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BUS 374 Organization Theory

BUS 374 Organization Theory. Instructor: Rajiv Krishnan Kozhikode. Agenda for today. Syllabus Overview What is this course about? How is it delivered? How are you examined? Course management Team Formation and Assignment Allocation A brief discussion of “What is an organization?”.

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BUS 374 Organization Theory

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  1. BUS 374Organization Theory Instructor: Rajiv Krishnan Kozhikode

  2. Agenda for today • Syllabus Overview • What is this course about? • How is it delivered? • How are you examined? • Course management • Team Formation and Assignment Allocation • A brief discussion of “What is an organization?”

  3. What is this course about? • It is about macro-organizational theory. • We will seek to answer the following questions about organizations • What are organizations? • Why do organizations exist? • Why are there so many different types of organizations? • Do organizations act similarly? • What are the consequences of acting differently? • How do organizations evolve? • How do organizations interact with each other?

  4. How is the content delivered? • Critical evaluate academic articles. • Through traditional lectures • Team activities involving weekly reports • In class discussion of reports There are NO designated textbooks for this course.

  5. Evaluation criteria • Class participation (10%): Bases on contributions in class rather than on attendance, so come well prepared. • weekly team assignments (30%): 14 teams, each team will submit one research application memo based on assigned articles. • First mid-term exam (30%): After four theory sessions an open book exam comprising of scenario-based and theory-based short answer type questions will be administered on the 10th July 2013. • Second mid-term exam (30%): After first eight sessions, a closed-book, multiple choice cumulative exam will be administered on the 22nd July 2013.

  6. Course management • Course blog • http://blogs.sfu.ca/courses/summer2013/bus374 • Article retrieval • Search Google Scholar first • If you are in the university network, you will be able to easily download the article from there. • If you are in an outside network, look for JSTOR links or SSRN links or other direct links • Else, search for it at university library databases

  7. Team Formation • We need 14 teams of 5 to 6 team members. • Random team assignments. • Random article assignments to teams. • “No free riding” policy

  8. Session 1 What are Organizations?

  9. Selznick’s view of organizations • Some examples of organizations • Business corporations • Trade unions • Governments • Political parties • Student associations • All of these represent rationally ordered arrangements to achieve particular ends

  10. Individuals and organizations • Individuals are supposed to play roles that help achieve these ends • But they bring more that just “roles” to the organizations limiting the efficiency of the system . • Authority is aimed at reducing inefficiency • But control and consent go hand in hand. • Therefore an organization takes a cooperative function comprising of formal and informal interactions that shape actions aimed at achieving various ends.

  11. Imperatives for a structural-functional analysis of organizations • The security of the organization from external threats • Stability of lines of authority • Stability of informal relationships • Continuity of policy and its source of determination • Homogeneity of outlook about the organization’s role

  12. Chandler’s survey of theories of the firm • A Neo classical view of the firm as a economically efficient system • An organization as a nexus of contracts between various principals and agents aimed at generating economic efficiency in production • Transaction cost theory’s view of the firm as an alternative to the market to minimize opportunism and manage bounded rationality • Evolutionary theory’s view of the firm as an organization of evolving capabilities • Dynamics of capabilities, strategy and structure comprise the firm.

  13. That’s it for today • For the next session each team should prepare a research application memo based on one of these two articles that • Critically evaluates the key assumptions and theoretical argument(s) of the assigned article • Identifies a recent real world organizational phenomenon that either challenges or extends received wisdom (assumptions, arguments and findings) from the assigned article and • Discusses how this real world organizational phenomenon can be used to develop novel theoretical insights relevant to the assigned article.

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