Advanced Organisation Theory

1. Advanced Organisation Theory Welcome to my last lecture on the course of 2009.

2. Hierarchy Rigidity Homogeneity Power based on authority and assosiations in closed networks Reliance on rules Horisontal relations Flexibility Diversity Opend and accessible networks Individual and group empowerment Customer service Lasting organizational reform requires changes in organizational culture.

3. Resistance to change. • Cultural change suffers from the same problems as any form of organizational change does. • On the individual level. • On the organization or group level.

4. Globalism • American industry was in the late 1970s losing its competitiveness. • U.S. firms competed mostly with each other. • Now, worthy competitors were from all over. • ”The competitive marketplace had become a worldwide economic playing field on which all competitors were not bound by the same rules” (p415)

5. U.S - Asia - Europe • ”In the late 1980s, 53 of the top 100 corporations in the world where Japanese.”(p415) • This is what W.E Demings predicted in the 1950s. • TQM

6. Reform through changes in organizational cultures. • William Ouchi: The ”Z” organization. • Peters and Waterman: In Search of Excellence. • Peter Senge: The Fifth Discipline

7. Article 39: Theory Z Organization • Z organizations have achieved a high state of consistency in their internal culture. They are most aptly described as clans… • Clans are distinct from hierarchies and from markets. • A clan always tends to develop xenophobia, a fear of outsiders.

8. Type Z organizations • The decision-making process is typically a consensual, participative one. • A democratic process in which many people are drawn into the shaping of important decisions. • It signals a cooperative intent of the firm.

9. Article 40 by Peter and Waterman • This is probably the most typical book of the 1980s • It is The book in general management litterature, a real bestseller, at the time. • Very 1980s

10. Eight attributes of management excellence. • A bias for action. • Close to the customer. • Autonomy and entrepreneurship. • Productivity through people. • Hands-on, value-driven. • Stick to the knitting. • Simple form, lean staff. • Simultaneous loose-tight properties. (chapter reprinted in your book)

11. Article 41 by P. Senge • It is abute organizations with learning disabilities. • He belives that it is possible for organizations to learn to change. • How managers can learn to detect the seven organizational learning disabilities and use the five disciplines as antidotes.

12. 7 organizational learning disabilities • I am my position. • The enemy is out there. • The illusion of taking charge. • The fixation on events. • The parable of the boiled frog. • The delusion of learning from experience. • The myth of the management team.

13. The fifth dicipline • Systems thinking • Personal mastery • Mental models • Shared vision • Team building

14. Article 41 by Joan Acker: Gendering Organizational Theory. (1992) • Ordinary activities in organisations are not gender neutral. • It is through male lenses that we see and analyze organisations. • A contribution to feminist business theory.

15. END OF LECTURE See you all on thursday.