Organisational theory

1
Organisational theory

• The evidence

2
Learning outcomes

• At the end of this session and with additional
  reading you will be able to
• evaluate research into organisational theory

3
Woodwards (1965)

• To test the classical theory of organisations
  Woodward conducted a study into the relationship
  between technology and organisational features
  with organisations in Essex
• Main finding was that technology was the largest
  influence on the organisational characteristics
  (unit, small, mass production)

4
Hodgetts (1991) -

• Provided a comparison of organisational
  characteristics among successful companies in
  each of the categories
• see diagram

5
Burns and Stalker (1961)

• Mechanistic and organic structures
• The major findings of their study is that
  organisations can be categorized along a
  continuum with mechanistic organisations at one
  end and organistic organisations at the other
• see diagram

6
Perrow (1970)

• Perrow classifies organisations along a routine -
  non routine continuum
• This categorisatuion applies to all organisations

7
Hall (1962)

• Hall was interested in the impact of technology
  within organistions
• The research was conducted amongst five
  industrial and 5 government agencies
• Results showed that departments dealing with
  situations that did not vary such as assembly
  plant or routine administration tasks adopted
  Webers bureaucratic model