Building Theories Of Organization

This volume explores the concept of communication as it applies to organizational theory. Bringing together multiple voices, it focuses on communication’s role in the constitution of organization. Editors Linda L. Putnam and Anne Maydan Nicotera have assembled an all-star cast of contributors, each providing a distinctive voice and perspective. The contents of this volume compare and contrast approaches to the notion that communication constitutes organization. Chapters also examine the ways that those processes produce patterns that endure over time and that constitute the organization as a whole. This collection bridges different disciplines and serves a vital role in developing dimensions, characteristics, and relationships among concepts that address how communication constitutes organization. It will appeal to scholars and researchers working in organizational communication, organizational studies, management, sociology, social collectives, and organizational psychology and behavior.

This volume explores the concept of communication as it applies to organizational theory. Bringing together multiple voices, it focuses on communication’s role in the constitution of organization. Editors Linda L. Putnam and Anne Maydan Nicotera have assembled an all-star cast of contributors, each providing a distinctive voice and perspective. The contents of this volume compare and contrast approaches to the notion that communication constitutes organization. Chapters also examine the ways that those processes produce patterns that endure over time and that constitute the organization as a whole. This collection bridges different disciplines and serves a vital role in developing dimensions, characteristics, and relationships among concepts that address how communication constitutes organization. It will appeal to scholars and researchers working in organizational communication, organizational studies, management, sociology, social collectives, and organizational psychology and behavior.

Includes excerpts from seminal works and summaries of key theoretical models that form the basis of the field of organization theory.

Building theories of organizations is challenging: theories are partial and "folk" categories are fuzzy. The commonly used tools--first-order logic and its foundational set theory--are ill-suited for handling these complications. Here, three leading authorities rethink organization theory. Logics of Organization Theory sets forth and applies a new language for theory building based on a nonmonotonic logic and fuzzy set theory. In doing so, not only does it mark a major advance in organizational theory, but it also draws lessons for theory building elsewhere in the social sciences. Organizational research typically analyzes organizations in categories such as "bank," "hospital," or "university." These categories have been treated as crisp analytical constructs designed by researchers. But sociologists increasingly view categories as constructed by audiences. This book builds on cognitive psychology and anthropology to develop an audience-based theory of organizational categories. It applies this framework and the new language of theory building to organizational ecology. It reconstructs and integrates four central theory fragments, and in so doing reveals unexpected connections and new insights.

"The sequel to Organizational Behavior: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership (2005) provides a review and analysis of the key theories of macro-organizational behavior. It provides background on scientific method, theory construction and evaluation, measurement considerations, research design, and the nature of knowledge in organizational behavior, and discusses theories in areas including decision-making, systems, and organizational sociology. The text assumes prior studies in fields such as organizational behavior and management." -- Publisher.

The third edition of Organizational Theory in Higher Education is a comprehensive and accessible treatment of organizational theory and higher education administration. Through her presentation of both traditional and contemporary organizational theories, noted scholar Kathleen Manning offers a multi-faceted take on the models and lenses through which higher education can be viewed. Chapters discuss the disciplinary foundation, uses, constructs, and assumptions of each organizational theory, including theories often excluded from the literature like organized anarchy, feminist, loosely coupled systems, and queer theory. Each chapter concludes with a case study and discussion questions that encourage the reader to make connections to their practice. Combining theory and practice, Manning’s rich, interdisciplinary treatment enables leaders to gain a fuller understanding of the perspectives that operate on college campuses and ways to enact inclusive, ethical change in the context of new and continuing challenges. New to this Edition: A new chapter on Queer Theory that presents more socially just approaches to institutional organization A new chapter on Loosely Coupled Systems presenting the application of this theory to higher education settings Revised chapters, updated theory, and new coverage that reflect current issues, such as pandemic, crisis responses, and social media Several new and revised case studies to address contemporary issues and align with current realities of higher education Updated and enhanced discussion questions to continue the conversation

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

While public management has become widely spoken of, its identity and character is not well-defined. Such disparity is an underlying problem in developing public management within academia, and in the eyes of practitioners. In this book, Michael Barzelay tackles the challenge of making public management into a true professional discipline. Barzelay argues that public management needs to integrate contrasting conceptions of professional practice. By pressing forward an expansive idea of design in public management, Barzelay formulates a fresh vision of public management in practice and outlines its implications for research, curriculum development and disciplinary identity.

This comprehensive text provides a detailed review and analysis of the building-block theories in the macro-organizational behavior field. John Miner has identified the key theories that any student or scholar needs to understand to be considered literate in the discipline. Each chapter includes the background of the theorist represented, the context in which the theory arose, the initial and subsequent theoretical statements, research on the theory by the theory's author and others (including meta-analysis and reviews), and practical applications. Special features, including boxed summaries of each theory at the beginning of each chapter; two introductory chapters on the scientific method and the development of knowledge; and detailed, comprehensive references, help make this text especially useful for every student and scholar in the field.

This book presents a novel and comprehensive process theory of organization applicable to 'a world on the move', where connectedness prevails over size, flow prevails over stability, and temporality prevails over spatiality.The framework developed in the book draws upon process thinking in a number of areas, including process philosophy, pragmatism, phenomenology, and science and technology studies. Salient ideas from these schools are carefully woven into a process theory of organization, which makes the book not only a thought provoking theoretical contribution, but also a much-needed glimpse into the challenges of organizing in a complex and moving world. Taking a distinctly temporal view of organizational life the author shows how actors continually carve out their temporal existence from being in the flow of time. This on-going work, in which technologies, concepts, and social actors take part, is crucial for the making of any type of organizational formation. A key construct of the book is that of events, which provide force, movement, and historicity to organizational life. The book is suitable for scholars and advanced level students in organization studies, management studies, technology studies, and sociology. It contains a number of practical examples to illustrate the theoretical framework.