Description
Book SynopsisFrom 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.
Trade Review′Luhman and Cunliffe have provided a glossary of organization theory terms from agency to storytelling to transaction cost economics. In doing so they provide an important resource to any course on organizations, so students can make their path through the terminological jungle. Each chapter is a rest stop on the journey, providing helpful hints, pointing out the dangers of the terrain and the safest paths to follow′ -
Professor David Boje
New Mexico State University ′Luhman and Cunliffe perform a valuable service, helping to capture and make accessible the richness of current organizational theory and behaviour′ -
Richard J. Badham, Professor of Management
Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, Austrailia
Table of ContentsIntroduction 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
