This book offers a critique of recent developments in the study of organizational structure in the USA. There has been a profusion of new paradigms offered in the USA and this has fragmented the field. Many of these paradigms share an anti-management quality, painting managers in an increasingly negative light. This book examines five major, contemporary US organizational theories: population-ecology, institutional, resource dependence, agency and transaction cost economics. Each of these theories and their attendant research is critically examined and severe problems are identified in either theoretical coherence or empirical validity. Lex Donaldson argues that it is possible to reintegrate the field by taking structural contingency theory as the core theory and adding on to it selective propositions from the newer paradigms. He also offers suggestions for needed reforms in the US academic cultural and institutional system.

This unique work bridges the gap between theory and practice in organizational behavior. It provides a practical guide to real-life applications of the 35 most significant theories in the field. The author describes each theory, and then analyzes its usefulness and importance to the successful practice of management. His analysis covers key managerial topics such as goal setting, training and development, assessment, job enrichment, influence processes, decision-making, group processes, organizational development, organizational structuring, and effective organizational operation.

This book provides a comprehensive summary of the major theories meant to explain the way business and other organizations work, why they look and act as they do, and what makes some succeed and others fail. Among the many different approaches to the subject, no one school of thought accurately reflects current thinking on these issues. The author presents a much-needed overview of thirty of the major theories that underpin Organization Theory and Economic Organization. Each theory is summarized in a stand-alone fashion, allowing each chapter to be used either in complement or as a separate perspective. Integration of the various topics and perspectives is accomplished within section introductions and in the overall introduction and conclusion to the text. The goal of this book is to inform students of the main issues confronting organizations, the main theoretical ideas within the different paradigms, why it is important to theorize about organizations, how these theories are constructed, and how learning is improved by scanning multiple perspectives. It can be used as a stand-alone uourse text or supplementary text for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in Organization Theory.

In this book, Lex Donaldson, one of the leading scholars in the field of organization theory, introduces a compelling theory of performance-driven organizational change, Organizational Portfolio Theory. In explaining why organizations change and also why they fail to change, the theory reconceptualizes the organization as a portfolio with a number of different causes of organizational performance varying over time. The author argues that without a performance crisis there is a good chance that necessary organizational changes will not be forthcoming, and that moreover, the adaptive change induced by the crisis creates the capacity for fresh organizational growth.

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Breathing fresh life into a once lively dialogue, this is a valuable resource for navigating of the varied sociological scholarship we witness amongst today’s organization scholars.

While research in organisational studies has become increasingly rich and complex, organisation researchers are constantly challenged by the growing quest for theoretical advancement and innovation. To conduct theoretically rigorous and innovative research, contemporary researchers and students must develop in-depth understanding of the theoretical traditions and future prospects of their discipline. This book provides a collection of cutting-edge research topics in the field of organisation and management and offers advanced research findings that explore the frontiers of the field. Advancing Organisational Theory in a Complex World aims to provide deep insights into many influential organisational theories, including, contingency theory, institutional theory, stewardship theory, population ecology theory, ambidexterity, and complexity theory. All these theories have been developed to explain the external and internal factors that influence organisational survival and evolvement. We focus on these theories because they represent some of the most important ways into the modern literature, counter-points to the modern literature, and a breath of fresh air to some theories which should be better known. This book shows the fruitfulness and the continuous vitality of the theoretical field of organisational studies in a critical and innovative way. Finally, this book is dedicated to Professor Lex Donaldson who is a thought leader in the field. The field owed this to Lex, for his lifelong dedication to organisational studies and for his creation and advancement of theories that have inspired several generations of researchers.

The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Research Methods provides a rich resource for organizational researchers, locating the technical aspects of organizational research in the wider context of the relevant personal, epistemological, theoretical, historical, ethical, and political issues. David Buchanan and Alan Bryman have gathered together many of the world's leading writers on theory, method, and analysis in organizational research and have made this the most comprehensive and cutting-edge volume in this ever-growing field.