Orgs - CONCEPTS ONLY Flashcards
(19 cards)
Closed-Rational Systems
Focuses on the organization itself as a goal-oriented, formalized structure.
(Weber 1922; Simon 1962, 1976)
Closed-Natural Systems
Orgs consist of [ ] who share [ ] and engage in [ ]. NOT shaped by [ 3 things ], and just as important.
Collective action attained thru [ 2 things ].
Argues that human relations within and the behavior of organizations are just as important as the formal structure of the organization.
- Organizations consist of members who share a common interest and engage in informally structured collective activities.
- Cooperation among members is not shaped by formal structure, rules, and roles.
- Decision-making and behaviors are shaped by the organization’s informal structure and the social relationships of its members.
- Collective action is attained through social consensus (individuals sharing primarily common objectives a la Barnard 1938) or social conflict (suppression of some interests by others a la Gouldner 1954).
(Barnard 1938; Gouldner 1954; Selznick 1948)
Open-Rational Systems
An open-rational approach views organizations as goal-oriented and formally-structured; it continues to neglect the social arrangement and informal social structure of the organization, but incorporates the effects of the environment.
(Coase 1937; Macaulay 1963; Olson 1965; Thompson 1976; Blau 1970; March 1994; Williamson 1994)
Carnegie School
Bounded rationality argues that the rationality of individual actors is limited by available information, human cognitive ability, and the finite time and resources available to make a decision.
(Thompson 1967; March 1994)
Type of Closed-Natural Systems
Consensus/Cooperative Models
Organizations as cooperative systems and collective action is attained through social consensus (informal structure and the social relationships of its members), NOT just formal structure, rules, and roles.
A natural system perspective argues that organizations consist of members who share a common interest and engage in informally structured collective activities.
Selznick (1948) “Foundations of the Theory of Organization.”
Type of Closed-Natural Systems
Conflict Models
Type of Closed-Natural Systems
Emphasizes conflict within organizations (i.e. mine workers resisting authority)
Organizations as cooperative systems and collective action is attained through conflict (i.e. suppression of some interests by others), NOT just formal structure, rules, and roles.
A natural system perspective argues that organizations consist of members who share a common interest and engage in informally structured collective activities.
Gouldner (1954) Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy
Comparative Structural analysis assumes that orgs are…
They use [what kind] methods to determine the most [ ].
Comparative structural analysis assumes that organizations are consciously, rationally structured. Comparative theorists use quantitative data on large samples of organizations to elicit key dependent and independent variables in order to determine the** most effective organizational structures**.
(Blau 1970)
Open Rational Systems:
Contingency Theory
Argues that, contrary to [THEORY], (1) there is [ ] to organize a corporation or make decisions; (2) optimal action is contingent upon [ 2 things ].
The org form and its effectiveness is determined by how well org form and [ ] fit.
The organizational form and its effectiveness is determined by the goodness of fit between organizational form and environment.
Contingency theory argues that, contrary to Weber’s theory of bureaucracy, (1) there is no best way to organize a corporation or make decisions; (2) instead, optimal action is contingent upon the internal structure of the corporation and the external environment. In X environment, Y organization structure is more effective. (Thompson 1967; Lawrence and Lorsch 1969)
Open-Rational Systems:
Transaction Costs Economics, or New Institutional Economics
Firms structure [ ] as to minimize [ ] which are dependent on attributes of [2 things].
Primarily concerned with [ ] relations within institutions and adopting [ ] assumptions.
Primarily concerned with the governance of economic relations within institutions and with adopting realistic behavioral assumptions.
- Transactions are the basic unit of analysis.
- Firms structure transactions so as to minimize transaction costs, which are dependent on (1) attributes of the institutional arrangement and (2) the attributes of the transaction.
(Coase 1937; Macaulay 1963; Olson 1965; Williamson 1994)
Open-Natural Systems
Views orgs as [ ] that are more like [ ].
Contends that [ ] influences orgs.
Supplanted [THEORY].
Views organizations as collectivities that are more like social groups than unlike. It further contends that organizational ecology influences organizations.
Open-natural system models have supplanted the open-rational theories that dominated until the 1960s.
Open-natural models include: population ecology or organizational ecology; new institutional theory; resource dependency; Marxist theory, and postmodernism.
Open-Natural System:
Resource Dependence
Orgs get POWER from [ ], which they get from [ ]. Orgs survive through their ability to aquire [ ] and adapt to [ ], which is constrained by [ ].
Different from TCE how?
The process by which organizations try to acquire resources from their environment without creating dependencies that reduce their power.
Assumes that resources provide power over organizations without. Organizations depend on their environment for its resources, and thus survive through their ability to acquire resources and adapt to changes in the environment, which are constrained by asymmetric interdependence on resources.
Notes: Resource dependence theory is distinguished from transaction cost economics because it highlights organizational politics behind choices and it focuses beyond efficiency on transaction choices (highlights power and dependence).
Open-Natural System:
Population Ecology (and Other Ecological Models)
Org forms best fit to the [ ] will [ ].
Orgs have trouble adapting due to [ ].
Population ecology is an adaptation of natural selection theory, which argues that organizational forms best fit to the environmental context will be selected and proliferate.
* Organizations have trouble adapting due to inertia
* * The org form that best fits the environment out-competes other org forms.
(Stinchcombe 1965; Hannan and Freeman 1977, 1984; Carroll 1985; Abbott 1988; Carroll and Hannan 1989)
Open-Natural System:
New Institutional Theory
Many [ ] forces on org are based NOT on [2], but rather [2 ] forces to conform to [ ].
What are the two famous articles and what do they say?
Argues that many of the environmental forces on organizations are not based on efficiency or effectiveness but on social and cultural pressures to conform to a given structural form.
In dialogue with population ecology & contingency theory to argue that social and cultural norms and values explain similarity in organizational forms.
- Meyer and Rowan (1977) argue that formal organizational structures come to be based upon institutionalized rational myths, which provide legitimacy but can also become sources of inefficiency.
- DiMaggio and Powell (1983) introduce the concept of institutional isomorphism, which refers to the process by which organizations homogenize in order to appear legitimate.
Meyer and Rowan 1977; Zucker 1977; DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Becker 1984; Dobbin and Sutton 1998
Informal organization
Social Networks
Offers an alternative to [ ] perspective.
This perspective links [ ] and [ ].
Social network theory offers an alternative to the “under-socialized” economic perspective. Granovetter (1973, 1985) and Coleman (1986, 1988) both emphasize that the network perspective is a useful link between micro- and macro-interactions.
Informal organizations
Market Embeddedness
Refers the process by which economic relations between individuals or firms are structured by existing social relations between individuals or firms in addition to the greater social structures of which those relations are a part.
(Granovetter 1985; Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993)
Informal Organizations
Social Networks
Network Exchange Theory
Network exchange theory examines how valued resources are allocated and exchanged among individuals and groups.
Formulated as a way to understand and predict how a network’s shape affects the power of some members to accumulate resources at the expense of others.
(Emerson 1962; Blau 1964; Pfeffer and Salanick 1978; Blau and Schwartz 1984; Marsden 1983; Coleman 1986)
Informal organizations
Social networks
Markets as networks
Differs from what theories?
The markets-as-networks perspective argues that it is reasonable to regard markets as networks that are structured by the exchange activities between firms and this network structure is a constraint on the firms’ subsequent business activities.
This perspective differs fundamentally from neo-classical economic theory and contradicts new institutional economics.
Powell (1990), Podolny (1993), and Zuckerman (1999) treat organizations as nodes in the network while Burt (1992) examines individuals as the network nodes.
Informal organizations
Social capital
Social capital can be defined as value and resources derived from social relationships. There have been several debates in the literature between 1980 and 2000 on the conceptual specificity of the construct and specifically about whether the value derived is expected or realized.
Granovetter 1973; Coleman 1988; Sampson, Morenoff, and Earls 1999; Burt 2005)
Informal organizations
Urban social organizations
Theory on urban social organization is largely defined by or draws from the Chicago School of Sociology, which argues that human behavior is determined by social structures and physical environmental factors, rather than genetics or personal characteristics.
* **The city is an institution organized by its physical and moral elements, which mutually interact to mold and modify one another. Neighborhoods are defined as naturally occurring areas with particular sentiments, traditions, and histories. **
* This section centers on the debate over “the community question,” which is whether the industrial division of labor has caused social disorganization within urban neighborhoods. Contemporary work on urban social organization draws from Coleman’s essential theoretical claim-that social capital is lodged not in individuals but in the structure of social organization, such as a neighborhood.
(Park 1915; Whyte 1943; Suttles 1968; Fischer 1975; Wellman 1979; Sampson, Morenoff, and Earls 1999)
