SOC / CRJS 395
Perspectives on Organizational Behavior
One of the hallmarks of the twentieth century was the growth and penetration of formal organizations into our lives. In education, economic life, government and politics, sports and entertainment structured and 'organized' ways of doing things and setting and accomplishing goals have replaced the individual and informal group. This means that we spend more and more time and energy interacting with and working within formal organizations. However, because such organizations have penetrated so deeply into our lives, there impacts on our behavior and ways of looking at the world are often not noticed.
This class is designed to provide you with a variety of perspectives for looking at, thinking about and understanding organizations. These different perspectives should provide you with tools for analyzing your own interactions with organizations, the activities of people with whom you interact who are part of organizations and the ways organizational structures and processes affect both the ability of an organization to achieve its goals and the lives of the people in the organization and those who interact with it.
In order to accomplish these goals, we will interact with the 'discourse' of organizational behavior studies. The idea of 'discourse' involves the 'talking back and forth' of those who study how people behave in organizations. Academic 'discourse' involves building on the ideas of others and developing new perspectives from the conversation. This 'conversation' is usually available for use to study in the writings of these scholars of organizational behavior. We will read and discuss the work of contemporary analyst Gareth Morgan as it relates to multiple perspectives on organizations. In addition, we will read and discuss the work of those upon whose work Morgan builds in CLASSICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR.
READINGS:
Morgan, Gareth (1998). IMAGES OF ORGANIZATIONS - THE EXECUTIVE EDITION. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 1998. This book provides a wonderful synthesis and analysis of 100 years of study and ideas about organizational behavior. Gareth Morgan uses the concept of 'metaphor' to organize key ideas in the discourse of organizational behavior studies. Each metaphor, though incomplete in itself, helps us see different aspects of the study of organizations in sharp relief. Taken together these metaphors give a more complete understanding that any one alone.
Natemeyer, Walter and J. Timothy McMahon (2001). CLASSICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR (3rd Edition) Long Grove, IL: Waveland. This book collects primary source material related to the study of organizational behavior. These works represent the 'discourse' in academic and professional literature. The readings in this book will supplement the 'metaphorical' summaries provided by Morgan. Many of the scholars and professionals whose work Morgan summarizes are represented in CLASSICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR. Reading these original works will let us see how Morgan makes use of them in his analysis. This is the essence of 'academic discourse': scholars interacting with each other's ideas to move the state of our understanding along.
LINKS:
Gareth Morgan's IMAGINIZATION Site: This link will provide you with information and background and application of the ideas in Gareth Morgan's IMAGES OF ORGANIZATIONS.
Key Ideas of Key Contributors to Discourse of Organizational Behavior: This link will provide background for many of the authors whose work is represented in CLASSICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR.
CLASS PROJECT:
During the semester we will all be involved in a class project designed to allow us to apply what we are learning to the understanding of a formal organization with which we are familiar. This could be your workplace or it could be the university you are attending. As we study and learn about different perspectives on organizational behavior, you will be asked to write, post your writings to the web for others to learn from, and discuss how each perspective is manifested in the organization you choose to study. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT CLASS PROJECTWILL PROVIDED AS CLASS STARTS.
