Strategic Information Management IM42003 Lectures 1-5

1. Strategic Information Management IM42003 Lectures 1-5 by Colin Dougall, Information Management Group.

2. Our approach:Lectures 1-5 - the historical development of Organisation theory (L1-2). - a general critique of the notion of strategy (L3). - organisational tropes: different ways of looking at organisations (L4). - chaos and complexity: a new science of organisations (L5)?

3. The organisational context IM issues The Strategy Process Practitioner input Specifically:

4. Strategy: We take strategy - or its operational equivalent - to come under the heading of the ‘vital activities’ of the organisation.

5. The Problem: Strategising always takes place in some Organisational context. Our task - to give an account of this organisational context.

6. Outline of Lectures 1-2: 1. The early système theorists. 2.1. Critique and reconceptualisation #1. 2.2. Critique and reconceptualisation #2. 2.3. In defence of organization theory. 2.4. Current trends.

7. 1. The Early Système Theorists: (Durkheim, Tonnies, Weber) - unit of analysis: society or societies taken as unitary wholes. - structuralist in their approach: the structures of society determines social consciousness and not vice versa. - note that society is not reducible to the sum of its members.

8. What This Means: - in the chain of being society is ontologically independent. Society as a network of relations.

9. Their Problem: - how to give an account of the conservation of these societies. Durkheim: - organic solidarity based on the division of labour. Tonnies: - gemeinschaft and gesellschaft. (community and association)

10. What This Comes Down To: - degree of autonomy of the system components. The Basic Thesis: - society as a unitary whole is ontologically independent. - organisation as a network of relations is the glue that holds it together.

11. postmodernist models systems model classical model human relations 1900s 1930s 1950s 1970s 2000 methodological individualism Figure 22. Hegemonic Trends in Organization Theory. Sources: Mayntz 1964; Reed 1985; Donaldson 1985; Hatch 1997 2.1. Critique and Reconceptualisation #1:

12. Classical Organisation Theory: - Taylor, Fayol, Gulick, Urwick. - atheoretical. - a body of maxims to guide the practitioner. - but was still holistic. - the organisation viewed as a rational instrument.

13. The Human Relations Critique: - begins with the false image of man as a homo economicus - - and with the discrepancy between the rational model and actual organisational life. - characterised by the discovery of the informal organisation - - and a shift from macroscopic to microscopic theorising.

14. Specifically:

15. But: - since its focus is the individual it could not think organisationally. - neither could it problematise such things as goal setting, decision making, & etc. - this was to prompt yet another reconceptualisation.

16. The Systems Approach: - a return to macro theorising. - the concept of organisation now refers to concrete wholes. - such ‘concrete wholes’ are (usually) large scale formal organisations - - whose existence (Mayntz believes) poses problems for the organisational sciences.

17. The Problems: - the individual level: their relationship vis-à-vis the organisation. - the organisational level: the structure and functioning of the organisation as a unitary whole. - the societal level: the growth and control of large scale organisations.

18. Specifically:

19. The Systems Approach: - focus is at the organisational level: attempts a general theory of organisation applicable to all organisational forms. But: - fails to achieve this.

20. Other Related Problems: - its ahistorical nature. - its functionalist outlook.. - its tendency towards reification. - its low explanatory power with respect to the origin and development of structures and processes.

21. 2.2. Critique and Reconceptualisation #2: - can be dated to Silverman’s 1970 critique. - a return to methodological individualism. - a rejection of the ‘supra-individual’ concept of organisation. - the elaboration of ‘Social Action Theory’.

22. 2.3. In Defence of Organisation Theory: (Donaldson 1985) - defends of the coherence of organisational level concepts. - approaching organisational phenomena from an individualist perspective has serious shortcomings. - not simply ideology. - neither is it a sub-branch of sociology.

23. classical period modern period postmoderism 1900s 1950s 1990s 1980s symbolic-interpretive 2.4. Current Trends: Adapted from Hatch (1997).

24. Postmodernism: Table 10. Elements of postmodern knowledge. Source: Hassard and Parker (1993:16).

25. What it Comes Down To: - reality is a social construct. - so to are organizations.

26. In Sum: or either a collection of individuals a unitary whole

27. The Reason for this: Contemporary organization theory had no adequate conception of what sort of thing an organization is other than as a collection of individuals.

28. Self-Organisation theory: complexity theory, social-autopoiesis theory, socio-cybernetics, self-organization. - see The Tree of Knowledge, Maturana & Varela 1985. See also: Autopoiesis and the Science of Public Administration: Essence, Sense and Nonsense. Walter J.M. Kickert.Organization Studies, Spring 1993 (can be downloaded from Searchbank)

29. The Basic Idea: what something is (a unity) is a unity of its organization and structure. Organisation: the relations between the components. Structure: the actual relations and actual components.

30. unity organisation structure An Artefactual Example: +

31. Organisation = Identity what something most essentially is.

32. How it Works: - the unity is perturbed. - structure changes. - organisation is conserved. - hence identity and the integrity of the unity is maintained.

33. To What End?: - in ontogenesis, the conservation of organisation, and hence of identity.

34. Consider this: ontogenesis

35. In Another Context: C UNITARY A1 A2 1 PERSONAL 2 MECHANICAL B1 B2 B FRAGMENTED Categories of Control System (Reeves and Woodward 1970:52).

36. Strategic Information Management IM42003 Lectures 1-5 by Colin Dougall, Information Management Group.