Talking About Organizations Podcast

We are proud to support the OMT Division at the Academy of Management in producing their own podcast - The OMT Podcast! The show, hosted by Tanja Ohlson from Oxford University, will focus on interviewing members of the OMT division about their life and research. Available now on all major podcast directories as well as on http://omtweb.org/omtpodcast . Check it out!

Our discussion of WALL-E concludes with a look at dystopian fiction and how it presents class differences that suggest ways in which some will feel the burden of societal unrest more than others. This is exemplified in the movie by the way that presumably some segments of society were able to leave the wasted Earth while others might not have. How can we use organization theory, management science, and studies of leadership to understand similar phenomena going on all around us?

Movies can be effective tools for discussing concepts, ideas, and experiences about organizations and management. In this episode, we cover the 'instant' classic film WALL-E by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. WALL-E is the story of a robot who at one time was part of a massive clean-up effort on Earth while all the humans left to live on cruise ships in space. We talk about the setting and the story for clues about organizational behavior and management. Along with the movie obvious commentary on consumerism, we talk about leadership, meaning of work, and many other topics. Join Tom, Pedro, Maikel and Ralph for a fun conversation!

We conclude on episode on Dan Brass' article, "Being in the Right Place: A Structural Analysis of Individual Influence in an Organization" from Administrative Science Quarterly. In this part of the discussion, we explore Dan's mixed-methods approach that included criticality, transaction alternatives, and centrality (access and control) in the social networks of the organization. The results showed that connections in workflow, communication, and friendship networks resulted in greater perceptions of influence by others. But as we discuss, some of Dan's findings were found a bit surprising. Which ones? Listen and find out! We are once again joined by Sarah Otner.

What is power and influence? Although power appears as a multilevel concept, the early organizational literature tended to view it as wielded by people--measured as skills, traits, or competencies. This would change in the 1980s, in large part to a classic empirical study providing evidence that one's position within an organizational structure was more likely to translate into one's source of power. Dan Brass' article, "Being in the Right Place: A Structural Analysis of Individual Influence in an Organization" from Administrative Science Quarterly is the subject of this episode. In Part 1, we focus on where this article fits in the broader context of power and influence in organization studies. Joining us in the studio for this episode is Sarah Otner, a junior research fellow at the Imperial College in London.

Part 2 of our discussion of Joan Woodward's classic work on contingency theory, technology, and organization.

Joan Woodward was a pioneer in organization theory, and in this episode we explore her seminal work Industrial Organization: Theory and Practice, originally published in 1965. The book presents the results of an extensive longitudinal study of the technologies, processes, and systems used by over one hundred industrial firms concentrated in southeast England over a ten year period. The studies produced a finding that successful firms did not follow a single ‘best way’ to manage the firm, but that each had an optimal way based on the congruence or alignment between the technologies and the processes & systems to manage them. This included differences among firms regarding the dominance of marketing, research and development, and production; variations in status of employees among various roles, and variations in how success is measured. Follow-on studies examined how firms underwent transformational change from one form of industry to another, largely confirming the prior results.

Join us as we conclude talking about one of the most known theories in management and organisational behaviour! Are you theory X or theory Y? Or is there even meaning to such a distinction? What are the normative and political assumptions behind this typology? Tune in to find out more!

In this episode, we examine Douglas McGregor’s most famous work, The Human Side of Enterprise, that proposed two “theories” encapsulating management assumptions about human behavior. His Theory X described the dominant thinking of the 1950s, where managers held a dim view of employees, who were assumed to be disinclined to work and had to be coerced into doing so. McGregor felt that Theory X led to adversarial relationships between managers and workers, resulting in poorer performance and an unhealthy environment. His Theory Y saw employees as wishing to be challenged and fulfilled if properly empowered and engaged.The book has become a staple of management literature. Numerous studies of organizations have confirmed the benefits of Theory Y assumptions serving as the foundation for performance appraisals, reward systems, working in teams, and building worker commitment to the organization. The Annotated Edition of the book, published in 2006, includes dozens of additional callouts and citations of research and vignettes of management experience, demonstrated the continued relevance of this master work.

In the 2019 workshop at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, we paid particular attention to the European(/UK) tradition as this is usually overlooked in our area (especially the work of the Tavistock Institute). We selected authors and groups representing different aspects of this approach with presentations by Sarah Kaplan (on Joan Woodward), Signe Vikkelsø (on the Tavistock Institute and Socio-Technical Systems), and Gino Cattani (on James D. Thompson). This was followed by roundtables mediated by the speakers and a plenary discussion.The episode begins with the presentation of some “postcards” — notes sent to us from several prominent scholars who applaud the attention we are giving to the contingency approach. You can view the postcards in the gallery below. Enjoy!This PDW represents the second edition of what we hope to be a standing series showcasing the enduring relevance of earlier organizational research and raise interest for it. We believe that paying attention to the classics of our field may complement the strong emphasis (at AOM and beyond) on new/disruptive ideas, enable cumulative insights, and promote the value of research committed to theorizing core organizational dynamics.