Talking About Organizations Podcast

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 – is contingent – on...

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 different...

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 book - Constructing Research Questions: Doing interesting research - Mats Alves...

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 NGO’s. It is...

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 NGO’s. It is...

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, social cohesion, experience of time, and monotony, back...

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 work is not particularly 'heavy' in terms...

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 supposed to do! Paul Duguid and Emma Bell are exceptional scholars a...

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 formal in informal practices. The author’s not...

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 most usually operating HRO principles are nuclear reactors a...

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 Abraham Maslow and Elton Mayo, Organization theory of Ches...

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 amazing film well worth seeing just for the pure enjoyment of it!

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 teaching and learning tools. They are useful both if you are a profession...

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 and colleagues did, how they came about to realiz...

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 number of his research projects – including the studies in the Textile Mill i...

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 if you want to get full coverage of this phenomenal piece of managemen...

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 satisfied in order for something to qualify as a command? And that employees are free to...

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 conditions for healthy organizational functioning, among other fascinating things, listen to t...

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 (we) are motivated; as well as fundamental principles of cooperation and c...

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, if you are interested in teaching/learning about Weberian bureaucracy, or simply to...