H1 & HC1: Why study organization theory?
A theory is a sets of concepts whose proposed relationships offer explanation,
understanding, or appreciation of a phenomenon of interest (concept). Related concepts are
defined and used to explain that one.
Human behavior is unpredictable, so explaining organizations where humans are at work
often demands the use of statistical probabilities, rather than a precise formulae.
Sources of inspiration for organization theory:
● Prehistory (1900-1950): sources of ideas about organizations that occurred before
anyone considered organization theory to be a discipline in its own right.
● Modern (1960-1970)
● Symbolic (1980)
● Postmodern (1990)
Step 1: Concepts provide mental categories that are formed by abstraction.
Abstraction: formation of an idea by mental separation from particular instances. You build
concepts in your memory on the basis of your acquaintance with instances that are familiar
to you, either as the result of personal experience, or base on what others tell you.
Abstraction gives you an increased ability to process more information and/or to process
information more quickly.
Chunking: abstraction allows you to associate volumes of information with a single concept
and thereby to process this information rapidly whenever you think of, or with, the concept.
The importance of this aspect of abstraction is called chunking.Chunking permits us to relate
large bodies of knowledge to each other.
Step 2: theories link concepts together to explain the phenomenon. An independent variable
will cause a dependent variable (the phenomenon to be explained to occur).
Ontology: concerned with how you choose to define what is real, our assumptions about
reality. Depending upon your perspective, you will give some things the status of being real,
while you disregard others. Ontology is also concerned with the question of agency: do
people have free will and are they wholly responsible for their own actions, or is life
predetermined, whether by situations or by god? Subjectivists: something only exists when
you experience and give it meaning.People create and experience realities in different ways,
because individuals and groups have their own assumptions. Objectivists: reality exists
independently of those who live in it.People react to what is happening around them in
predictable ways.
Epistemology: concerned with how you form knowledge and establish criteria for
evaluating it, knowing how you can know. Positivist epistemology: you can discover what
truly happens in organizations through the categorization and scientific measurement of the
behavior of people and systems.This is based on foundational principles that celebrate the
values of reason, truth and validity. Interpretive epistemology: knowledge can only be
created and understood from the point of view of the individuals who live and work in a
particular culture or organization.Each of us acts in situations and make sense of what is
happening based on our experience of that situation and the memories and expectations we
bring to it.
A theory is a sets of concepts whose proposed relationships offer explanation,
understanding, or appreciation of a phenomenon of interest (concept). Related concepts are
defined and used to explain that one.
Human behavior is unpredictable, so explaining organizations where humans are at work
often demands the use of statistical probabilities, rather than a precise formulae.
Sources of inspiration for organization theory:
● Prehistory (1900-1950): sources of ideas about organizations that occurred before
anyone considered organization theory to be a discipline in its own right.
● Modern (1960-1970)
● Symbolic (1980)
● Postmodern (1990)
Step 1: Concepts provide mental categories that are formed by abstraction.
Abstraction: formation of an idea by mental separation from particular instances. You build
concepts in your memory on the basis of your acquaintance with instances that are familiar
to you, either as the result of personal experience, or base on what others tell you.
Abstraction gives you an increased ability to process more information and/or to process
information more quickly.
Chunking: abstraction allows you to associate volumes of information with a single concept
and thereby to process this information rapidly whenever you think of, or with, the concept.
The importance of this aspect of abstraction is called chunking.Chunking permits us to relate
large bodies of knowledge to each other.
Step 2: theories link concepts together to explain the phenomenon. An independent variable
will cause a dependent variable (the phenomenon to be explained to occur).
Ontology: concerned with how you choose to define what is real, our assumptions about
reality. Depending upon your perspective, you will give some things the status of being real,
while you disregard others. Ontology is also concerned with the question of agency: do
people have free will and are they wholly responsible for their own actions, or is life
predetermined, whether by situations or by god? Subjectivists: something only exists when
you experience and give it meaning.People create and experience realities in different ways,
because individuals and groups have their own assumptions. Objectivists: reality exists
independently of those who live in it.People react to what is happening around them in
predictable ways.
Epistemology: concerned with how you form knowledge and establish criteria for
evaluating it, knowing how you can know. Positivist epistemology: you can discover what
truly happens in organizations through the categorization and scientific measurement of the
behavior of people and systems.This is based on foundational principles that celebrate the
values of reason, truth and validity. Interpretive epistemology: knowledge can only be
created and understood from the point of view of the individuals who live and work in a
particular culture or organization.Each of us acts in situations and make sense of what is
happening based on our experience of that situation and the memories and expectations we
bring to it.
