Talking About Organizations Podcast

In this episode we are joined by Dr Deborah Brewis to discuss a classic paper by Rosabeth Moss Kanter on gender in organizations - “Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women” (1977). In this article, Kanter explores how interactions within a group or an organization are affected by the different numbers of people from distinct social types. In particular, she focuses on groups with skewed gender ratios: a high proportion of men and a small number of women – the tokens. The study is based on observations and interviews with sales teams that recently began to incorporate women in their workforce, and shows how structural factors stifled the potential of their female members.We discuss challenges of gender integration, the theoretical underpinnings of Kanter’s framework and the relevance of the concept of tokenism in contemporary research and practice, among other things.

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 the external and local conditions where an organization functions. This represents a departure from assumptions from the scientific management theories of Taylor and Fayol that we discussed in previous episodes of the show. It shifts the focus of organizational scholars beyond strictly internal dynamics and structure and places greater emphasis on an organization’s alignment with its external environment. Lawrence and Lorsch used the data they collected to argue that the most economically successful organizations were the ones that managed to fulfil the dual goal of differentiation (to cope with environmental uncertainty) and integration (to align the work of highly differentiated departments).

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 differentiation requirements according to their environment.The paper is based on a comparative study of six industrial organizations and data was obtained via questionnaires and interviews with senior executives. The researchers compare the degree of integration and differentiation between subgroups in each company (i.e., sales, production and research and development subsystems) as they attempt to meet requirements from their sub-environments (i.e., science, market and technical-economic). The paper shows that the most economic successful organizations were the ones that managed to fulfil the dual goal of differentiation and integration. Finally, the authors explore the conditions that lead to more or less effectiveness in integrative devices.So, how does integration and differentiation happen? And what does it mean to meet requirements from the environment? Join us as we explore these concepts and ideas in Episode 16!

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 Alvesson and Jorgen Sandberg propose that the focal point of what contributes to something being interesting is found way before any results or implications - it is found in the assumptions that go into the design of the research. Join us as we sit down with Professor Jorgen Sandberg to talk about his book, interesting research and about how and why one might pursue it. This book is just as relevant for new researchers and research students as it is for more seasoned academics (albeit for different reasons). It highlights the importance of creativity and self-awareness when formulating research questions and gives the owner of the book practical tools for how to make their research more interesting!

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 condensed version of his earlier book - Managing, which was published in 2009. Both books address management as it is actually practiced, which Henry found to be quite different from how management scholars write about it. Simply Managing is designed to be of greatest use to practitioners, with an entertaining style and lots of boldface type to emphasize key points clearly.In Part 2 of the episode we go through the book in a more systematic way, discussing gossip, technology and some of the interpretative models proposed by the book. At the end of the episode Henry once more outlines his views on management and education. Sit down with us for a conversation with Henry Mintzberg about management and Simply Managing!

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 condensed version of his earlier book - Managing, which was published in 2009. Both books address management as it is actually practiced, which Henry found to be quite different from how management scholars write about it. Simply Managing is designed to be of greatest use to practitioners, with an entertaining style and lots of boldface type to emphasize key points clearly.Part 1 of the episode is a more general discussion about management and key concepts covered in the book. Tune in to hear from the author himself and to learn from the human encyclopedia of management that is Henry Mintzberg!

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 then as well as right now.

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 of theory and postulations, Roy alludes to, directly or indirectly (usually the latter) to such themes as Scientific Management, esprit de corps, Hawthorne Studies, motivation and self-actualization, time and motion studies, humour, play, and lived experience of time. Needless to say, this is an amazing text well-worth reading and re-reading.

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 and fantastic people, so we really cannot recommend this conversation highly enough! Paul is most famous for shaping our understanding of how information is socially subjective, and Emma is doing some excellent work on media, power and this exciting concept of 'unconferences'.This episode took place during the OLKC 2016 conference in St Andrews, Scotland and we thank Gail Greig, Kevin Orr and Christopher Mueller of Saint Andrews University, as well as the OLKC Board, for hosting it.