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This course aims to help the participants acquire a keener appreciation of organizations. Organization theorists invariably clarify to the new enthusiasts that "OT is not a body of knowledge. OT is not a collection of facts" (Daft, 1998). OT is not even a set of useful techniques. OT facilitates us to appreciate organizations, more deeply and comprehensively than one otherwise would. This is largely based upon patterns and regularities in organization design and performance. Recent developments in complexity science indicate that organizations are among the most complex realities. Which is perhaps why managerial recommendations based on OT have been always at the level of heuristics.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Why would a PGP student need a keener appreciation of organizations? There are many reasons:

1. The PGP, irrespective of his/her evolving specializations and interests, is almost certain to express and develop a professional identity by working in organizations, perhaps very many, all through the career;
besides interacting with many, many more.
2. Learnings of all the varied courses in the PGDM would finally be implemented in and through some organizations.
3. Organization is a crucial intermediary between the micro individual and the macro environment. Organizational analysis often throw more light on phenomena which otherwise tend to get inappropriately attributed to either the micro individual, or the macro environment, or both. l
4. Analysis based on a rich appreciation of the organization as a system, is now commonly regarded as an important input for a variety of managerial situations.
5. Design and redesign of organizations are not as routine activities as, say, dealing with the distributors, balancing the accounts, making production schedules, or administering wage and salary. But such exercises (design and redesign) are increasingly becoming more frequent, and when they do happen, their impact is profound on every sphere of the organization, and beyond.
6. With globalization, organizations have emerged as among the most important social systems, in some ways rivalling even the nation-state.

The readings are intended as preparatory material to facilitate effective involvement of the participants in class-room discussions. Discourses in the class are likely to go significantly beyond the ambit of the readings. To make this possible each participant would be required to be fully prepared with the prescribed readings, before the class. Participants are encouraged to bring in ideas and anecdotes from their corporate (and other) experiences to buttress, develop, modify and question, thus enriching the discourse. The readings and the class discussions would be supplemented by the analyses of several real life corporate case studies. In addition, the project and the assignments would be designed to contribute to the learning process.

TEXT AND REFERENCES

The main text to be followed during the course is, Stephen P Robbins (1998) Organization Theory: Structure, Design and Applications Englewood
Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Supplementary material would be provided from time to time. A number of other books of interest to the course are there in the Library. Files of readings for the course (beyond the texts) are kept in the library. Additional references to Journal articles would be offered, for further culture.

COURSE EVALUATION

Assignments 30%

Class Participation 15%

Project 20%

End Term Examination 35%
ORGANIZATION THEORY: TENTATIVE SESSION PLAN

Introduction. Outline; overview; working definition of organization. (1) Case Analysis. Drucker's 'Defining the problem' for effective decision. (1)

Organizations: What and Why. Transaction cost economics approach towards an incipient science of organization; systems approach; new developments. (4)

Case Analysis: Assignment I (1)

Structure and design. Dimensions; determinants; configurations. (4)

Case Analysis: Assignment 77(1)

More on the Determinant Macro Variables. Size, technology, environment, evolution, culture, strategy and power. (3)
Case Analysis: Assignment 111(1) Project Presentations. (2)

Challenges to Organizations and Organizing. New IT, inside and outside organizations; globalisation; hypercompetition; 'predatory' financial system;
reacting people and communities. (2)
Created By: Lingaraj Pattanaik on 09/18/2008 at 03:04 PM
Category: PGP-I Doctype: Document