Just to remind, we began discussion of this book in Episode 7! So check that one out[...]
Kicking off the final part of our discussion of the Functions of The Executive (1938) by Chester Barnard, we talk about the executive functions and the executive process. Barnard delivers an excellent discussion on both of these, mentioning things such as communication, trust and organizational personality in the process.
In part 2 of 4 we spend quite a bit of time discussing Barnard's understanding of authority and decision-making. Because parts 1 and 2 are, basically, one separated recording, please listen to part 1 before this or it will make very little sense!
Second episode on The Functions of The Executive (1938) by Chester Barnard. This time we spent quite a bit of time talking about why people decide to cooperate and what is authority. Did you know that authority is a form of communication infused with ritual? Or, that Barnard has four criteria which need to be[...]
Conclusion of Episode 7 but only half-way point in the Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard. In the second part of this episode we take a closer look at the antecedents of organized labour, as proposed in the book. If you want to learn how individuals become phases of cooperation or what are the[...]
On The Functions of The Executive (1938) by Chester Barnard. Join us for this two-episode (four-part) conversation about one of the most influential management and organization texts of... well, ever!In Part 1 of Episode 7 we talk about Parts I and II of the book, concerning Barnard's theory of what humans are and how they[...]
A summary of our discussion in Episode 6 with some bonus examples and an outline of the reading. During the main episode we discussed topics such as: rules, what is bureaucracy for, and who is bureaucracy for, among many other (smaller) ones.Listen to this summary if you would like a quick abstract of the episode,[...]
In the concluding part of our discussion of Max Weber's bureaucracy we pay closer attention to his views on rules, the rational-legal authority principle, and to how bureaucracy works in more contemporary, horizontal forms of organization. Also, Ralph tells us about how nuclear reactors work and what is the one thing you should never do[...]
Bureaucracy. What is it? Who is it for? How does it work and what are the limits of it? Join us for this episode as we explore Max Weber's ideal-type bureaucracy and attempt to make sense of its, sometimes peculiar, implications.In order to do so we have read two Chapters from his magnum opus -[...]
In Part 2, we conclude our discussion of the Giving of Orders by Mary Parker Follett. Most significantly we finally arrived at an understanding of what a situation is and how it manifests itself in Follett's understanding of management. We also went in more depth on such topics as normative control, organizational and individual learning,[...]
How to issue orders? When is it right to do so? Are you going to hurt the feelings of your employees? Does it matter? These and many other questions are at the centre of 'The Giving of Orders' (1926) by Mary Parker Follett. This seminal work written at the height of Scientific Management dares to[...]
In the final part of our discussion on organizational routines we continue examining how routines relate to the internal/external organization, what are the external stimuli and how valid is it to postulate them as catalysts for the routines, and why the more contemporary term 'routines' can be a misleading way to refer to the 'performance[...]
In Episode 4 we are discussing the origins of organizational routines with the help of our special guest Dr Katharina Dittrich. Organizational routines are ways to reduce complexity and distribute learning throughout the organization. The idea is simple - once a problem occurred often enough and a solution has been found, the solving of this[...]
Our first special guest, Dr Katharina Dittrich explains what organizational routines are, where they came from and why and talks about how the readings she helped us pick for Episode 4 - Behavioral Theory of the Firm (1963) by Cyert and March, and Organization (1958) by March and Simon - relate to one another. To[...]
Upcoming Episode 4 is going to be focused on the “Carnegie Mellon School” with a special emphasis on organizational routines. You will note that the structure of Episode 4, and the episodes on this subject that follow, is slightly different because we have chosen to explore the ‘entire’ school by focusing on single key topics,[...]
In Episode 3 we discuss what is, perhaps, one of the most famous theories in management - the pyramid of human motivation by A.H. Maslow. Maslow's name has become synonymous with achieving motivation through gradual satisfaction of five categories of physio-psychological needs. In Part 1 we discuss the significance of Maslow's actual contribution, discover key[...]
In Episode 2 we convene to discuss Chapter 4 of General and Industrial Management by Henri Fayol. This work was composed only a few years after The Principles of Scientific Management by F.W. Taylor (Episode 1) and yet it remained virtually unknown to the English-speaking world until 1949. Never the less, Fayol's ideas have been,[...]
We are proud to inaugurate the podcast with a discussion of the theory of Scientific Management by F.W. Taylor. Join Dmitrijs, Ralph, Pedro and Miranda as they talk about Taylor's views on human motivation, knowledge and expertise, role in the development of commercial bureaucracy and why he advocated management based on systematic measurement and tasks[...]

Talking About Organizations is a conversational podcast where we talk about one book, journal article or idea per episode and try to understand it, its purpose and its impact. By joining us as we collectively tackle classic readings on organization theory, management science, organizational behavior, industrial psychology, organizational learning, culture, climate, leadership, public administration, and so many more! Subscribe to our feed and begin Talking About Organizations as we take on great management thinkers of past and present!

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