Organization theory is presently dominated by theories of strategic choice and politics. Managers are seen as exercising a wide choice and maximizing their personal self-interest through complex power struggles.
This stimulating volume challenges these views, arguing instead that managerial decisions are determined by the situation and serve the interests of the whole organization. Showing that organizations follow laws which generalize across organizations of many different kinds in many different national cultures, the book rejects the model of organizational configurations or types.
The author offers a critical assessment of leading organization theorists such as Henry Mintzberg, John Child, Michael Hannan and Danny Miller – and also of the satirist Northcote Parkinson.
Table of Content
Positivist Organization Theory
For Determinism
Against Strategic Choice
For Determinism
Subjective Factors in Strategic Choice
For Functionalism
Against Politics and `Parkinson′s Law′
For Functionalism
The Validity of Blau′s Theory
For Cartesianism
Against Organization Types and Quantum Jumps
For Generalization in Positivist Organization Theory
For Generalization of Organizational Size
Conclusions
About the author
Lex Donaldson is Professor of Organizational Design at the Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales. His publications include American Anti-Management Theories of Organization: A Critique of Paradigm Proliferation (1995) and In Defence of Organization Theory: A Reply to the Critics (1985).
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