CMN 2148 - Midterm

Human Resources School

Placed emphasis on human relations and productivity. Importance of self direction and self control

What are the three key management activities?

Planning Design Maintenance

What are the administrative management theory's five managerial tasks?

Planning Organizing Commanding Coordinating Controlling

What is "The Gods Must be Crazy" an example of?

Sensemaking

Wholeness

the results of people working together are different than if those people had worked alone

Nonsummativity

the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Distributed intelligence

Enhancement of thinking through the use of physical objects and technology, concepts and symbols of one's culture, and/or social collaboration and support

humility

a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness.

Divisionalized firm

similar to machine bureaucracy, strict categories

Machine bureaucracy

stable environment, efficient, centralized

What are some modern practices that reflect scientific management theory?

- Ergonomics - Kitchen work triangle - Training and development - Mgmt consulting - Time mgmt - Aptitude tests

Second-order or quantum change

- First order change is in the content of the topic. - This is the dynamics or context of the group interaction itself.

Tall structure

- Overall narrow span of management - A large number of hierarchical levels - Tight control

Characteristics of Complex Systems

- Second-order/quantum change - double-loop - sensitivity to initial conditions - strange attractors - phase space - bifurcation points - irreversibility

What influenced dissatisfaction with scientific management?

- The Great Depression - WWII - New views of human behaviour

Input variables

- The variables of small group communication can be categorized acc'd to input, process, and output. - These are funds, purposes, relationships to other groups, tool...

What is the Holographic System?

- The whole is stored in all of the parts. - Both all over the place functioning and highly specialized at once. - All parts of the brain contribute to all functions.

Flat structure

- Wide span of control - Fewer hierarchical levels - Loose control - Facilitates delegation and collaboration

What is important to note about Maslow's hierarchy?

- about motivation - how we want to be perceived - must be satisfied on one level to move onto the next

Dimensions of bureaucratic organization

- bureaucratic structures and organizing processes - bureaucratic accountability - hierarchical structures

Weakness of Human Relations School

- criticized as being manipulative and cosmetic - emphasize the worker's happiness too much (at the expense of productivity)

What does the brain metaphor actually mean?

- self-aware and adaptive - everything is enfolded in everything else - no central point of control

Characteristics of Open Systems

- wholeness - synergy - openness - transformation - interdependence - feedback - entropy - equifinality

What are the 5 principles of holographic organizations?

1. Build the whole into the parts 2. Redundancy 3. Requisite variety 4. Minimum critical specification 5. Learning to learn

Contingency Theory

1. Diff orgs are needed to deal with diff market/tech conditions 2. Orgs operating in uncertain/turbulent env need to achieve a higher degree of internal differentiation 3. How an org is structured should depend on the env surrounding the system/subsystems

What are the 5 factors that result in unique corporate behaviours that lead to longevity?

1. Little bets 2. Making change while building on core competencies 3. Strong relationships with business partners 4. Investments in developing employees 5. Strong relationships with the local community

What are the two main schools of thought on organizational culture?

1. Org culture as a variable. 2. Org culture are the essence of the organization (sensemaking)

What are the 5 principles of Taylor's Scientific Management?

1. Responsibility for organization of work rests with managers 2. Use of scientific methods to precisely define work activities 3. Selection of the right person for the task 4. Rigorous training on basic work activities 5. Careful monitoring of performance

How does Morgan say about creating learning organizations?

1. Scan and anticipate change in the wider environment to detect significant variations. 2. Develop the ability to questions, challenge, and change operating norms and assumptions. 3. Allow an appropriate strategic direction and patterns of organization to emerge. 4. Evolve designs that allow them to become skilled in the art of double-loop and avoid getting trapped in single-loop.

What are the three components of a well-built machine?

1. clearly defined functions 2. clearly defined components 3. pre-determined goals

What are the four key principles of cybernetics?

1. scan and monitor significant aspects of their env 2. be able to relate this info to the operating norms that guide their behaviour 3. be able to detect deviations from these norms 4. be able to initiate corrective action when discrepancies are detected

Hawthorne Studies

4 sets of studies at Western Electric (by Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger)

___ of people don't leave jobs because of the work; they leaver because of their bosses.

75%

Substantial rationality

Able to determine whether what it is doing is appropriate and adjust its actions accordingly.

Entropy

A measure of change toward decline

What is bureaucracy considered as?

A model of the effective hierarchical organization.

Open system

A system that regularly exchanges feedback with its external environment (interrelated subsystems)

Who ran the Environmental conditions study?

Alan Hedge

Interdependence

All the parts influence each other

Who said "Great teams consist of individuals who have learned to trust each other. Over time, they have discovered each other's strengths and weaknesses, enabling them to play as a coordinated whole."?

Amy Edmondson

substantial rationality

An act of thought which reveals intelligent insight into the inter-relations of event in a given situation.

What is the administrative management theory considered as?

An attempt to promote logic, order and structure in organizations.

Equifinality

An end state can be reached by many possible means

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Argues that people want to achieve certain things in their work and that they move up the ladder as they satisfy these drivers.

Instrumental rationality

Behaviour oriented towards gaining or achieving some specific reward

If the organization is emergent through communication, then it is not a ___ but a ___.

Being Becoming

Who said "To see the world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wildflower."?

Blake

Fayol's work formed basis for schools of ___.

Business Administration

Who created the Triple Alliance? What is it?

Charles Redding Academics + Managers + Military

Who is the leader of organizational learning?

Chris Argyris

Theory X

Classical Approaches Assumes that workers are basically lazy, error-prone, and extrinsically motivated by money and, thus, should be directed from above.

Who created The Interpretation of Cultures in 1973?

Clifford Geertz

Organizations are created through ___ of people.

Communication

Negative feedback is also called ___.

Corrective feedback

Synergy

Created through the mixing and incorporation of each other's thoughts and messages, the results are not directly attributable to any one person

Many argue that ___ is the amalgam of all communication behaviour in an organization.

Culture

The ___ determines the climate of an organization.

Culture

Phase space

Describes a system's movements through time, particularly as they are affected by its sensitivity to initial conditions and strange attractors.

Systems Theory

Describes the development, structure and maintenance of human organizations.

Who created the theory X and Y?

Douglas McGregor

There is no organization other than that which ___.

Emerges in communication

Organizations exist by virtue or people ___ them through their communication.

Enacting

Who studied police patrol work?

Erickson

Metaphors capture the ___, but in a partial way.

Essence

Communication also has an ___ dimension.

Ethical

Work is influenced by the nature of human beings just as much as by ___.

Formal design

Who is related to the scientific management?

Frederick Taylor

Who said "You are not supposed to think. There are other people paid for thinking around here."?

Frederick Taylor

Who says that there is "one best way", not a second of lost time, not a moment unproductive (etc.)?

Frederick Taylor

Whose impact was akin to Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone?

Frederick Taylor

Who has taken a few of the most common, "taken for granted" metaphors or ways of looking at organizations?

Gareth Morgan

Who studied the cultural norms of a suicide prevention centre?

Garfinkel

What do communication techniques not do?

Get people to reflect on their work and behaviour

Content meaning

Gives info about the topic being discussed

Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback; pay attention to it; monitor what is done with it

Who studied the cultural activities of patients in a psychiatric hospital?

Goffman

Theory Y

HR Approaches Assumes that, given challenge and freedom, workers are motivated to achieve self-esteem and to demonstrate their competence and creativity.

Who is related to the administrative management?

Henri Fayol

Negative feedback reverses the direction of change to maintain ___.

Homeostasis

Human Relations Theory

Humans attribute meaning to their experiences and behave according to these meanings. Focused on fulfilling peoples' needs. Established by Hawthorne Studies

Scientific observation, analysis and intervention should be used to ___ the way tasks are carried out.

Improve

Transformation

Info and energy are taken in and expressed in new forms

Most organizations are based on a system of ___.

Instrumental rationality

An organization does not contain communication...

It is communication

Who studies interaction and conversation to understand the processes by which organizations and organizational roles emerge and are maintained?

James R. Taylor

Who said "People weren't treating each other very well. I wanted to help find a way to make relationships better."

Kenneth Burke

Strange attractors

Key influences that underlie the pattern that the group has taken on. The "stone in the stream" We can see the outcomes of attractors w/o knowing what the actual attractor is.

Bifurcation points

Key moments of decision, threshold, junction. It's when the group is ready to make a decision, hear/absorb a good idea

Who developed the Contingency Theory?

Lawrence and Lorsche

Requisite variety

Only sufficient variety of management can regulate a high variety environment

Who suggested that there are two main schools of thought on organizational culture?

Linda Smircich

What elements are essential for communication?

Listening Clear channels Various channels Empathy Non-verbal Trust

Organizations are ___ that need to be nurtured and maintained in order to thrive.

Living systems

Who is related to the bureaucracy theory?

Max Weber

Who said "Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right thing."?

McChrystal

According to ___, an effective organization is like a well-built machine.

Mechanistic theories

People have ___ or ___ with regard to how to act in situations.

Mental maps Mental models

___ are devices for understanding one element in terms of another.

Metaphors

What are some cultural elements?

Metaphors Rituals Stories Heroes Cultural artifacts Performances Values

People need to be cognizant of their ___ or the ways they plan, implement, and review their actions.

Mind maps

When a system has to change its behaviour in order to maintain a constant state. This is called ___.

Negative feedback

Does positive feedback mean it's good?

No

Who said "This new development has unbounded possibilities for good and for evil."?

Norbert Wiener

Ethnographers

Observe, record, and analyze culture.

___ looks at these processes in the context of organizations to try to understand, describe or explain them.

Organizational communication

What did the alliance lead to?

Organizational communication as a field of study (HRelations school, HR school, systems theory)

Organizational Ecology

Orgs do not exist in isolation and are not self-sufficient. Parts of a complex ecosystem. Pattern of co-creation. Survival of the "fitting" and collaborative relations between organizations.

Standpoint theory

Our background and experiences determine our ability to communicate.

Output

Outcomes of the group processes (procedures)

Culture

Patterns of shared values and beliefs that over time produce behavioural norms adopted in solving problems.

What are some barriers to effective intercultural communication?

Perceptual disparity Ethnocentrism Language Non-verbal disparities

Leaders must exhibit ___.

Personal transparency

When a change occurs in some variable, the response is to change that variable even more in the same direction. This is called ___.

Positive feedback

"The rules and limitations that once prevented accidents now ___."

Prevented creativity

Ethnography is a ___ used to gain in-depth understandings or multiple meanings.

Qualitative approach

Birth of Needs Theories

Recognition of people in organizations

Openness

Refers to the energy import activities of the system, which it needs maintain a steady state

Relational meaning

Refers to the nature of the relationship of those communicating.

Communication has a ___ as well as ___ dimension.

Relational Content

What motivates people in an organization?

Remuneration Stability Creativity Affirmation Empathy Power

Metaphors both ___ and ___.

Reveal and Conceal

When the organization is viewed as a machine, there is an emphasis on organizational ___, ___, and ___.

Rules Control Structure

___ are interpreted to gain their meaning to the members of the culture.

Signs

Sending and receiving occurs ___, with both verbal and non-verbal elements.

Simultaneously

What kind of learning matches what kind of rationality?

Single-loop = Instrumental Double-loop = Substantial

What kind of learning do bureaucratic organizations encourage?

Single-loop learning

What kind of environment does a bureaucratic organization live in? Adaptive? Creative/Project Oriented?

Stable environment Competitive environment High-tech environment

Who discovered the team of teams metaphor?

Stanley McChrystal

Homeostasis

State of balance

Rationality

That decisions, mission statements, and goals, are planned, carefully considered, and weighed.

The brain is a system of ___.

Substantial rationality

Systems theory

Systems are responsive and interactive within themselves and within their environments; they are a combination of smaller systems.

Culture is essentially ___ of an organization, and hints at what one can count on during times of crisis.

The feel

What started the development of all these theories?

The Military - Frederick the Great (King of Prussia)

Negative Feedback

The ability of a system to self-regulate depends on these info exchange processes.

System evolution

The ability to move towards more complex forms of differentiation and integration. More variety to facilitate the ability to deal with challenges and opportunities posed by the environment.

Shared Consciousness

The collective common beliefs, perspectives and identity held by members of community with respect to some purpose or cause, or object or brand

Population Ecology View

The env selects certain types of orgs to survive and others to perish based on the fit between their structural characteristics and the characteristics of the environment.

Sensemaking

The ongoing retrospective development of plausible images that rationalize what people are doing

Human communication

The process of making sense out of the world and sharing that sense with others.

Cybernetics

The study of communication and control. Info exchange is crucial to the ability of a system to self-regulate to maintain a steady state.

Theory-in-use

The theory that actually governs our behaviour.

What is the scientific management theory considered as?

The way specific tasks should be done to enhance organizational effectiveness.

Non-summativity

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Espoused Theories

The words we use to describe what we do or what we'd like others to think we do.

Individuals and groups, like biological organisms, operate most effectively only when ___.

Their needs are satisfied

Who created the self-sustainable sculptures?

Theo Janson (Dutch artist)

People must be conscious of their ___ and question their ___.

Theories-in-use Espoused theories

What are seeds of culture?

They are what helps to create culture.

The scientific management theory conducted the ___ to determine optimal rate for a job's accomplishment.

Time and motion studies

Adhocracy

Turbulent environments, temporary, "virtual" or "network"

Change is highly ___.

Unpredictable

Who created the 5 factors that result in unique corporate behaviours that lead to longevity?

Vicki TenHaken

How should we identify organizational cultures according to Morgan?

We should look at the day-to-day functioning as if we were an outsider.

Double-loop learning

When error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization's underlying norms, policies and objectives.

Single-loop learning

When the error detected and corrected permits the organization to carry on its present policies/achieve its present objectives.

Who studied the inner city street gangs?

Whyte

Who studied humour of working class youths in Britain?

Willis

Professional bureaucracy

greater autonomy to staff, deals with complex problems, flat structure, work at standardization

Simple structure

informal and flexible, entrepreneurial, central authority for quick decisions

The organization consists of interrelated subsystems of a strategic, human, technological, structural and managerial nature, which needs to be ___

internally consistent and adapted to environmental conditions.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Diagram (bottom to top)

physiological safety love/belonging esteem self-actualization