Organizational theories course

Lesson 1 • Levels of Analysis in Organisations

Distinguishes individual, group, organisational, and environmental levels of analysis. Clarifies which phenomena each level best explains.

Lesson 2 • Core Assumptions Across Theories

Identifies the ontological and epistemological assumptions embedded in major theoretical traditions. Students learn to detect hidden premises in any organisational model.

Lesson 3 • Defining Organisations and Theory

Organisations are defined as goal-directed social systems, and theory is positioned as a lens for explanation. This grounds all subsequent analytical frameworks.

Lesson 4 • Historical Origins of Organisational Thought

Traces organisational thinking from pre-industrial craft guilds through early industrial management. Contextualises why specific theories emerged when they did.

Lesson 1 • Weber's Bureaucratic Model

Analyses ideal-type bureaucracy including hierarchy, rules, impersonality, and merit-based appointment. Students assess when bureaucracy enables and when it hinders performance.

Lesson 2 • Administrative Management Theory

Presents universal principles of planning, organising, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Students evaluate how these principles shaped modern management functions.

Lesson 3 • Comparing Classical Frameworks

Systematically contrasts scientific management, administrative theory, and bureaucracy on key dimensions. Builds comparative analysis skills used throughout the course.

Lesson 4 • Scientific Management Principles

Covers time-and-motion study, task standardisation, and differential pay as tools for efficiency. Links these principles to modern process optimisation practices.

Lesson 1 • Theory X and Theory Y Assumptions

Contrasts managerial assumptions about human nature and their self-fulfilling effects on organisational design. Students audit their own managerial assumptions.

Lesson 2 • Behavioural Theory of the Firm

Introduces bounded rationality, satisficing, and organisational coalitions as drivers of decision-making. Bridges human relations to later cognitive and political theories.

Lesson 3 • Motivation Theories in Organisations

Covers need-based, process-based, and reinforcement models of motivation and their organisational applications. Students link motivation theory to job design and reward systems.

Lesson 4 • Group Dynamics and Informal Structure

Examines norms, cohesion, roles, and informal networks that shape behaviour beyond formal structure. Students map informal influence alongside formal authority.

Lesson 1 • Sociotechnical Systems Theory

Examines joint optimisation of social and technical subsystems for performance and quality of work life. Students design interventions that balance both subsystems.

Lesson 2 • Size, Life Cycle, and Structure

Examines how organisational size and growth stage drive formalisation, specialisation, and decentralisation. Students predict structural changes across organisational life cycles.

Lesson 3 • Environmental Contingency Research

Reviews landmark studies linking environmental uncertainty to structural differentiation and integration. Students diagnose structural fit using contingency logic.

Lesson 4 • Technology and Structural Contingency

Analyses how production technology, task analysability, and interdependence shape optimal structure. Students classify technologies and derive structural implications.

Lesson 1 • Symbolic Management and Meaning-Making

Examines how leaders use stories, rituals, ceremonies, and language to construct organisational meaning. Students design symbolic interventions for culture reinforcement.

Lesson 2 • Defining and Layering Organisational Culture

Distinguishes artefacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions as nested cultural layers. Students use the layered model to decode surface and deep culture.

Lesson 3 • Culture Change and Transformation

Analyses conditions, levers, and resistance patterns in deliberate culture change initiatives. Students build a culture change roadmap using evidence-based levers.

Lesson 4 • Subcultures and Cultural Conflict

Identifies how occupational, departmental, and counter-cultures coexist and compete within organisations. Students manage cultural diversity without suppressing productive subcultures.

Lesson 1 • Power Sources and Dynamics

Identifies positional, resource, expert, and relational power bases and their mobilisation strategies. Students map power distributions and anticipate political behaviour.

Lesson 2 • Resource Dependence Theory

Explains how organisations manage external dependencies through absorption, diversification, and political action. Students apply resource dependence logic to inter-organisational strategy.

Lesson 3 • Institutional Theory and Isomorphism

Covers coercive, mimetic, and normative isomorphism as mechanisms driving structural similarity across fields. Students identify institutional pressures in real organisational contexts.

Lesson 4 • Organisational Politics and Coalition Building

Analyses how actors form coalitions, manage agendas, and use political tactics to advance interests. Students distinguish constructive from destructive political behaviour.

Lesson 1 • Absorptive Capacity and Dynamic Capabilities

Explains how prior knowledge enables firms to recognise, assimilate, and exploit new external knowledge. Students link absorptive capacity to competitive renewal.

Lesson 2 • The Learning Organisation Model

Presents five disciplines of personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking. Students assess organisational readiness for each discipline.

Lesson 3 • Organisational Memory and Knowledge Storage

Examines how knowledge is encoded in routines, databases, roles, and culture. Students audit knowledge storage systems for accessibility and decay risk.

Lesson 4 • Knowledge Creation and Transfer

Covers socialisation, externalisation, combination, and internalisation as knowledge conversion modes. Students design transfer mechanisms for tacit and explicit knowledge.

Lesson 1 • Strategic Choice and Managerial Agency

Argues that managers actively shape environments rather than merely respond to them. Students evaluate the scope of strategic choice against structural and institutional constraints.

Lesson 2 • Complexity Theory and Emergence

Introduces self-organisation, emergence, and edge-of-chaos dynamics as explanations for adaptive behaviour. Students apply complexity concepts to innovation and crisis management.

Lesson 3 • Organisational Ambidexterity

Examines how organisations simultaneously exploit current capabilities and explore new ones. Students design structural and contextual ambidexterity solutions.

Lesson 4 • Synthesising Theories for Strategic Analysis

Builds a multi-lens analytical framework combining classical, behavioural, institutional, and ecological theories. Students produce integrated organisational diagnoses using the full theoretical toolkit.