Critically Discuss the Key Ideas of Both the Systems Rationalism Era and the Organisational Culture Era. Examine How These Ideas Were Shaped by Earlier Strands of Management and Reflect on Their Enduring Impact on Contemporary Management Ideas.

Classical organization theory evolved during the first half of this century. It represents the merger of scientific management, bureaucratic theory, and administrative theory.

There are two approaches to organisational culture mainstream and critical, both will be evaluated and explored throughout. Starting with mainstream, Smircich defines mainstream organisational culture as ‘something that an organisation has’ (1983). When looking at culture through this perspective it is understood to be

However, they tend to have a focus on certain organizational aspects making the modern organization system be a blend of the three major perspectives. Based on organizational science that was formulated in the early 20th century there has been an emergence of rational, open and natural system theorists that explain the functioning of the organizations.

“Organisations need strong culture”. Consider this statement in relation to how we understand and make sense of culture in the post-bureaucratic era.

This paper will examine organizational structures, organizational systems and how organizational culture influences both structure and systems. Throughout this paper, there will an analogy to the human body to help further the understanding of the concepts of structure and systems in an organization. This analogy is based on the academic work of Goold and Campbell (Goold & Campbell, 2002). The first part of this paper will review different organizational structures. The second part will look at various organizational systems and how they may be

In this essay about managing culture in the post-bureaucratic era, I am going to argue how the practices of managing culture have changed in this era and how they differentiate oneself from the bureaucratic era. Furthermore I describe the cultural influences especially in organizations and how the importance of those influences changed over the time. In the first section I am going to explain the content of managing organization culture to get a first insight in the topic and to express the knowledge about the influences of the culture in an organization. In the next chapter I separate between two perspectives of the cultural organizations and explain which of the both are relevant for the assignment question. The next step of my

“the systematic application of functional rationality to the self to attain certain individual ends”. Such a manager “dispassionately takes stock of himself, treating himself as an object, as a commodity. He analyses his strengths and weaknesses and decides what he needs to change in order to survive and flourish in his organization. And then he systematically undertakes a program to reconstruct his image ...” (p.59) “The continuous uncertainty and ambiguity of managerial hierarchies, exacerbated over time by masked conflict, causes managers to turn towards each other for cues for behaviour. They try to learn from each other and to master the shared assumptions, the complex rules, the normative codes, the underlying institutional logic that governs their world. ... Normally, of course, one learns to master the managerial code in the course of repeated, long-term social interaction with other managers” (p.37-8) “... one makes oneself alert to expediency by projecting outward the objectifying habit of mind learned in the course of self-rationalization. That is, the manager alert to expediency learns to appraise all situations and all other people as he comes to see himself - as an object, a commodity, something to be scrutinized, rearranged, tinkered with, packaged, advertised, promoted, and sold.” (p.119)

The classical or traditional approach to management was generally concerned with the structure and the activities of formal organization. The utmost importance in the achievement of an effective organization were seen to be the issues such as the establishment of a hierarchy of authority, the division of work, and the span of control.

Modern, post-modern, critical theory and symbolic-interpretive are four different perspectives that provides different ways to analyse and understand organisations, however this essay shall focus on two perspectives, namely the modern and critical theory. These two perspectives have different views on concepts that might appear similar, thus this essay shall examine the different stands they each take. Concepts that can be examined include, power, control and conflict, organisational structures, organisations culture and organisation and its environment. This essay shall closely examine how the two perspectives have different views on the subject on power, control and conflict pertaining to the different ways to analyse and

Classical management theory was rigid and mechanistic, and overall focused heavily on structure, not the individual. The shortcomings of classical organization theory quickly became apparent during industrialization of companies. Its major deficiency was that it attempted to explain peoples' motivation to work strictly as a function of economic reward. Recognizing this, a need for human resources became important which initiated focus into neoclassical organization theory.

The twentieth century has brought in a number of management theories which have helped shaped our view of management in the present business environment. These emerging theories have enabled managers to appreciate new patterns of thinking, new ways of organising and new ways of managing organisations and people. Over the years these different theories have enabled the study

Organisational culture refers to ‘the shared beliefs and values guiding the thinking and behavioural styles of members’ (Cooke and Rousseau, 1988, in Bratton 2010: 334), indicating that employees who accept the common values of an organisation and put great effort on commitments are likely to build up a strong culture to an organisation.

The objective of this essay is to critically discuss that the 'best ' organisational cultures lead to the 'best ' organisational performance using concepts and examples trough analysis of empiric studies.

'The oldest of the "formal" viewpoints of management emerged during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and come ton be know as the classical perspective.' (Pamela S. Lewis, Stephen H. Goodman, Patricia M. Fandt, 1998) The classical perspective had its roots in the management experiences. That was occurring in the rapidly expanding manufacturing organizations that typified U.S and European industrialization. Early contributions were made by management practitioners and theorist from several corners of the world.

The Hawthorne Studies were conducted by Elton Mayo with help from his research assistant Fritz Roethlisberger in the mid-1920s along with the works at the Hawthorne plant of the Western Electric Company in Chicago, Illinois. These studies were influenced by the principles of scientific management which were introduced by Frederick Taylor in 1911. The studies were to research weather people worked more efficiently when they were working as a group, being treated as special (such as working in a separate room), etc. ‘The studies found that good incentives (money) and good working conditions are generally less important than the employees’ need and desire to belong in a group and be included and wanted in decision making.’ (E. Mayo 1946). The question being asked however, is whether the studies undertaken, can be recognized as changing the development of management. Looking at the way it changed management at the time it can be said that it did, and this essay discusses how it produced change and how it also helped develop management to what it currently is in society today.