Many companies today are either undergoing drastic organizational changes or are faced with the prospect of having to make these changes in the near future. The need for change may arise from internal sources—growth in the size of the company, the problem of aging—or, more frequently, from external sources: changes in the nature of markets, in the technology of the industry, or even cultural beliefs about the “proper” rewards of work and behavior for employers and employees. This book is concerned with the process of change by which organizations achieve their purposes and meet the needs of their individual and group contributors. Lawrence's study is centered on a medium-sized supermarket chain in which several important management functions were being shifted from the home office to newly created store managers. The origin and reasoning behind these organizational changes, the methods of introducing them, the process of shifting the roles of key individuals, and the consequences of the changes are considered in detail. The author's inquiry proceeds from four essential research questions: What is the nature of the basic behavior patterns in this organization? What are the key factors involved in changing those patters? Did significant measurement change occur? If so, how was it accomplished. This volume, first published in 1958, broke new ground in devising techniques to measure changes in behavior patterns of individuals, in focusing attention on the behavior patterns of individuals at the management levels of an organization, and in clarifying the stubborn facts of human behavior involved in changing administrative patterns. The book will be of continuing interest to managers and administrators concerned with making key changes in customary supervisory practices and to sociologists for the way the book addresses the general issue of the conflicts between the shifting demands of large organizations and the integrity of the individual. The new 1990 introduction by the author nicely illustrates his belief that the process of organizational change remains a central issue for American society.

One of the major challenges facing organization studies has been for a long time to develop an operational content to the notion of routines . This book offers important advances in this direction, both conceptually and through illuminating case studies. Giovanni Dosi, Sant Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy This book showcases advanced empirical research that applies the concept of organizational routines to understanding organizations and how they change and evolve. The contributions gathered in the book cover qualitative, quantitative, and archival methods for empirical research applying the concept of organizational routines. Specific issues highlighted include the use of event-sequence methods in the analysis of organizational routines, the impact of standard operating procedures on recurrent behaviour patterns, and the stability, resilience, and change of organizational routines. The book thus provides an overview of different empirical methods applied to study organizational routines, and of their prerequisites, analytical power, and contribution. This comprehensive book will be of great interest to scholars and postgraduate students in the fields of organization theory, strategy, and organization behaviour. Researchers in organization, management and economic science, organizational change and evolutionary theories will also find this book invaluable.

This text uses realistic case examples, discussion questions, and self-tests to illustrate principles of workplace psychology. Each chapter begins by posing a difficult work situation, which may be a conflict, a motivation problem, or an issue of diversity, then goes on to discuss principles and theories that apply to the case, covering areas of ethics, problem employees, and organizational culture, as well as neglected areas such as the physical atmosphere of the workplace, the effects of new technologies on workers, and workplace gossip. Harris teaches management at the University of Louisiana- Monroe; Hartman, at the University of New Orleans. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

First published in 1984. Starting out with the exploration of the value of the case study, this volume looks at organisational change, and presents nine case studies of planned change on the organizational or community level. Each is an in-depth analysis prepared by the consultants who were actively engaged in the change activity.

This conceptual work addresses organizations' responses to management improvement efforts, offering a practical approach for ensuring desired results when making improvements in managing organizations. In examinations of three methodologies for organizational improvement -- strategic planning, management by objective, and executive development -- this exceptional book analyzes the critical factors that influence change. The ground-breaking hypothesis evolved from this research affords executives rational means for planning changes in their organizations. Changing Bureaucracies: Understanding the Organization Before Selecting the Approach will be invaluable to management personnel in federal, state, and local governments, as well as executives in the private business sector. In addition, senior undergraduate and graduate level students of public administration, political science, government, business administration, and economics will gain vital insights into successful approaches to organizational changes. Book jacket.

First Published in 1998. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.