Summary
Contents
Subject index
Awards:
RUSA Notable Business Sources 2014
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 A-Z 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.
Systems Theory
Systems Theory
Systems theory:how organizational activities follow a process of taking inputs from the environment, transforming those inputs given the organization's structure and practices, creating outputs for the organization's stakeholders, and gathering and using feedback mechanisms to improve all activities.
Origins
A basic representation in organization theory is that of the open systems model of the firm. Figure 3 demonstrates that any organizational activity follows the process of taking inputs from its environment, transforming those inputs given the organization's structure and practices, creating outputs for the organization's stakeholders, and gathering and using feedback mechanisms to improve all activities. The development of the concept of Systems Theory, as it is applied to the study of organizations, goes back to the writings of Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Norbert Wiener ...
- Loading...