Organizations and Environments

Readings

LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
I. Organizations and Organization Theory
1	Organizations: Definitions, Evolution, and Current Developments	Perrow, C. “A Society of Organizations.” Theory and Society 20 (1991): 725-762. Powell, W. “The Capitalist Firm in the 21st century: Emerging Patterns.” In The Twenty-first Century Firm, Edited by P. DiMaggio, 34-68.  Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0691058512.
2	Organization Theory: Historical, Conceptual and Occupational Trends	Barley, S., and G. Kunda. “Design and Devotion: Surges of Rational and Normative Ideologies of Control in Managerial Discourse.” Administrative Science Quarterly 37 (1992): 363-399. Barley, S., and G. Kunda. “Bringing Work Back in.” Organization Science 12 (2001): 76-95. Guillen, M. Chapter 2 in Models of Management: Work, Authority and Organization in a Comparative Perspective, 30-90. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. ISBN: 0226310361. Pfeffer, J.  Chapter 1 in New Directions for Organization Theory, 3-24. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.  ISBN: 0195114345 Shenhav, Y. “From Chaos to Systems: The Engineering Foundations of Organization Theory, 1879-1932.” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (1995): 557-585.
3	Debating Contemporary Organization Theory	Latour, B. Chapter 1 in Science in Action, 21-62.  Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987. ISBN: 0674792912. Theory and Theorizing Sutton, R., and B. Staw. “What Theory is Not.” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (1995): 371-384. Weick, K. “What Theory is Not, Theorizing is.” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (1995): 385-390. DiMaggio, P. “Comments on “What theory is not.” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (1995): 391-397. Pluralism and its Discontents Pfeffer, J. “Barriers to the Advance of Organizational Science: Paradigm Development as a Dependent Variable.” Academy of Management Review 18 (1993): 599-620. van Maanen, J. “Style as Theory.” Organization Science 6 (1995): 133-143. Pfeffer, J. “Mortality, Reproducibility, and the Persistence of Styles of Theory.” Organization Science 6 (1995): 681-686. Van Maanen, J. “Fear and Loathing in Organization Studies.” Organization Science 6 (1995): 687-692.
II. Main Contemporary Conceptual Frameworks
4	Structural Contingency and Resource Dependence Theories	Structural Contingency Theory Galbraith, J. Chapters 1 and 2 in Designing Complex Organizations, 1-21. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1973. ISBN: 0201025590. Lawrence, P., and J. Lorsch. “Differentiation and Integration in Complex Organizations.” Administrative Science Quarterly 12 (1967): 1-47. Thompson, J.  Chapters 1-6 in Organizations in Action, 3-82. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967. ISBN: 0070643806. Resource Dependence Theory Emerson, R. “Power-Dependence Relations.” American Sociological Review 27 (1962): 31-41. Pfeffer, J., and G. Salancik.  Chapters 1, 3, 7 in The External Control of Organizations, 1-22, 39-61, 143-187. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. ISBN: 0060451939.
5	Social Network Analysis	Burt, R. Chapter 1 in Structural Holes, 8-49. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN: 067484372X. Granovetter, M. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 78 (1973): 1360-1380. Granovetter, M. “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness.” American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985): 481-510. Uzzi, B. “The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect.” American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 674-698.
6	New Institutionalism	Barley, S., and P. Tolbert. “Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution.” Organization Studies 18 (1997): 93-117. DiMaggio, P., and W. Powell. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review 48 (1983): 147-160. Meyer, J., and B. Rowan. “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony.” American Journal of Sociology 83 (1977): 340-363. Mizruchi, M., and L. Fein. “The Social Construction of Organizational Knowledge: A Study of the Uses of Coercive, Mimetic, and Normative Isomorphism.” Administrative Science Quartely 44 (1999): 653-683. Tolbert, P., and L. Zucker. “Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935.” Administrative Science Quarterly 28 (1983): 22-39.
7	Organizational Ecology	Hannan, M., and J. Freeman. “The Population Ecology of Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology 82 (1977): 929-964. Hannan, M., and J. Freeman. Chapters 1-2 in Organizational Ecology, 3-44. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989. ISBN: 0674643488. Haveman, H. “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Organizational Change and Performance Under Conditions of Fundamental Environmental Transformation.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 37 (1992): 48-75. Stinchcombe, A. “Social Structure and Organizations.” In Handbook of Organizations, 142-193_._ Edited by J. March. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1965. ISBN: 082408215X. [Focus on pp. 142-169.] Sorensen, J. “The Ecology of Organizational Demography: Managerial Tenure Distributions and Organizational Competition.” Industrial and Corporate Change 8 (1999): 713-744.
III. Technology and Professions
8	Technology in the Workplace	Barley, S. “Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from Observations of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments.” Administrative Science Quarterly 31 (1986): 78-108. Bechky, B. “Object Lessons: Workplace Artifacts as Representations of Occupational Jurisdiction.” American Journal of Sociology 109 (2003): 720-752. Orlikowski, W. “Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations.” Organization Science 11 (2000): 404-428. Rosenkopf, L., and M. Tushman. “The Coevolution of Technology and Organization.” In Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations. Edited by J. Baum and J. Singh, 403-424. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. ISBN: 0195085841. Yates, J. Chapter 2 in Control through Communication, 21-64. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989. ISBN: 080183757X.
9	Professional Work
IV. Students’ Projects
10	Class Presentation and Discussion of Students’ Term-Papers
11	Class Presentation and Discussion of Students’ Term-Papers (cont.)