Key Concepts in Organization Theory

Ann L Cunliffe, John T Luhman

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781446290026
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Development
• Index: Business

From agency theory to power and politics, this indispensable guide to the key concepts of organization theory is your compass as you navigate through the often complex and abstract theories about the design and functioning of organizations. Designed to complement and elucidate your textbook or reading list, as well as introduce you to concepts that some courses neglect, this historical and interdisciplinary account of the field:

- Helps you understand the basics of organization theory

- Allows you to check your understanding of specific concepts

- Fills in any gaps left by your course reading, and

- Is a powerful revision tool

Each entry is consistently structured, providing a definition of the concept and why it?s important to theory and practice, followed by a summary of current debates and a list of further reading. This companion will provide you with the nuts and bolts of an understanding that will serve you not just in your organization studies course, but throughout your degree and beyond.

Key concepts include: agency theory; business strategy; corporate governance; decision making; environmental uncertainty; globalization; industrial democracy; organizational change; stakeholder theory; storytelling and narrative research; technology and organization structure.

index

absorptive capacity 130

potential absorptive capacity 130

realized absorptive capacity 130

action research 113

actor network theory 101, 173–4

agency problem 2, 39

ambidexterity perspective 75–6

co-competence 75

co-evolution 76

co-opetition 76

co-orientation 75

appreciative inquiry 113–4

aspects of culture 119

ceremonies 119

heroes 119

language 119

myths 119

rites and rituals 119

stories 119

symbols 119

assemblages 102–3

attraction-selection-attrition framework 119

boundary management activities 56

boundary spanning 56

bridging 56

buffering 56

bounded rationality 47

bureaucratic control 32

capital-managed firm 35

capitalist system 90, 92

capital relations 92

wage relations 92

causal texture theory 62

clan control 32

co-determination 79

collegiality 13

competing interests 154

complex adaptive systems 25

compliance 146

contingency perspective/thought 62, 107, 109, 171

continuous transformational model 26

control process 31

core competency model 21

corporate social responsibility 40, 155

dark side of culture 121

de-differentiation 17

de-skilling 90–1, 147

decision making styles 46

decision rights 178

decision tree model 47–8

deconstruction 142–3

differentiation 107

director primacy model 42

discourse analysis 51, 54

discourse 143

discursive practices 143

disciplinary power 148

domain 61

domination 145–6

duality of structure 163

dynamic capabilities 129–130

dynamics of culture 120

interpretation 120

manifestation 120

realization 120

symbolization 120

...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• About the Authors
• Introduction
• Agency Theory
• Alienation
• Authority
• Bureaucracy
• Business Strategy
• Complexity Science
• Contested Exchange Theory
• Control
• Cooperativism
• Corporate Governance
• Decision Making
• Discourse in Organizations
• Environmental Uncertainty
• Environment-Organization Interaction
• Flexibility
• Globalization
• Industrial Democracy
• Institutional Theory
• Labor Process Theory
• Life Cycle Models
• Materiality
• Organization Structure and Design
• Organizational Change
• Organizational Culture
• Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management
• Organizational Space
• Postmodern Turn and Organization Studies
• Power and Politics
• Scientific Management
• Stakeholder Theory
• Storytelling and Narrative Research
• Structuration Theory
• Systems Theory
• Technology and Organization Structure
• Transaction Cost Economics
• Note
• Index