Ch. 4: Systems and Cultural Approaches, test 1 - org com

___________ refers to the taken-for-granted assumptions about reality the influence our perception about organizational life

Ideology

Ways to consider network links:

Properties of strength, symmetry, and multiplexity

Esteem needs

Refers to the desire of ppl to feel a sense of achievement and accomplishment. Internal and external.

Elements of management #4

coordination - "the separation of activities go an organization must be harmonized into a single whole"

What happens when we objectify culture?

We de-emphasize the complex processes through which organizational culture is created and sustained.

When do organizational members engage in communication cycles?

When equivocality in the environment is high.

Can success be reached in today's business world that defy the typical rules of management textbooks?

Yes!

When sensemaking doesn't work...

a retention process saves rules and cycles for future use

Principle of negative entropy:

a system's success and very survival depends on active exchange with the system's environment.

Network content

stuff that flows through linkages in the network.

cultural metaphor

takes an anthropological approach in understanding organizations as sites of interlinked beliefs, values, behaviors, and artifacts.

entropy

tendency of closed systems to run down.

Resistance

the concept of _____________ considers how workers can exert counter pressure on this exercise of power and control. It is sometimes seen in collective and organized processes such as unionization, strikes, boycotts, and large-scale social movements

What can explanatory mechanisms explain?

the emergence and evolution of communication networks.

Affiliation needs

"belonging needs" or "love needs". refers to the necessity go giving an receiving human affection. Given in org by building social relationships with co workers and managers.

Blake and Mouton

"fathers of managerial grid"

Deal and Kennedy's "strong cultures"

- Business success can be enhanced through the development of a "strong" culture

2 different ways of thinking about culture:

- looking at culture as something an organization HAS - considering culture as something an organization IS

4 key components of a strong culture:

1) Values are the beliefs/visions members hold for an organization 2) Heroes are individuals who come to exemplify an organization's values 3) Organization celebrates its values through rites and rituals 4) Cultural network institutes and reinforces cultural values.

Impetus for the Theory of Scientific Management

1) new workers learned old workers do a particular job. This is ineffective & can lead to uneven quality of work 2) reward system for workers. Higher productivity = lower pay rate. This is where systematic soldiering came in and kept productivity at an even rate which means even pay

Components of Scientific Management

1) there is one best way to do every job (time and motion studies) 2) proper selection of workers and training workers suggested by the time and motion studies. Which method is the most efficient 3) proper selection of workers for the job, and importance of training workers 4) taylor believed that there is an inherent difference between management and workers.

Systems of Management (Linkert)

1. Exploitive (control through fear) 2. Benevolent (control with reward) 3. Consultative (lead with involvement) 4. Participative (lead with participation)

What does Weick's theory of organizing emphasize?

A number of relevant systems theory concepts.

What does a network consist of?

A system of links among components (e.g., individuals, work groups, organizations).

Need for self-actualization

As the desire to "become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming". Trying to be all that you can be.

What does permeability refer to?

Both to the system as a whole - which must be open to its environment - and to components within the system.

network mode

Communication medium through which network linkages are maintained

What do intraorganizational networks look at?

Connections among people within a given organization.

Stated that these various markers (which scholars use to investigate the complexity of organizational culture) can be seen as the outer layer of an organizational culture "onion." (Descriptive and Explanatory Approaches to Culture)

Edgar Schein (1992)

What do Karl Weick's ideas about communication and sensemaking deal with?

Emergent properties of organizational systems that occur during interaction.

Classical management principles are no longer useful to interpret today's organizations

False

Communication in organizations presenting a human relations theory tends to flow vertically through the hierarchy

False

Interdependence

Functioning of one system component relies on other components of the system.

4 factors Complicating Our Thinking about Organizations and Communication

Globalization, Climate change, Terrorism, and Changing demographics

Three concepts characterize system components:

Hierarchical ordering Interdependence Permeability

Hierarchical ordering

Highly complex in which system components are arranged; involve subsystems and supersystems.

style of communication

Highly formal.

Example of hierarchical ordering:

Hospital is a system with department subsystems

With its concern both for people and for production at the same time, Blake and Mouton's Managerial/Leadership grid represents which theory/approach?

Human Resources approach

What is the study of communication networks especially relevant to?

Ideas of system components and their processes.

deviation-amplifying feedback

Information that serves to change system functioning through growth and development; positive feedback.

Interview program

Interviewers found workers more interested in talking about their feelings and attitudes. The major finding of this stage os that many problems of worker-management cooperation were the results of the emotionally based attitudes of the workers rather than of the objective difficulties of the situation

What are the elements of management?

It deals with what managers should do

What do interorganizational networks look at?

Links among many organizations.

Systems Metaphor & Systems Concepts were founded by:

Ludwig von Bertalanffy

What is needed to make sense of highly uncertain information environments?

More complex communication cycles and systems

Physiological needs

Needs of the human body, including the need for food, water, sleep, and sensory gratification. These needs can be met in an organization by the provision of living wages that allows individuals to buy adequate food and clothing, etc.

deviation-reducing feedback

Negative/corrective feedback; helps to maintain stead system functioning.

One way to consider individual actors in a communication network.

Network roles

Give an example of how as a system, an organization is also highly interdependent.

No component within the hospital could work effectively without active assistance from other system parts.

What are characterized by negative entropy?

Open systems

Central idea of Karl Weick's theory of organizing:

Organizations exist in an environment.

How are values held by an organization's members often manifest in? (Descriptive and Explanatory Approaches to Culture)

Outward behavior.

Monica is very appreciative that her employer provides gloves to protect her hands from the dangerous chemicals she uses in her work. According to Maslow, what need level is monica concerned with?

Safety needs

Sees these markers as artifacts and behaviors that are the most visible manifestation of culture. (Descriptive and Explanatory Approaches to Culture)

Schein

Which of the following is NOT a tenet of Fayol's Theory of Classical Management as reflected in this case?

Scientific Management because executives are using time and motion studies to determine the best way for each worker to do her job.

"Organizational culture" concept (Prescriptive Approaches to Culture)

Seeing organizations as complex arenas of stories and values rather than as entirely rational institutions.

What can be used in sensemaking when equivocality is low?

Simple decision rules and structures

equifinality

States that "a system can reach the same final state from differing initial conditions and by a variety of paths."

What does the requisite variety state?

States that the internal workings of the system must be as diverse and complicated as its environment.

Classical Management in Organizations Today

Structure is presented as scalar chain, unity of command, and span of control. Sadly in recent years, sexual assault points out rigid chains of command can be ineffective.

What are input-throughput-output processes?

System "inputs" materials from environment through its permeable boundaries, then works on these inputs with a transformational process ("throughput"), then the system returns the transformed "output" to environment.

Permeability

System components have permeable boundaries that allow information and materials to flow in and out.

Process of exchange

System process; One type of process that characterizes input-throughput-output operations, which is related to permeability and is found in both input and output activities.

Frederick Taylor's Theory of Scientific Management

Taylor's goal was to provide Rx for how organizations could be better run. He concentrates on the micro level of org. functioning.

What does holism suggest?

That a system is more than the sum of its parts.

What do the prescriptive approaches to culture by Peters and Waterman falsely assume?

That there is a single cultural formula for achieving organization success; they also treat culture as a THING an organization HAS.

Negative entropy

The ability to sustain themselves and grow.

Theory X

The average worker works as little as possible. Lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, prefers to be led. Gullible, not bright, self-centered.

What can business success be enhanced through?

The development of a "strong" culture

What does the interdependent nature of system info. that flows through feedback and exchange processes require? Give an example.

The holism property (ex.: brainstorming with a big group of people)

Where do system properties emerge from?

The interaction of these components and processes.

Emancipation

The liberation of people from unnecessarily restrictive traditions, ideologies, assumptions, power relations, identity formations, and so forth, that inhibit or distort opportunities for autonomy, clarification of genuine needs and wants, and thus greater and lasting satisfaction

How are cultures contextual?

They're embedded in organizational situations and organizational history.

How are cultures socially created?

Through the interaction of organizational members.

T or F: Organizational cultures are not unitary

True

Theory Y management assumes that the average human has internal motivation to work.

True

When considering their business relationship with CC, Burger Barn

Was interested in improving customer wait times by making the ordering process more efficient

unity of direction:

activities having similar goals should be placed under a single supervisor

unity of command:

an employee should receive orders regarding a particular task from only 1 supervisor

Scalar chain:

an organization should be arranges in a strict vertical hierarchy and that comm should be largely limited to this vertical flow.

Weick states that organizational members use...

assembly rules and communication cycles

Network participants who disparate groups within the network fulfill the role of _______

bridge

External esteem

can be met by compensations and reward structure

Internal esteem

can be met by the provisions of challenging jobs that provide employees with the opportunity to achieve and excel

Elements of management #3

command - in which managers set tasks for employees in order to meet organizational goals

One word to describe organizational cultures:

complicated.

Elements of management #5

control- comparison between goals activities to ensure that the organization is functioning in the manner planned

Network roles

define ways in which individuals are connected with each other

Illumination studies

designed to determine the influence of lighting level for worker productivity. One group was held in lighting that was constant, another in not lit room. No difference in work production.

radical feminism

emancipation for women can occur only though the destruction of male dominated institutions or through the total separation of women from these institutions. Ex: Creating your own business run by only women

Content of communication

employees should be focused on the task related topics

the vertical axis depicts

enabling activities

Relay assembly test room studies

groups did better with incentive plans, rest pauses, temperature, work hours, and refreshments.

The notion that performance might improve as a simple function of being studied is known as the ______________

hawthorne effect

direction of communication flow

how messages are routed through the org system. Communication can flow vertically up and down the organizational chart. Communication can flow horizontally with employees at the same level of the organization asking to each other.

Safety needs:

include the desire to be free from danger and environmental threats. Can be satisfied through wages that allow employees to procure shelter against the elements and through working conditions to be healthy and safe

liaison

individual who talks to two people who have radically different connections within the network.

channel of communication

info can be communicated through face to face channels, through written channels, or through a variety of mediated channels like telephones or computers

What are systems characterized by at the most basic level?

input-throughput-output processes

what are the principles of management?

it deals with how managers should enact these elements

Managerial Grid

leaders will be most effective when they exhibit both concern for people and concern for production

Network can be considered in terms of its...

level of analysis

Hierarchy of prepotency

low-level needs must be satisfied before an individual can move on to higher level needs.

The classical theories of organizational communication are based on a _________ metaphor

machine

span of control:

managers will most be effective if they have control of a limited number of employees. Fay generally suggests a limit of 20-30 employees for 1st level managers and 6 employees for higher level managers.

Organizations are characterized by a multitude of...

organizational subcultures

Elements of management #2

organizing - arrangement of human resources (employees) and the evaluation of those employees

Elements of management #1

planning - involves looking into the future to determine the best way to organizational goals

assembly rules

proceedings that can guide organizational members in set patterns of sensemaking

Means of production

refers to actual work processes - how products are made and services rendered.

Modes of production

refers to the economic conditions that underlie the production process.

Hegemony

refers to the process in which a dominant group leads another group to accept subordination as the norm. it is "manufactured consent".

Cultural performances are interactional in that they...

require the participation of multiple organization members.

Weick proposes a __________ in which rules and cycles are saved for future organizational use

retention

causal maps

rules and cycles can be retained in the form of casual maps that are used to make sense of future not determined in the information environment

Frederick Taylor wanted to replace the initiatives and incentives system with his system of __________ management

scientific

human resources (TEAM)

social factors can be organizational resource

human relations (FAMILY)

social factors can be used as managerial tool

bridge

someone who connects an individual to an outside group

What does Karl Weick's theory of organizing define?

the process of organizing as "the resolving of equivocality in an enacted environment by means of interlocked behaviors embedded in conditionally related processes."

the horizontal axis depicts

the production process

In Weick's model, the main goal of organizing is...

the reduction of equivocality in the information environment.

Ideology

the taken-for-granted assumptions about reality that influence perceptions of situation and events. It shapes our understanding about what exists, what is good, and what is possible.

It is critical to consider...

the theoretical mechanisms behind various types of communication networks.

What is the most important route of communication

the vertical flow of information.

order:

there should be an appointed place for each employee and task within the organization

liberal feminism

they believe that remedies for female subordination should come within the system and that women should work to gain their fair share of control in institutions currently run by men

Degree of permeability...

varies from system to system

systems metaphor

views organizations as complex organisms that must interact with their environment to survive.

What does the Machine Metaphor mean?

we can learn something about organizations by considering a disparate object that an organization resembles.

Theory Y

will exercise self-direction an self-control int he service of objectives. Learns under proper conditions not only o accept but also seek responsibility

division of labor

work can best be accomplished if employees are assigned to a limited number of specialized tasks