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Communication & Organisation

Week 3

Some Perspectives of

Organisation Theory

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Three Phases

•Modernism

•Symbolic

•Postmodernism

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Modernism

General Systems Theory ( Ludwig von Bertalanffy, 1950)

“A System is a thing with inter-related parts. Each part is conceived as affecting the others and each depends upon the whole” (Hatch MJ 1997)

To explain all things scientific from atoms and molecules to living systems including inter-relating people in organisations.

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OutputInput

Organisation

Transformation

Feedback

An Open Systems View of Organisation

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There are Systems and there are Systems!

Perhaps we should call them Sub-Systems? All organisational Levels are in effect a separate sub-system of the whole

Super-system(Top management)

System(Middle Management)

Sub-System(Supervision)

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Symbolic-Interpretive

Enactment Theory…….Karl Weick (1969)

Concepts like ”Organisation” become reality only because Managers think about them……

Considering something creates a type of reality.- Reality Theory

Social Construction of Reality.. Berger P and Luckman T (1966). Human social order is produced

through interpersonal interactions and negotiations and based upon shared experience and shared history

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The Postmodern Perspective

Postmodernism was a reaction to the ‘rational’ approach toSuch matters as architecture. The clean functional lines of Modern design were seen no longer to reflect the Diversity ofSociety.

Some suggest that postmodernism allows for an “Anything goes” approach.

It questions the fundamentals of the ScientificMethod and whether Progress is desirable. Indicating that those that espouse it tend to in order to hold onto power.

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In questioning the rational, ordered world the postmodernistsFind attraction in complexity and organic fluidity. Organisations no Longer need conform but can exist as virtual entities instead.

Likewise, they consider the self perpetuation of Modernist power structures to be alien to the concept of democracy and would wish to see a bigger voice for minorities: Women, ethnic groups etc

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The Multiple Perspectives compared

Source: Hatch MJ (1997)

10Source: Hatch MJ (1997)

The Metaphors of Organisation Theory

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Questions?