Organizational Theory

Extended Organizations: Finding the Boundaries and Naming the Contents

February 1, 2012

Can you help me out with a messy research-related question? What are the best ways to set boundaries around subsets of an “extended organization”, and then give these subsets names so that they are easy to talk about? The problem seems on the surface looks like a question of semantics (i.e., what to call it). [...]

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My Nose, Other People’s Business

September 1, 2011

[(As I prepare for teaching the first class of the Business Technology Consulting Practicum, I've been reflecting on how to encourage the students to identify the unique gifts that they have and to consider how they'll bring these gifts to the teams and the projects they choose this year.  It's only fair, I think, for me to pony up [...]

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Is Authenticity the key to being “Meaningfully Different”?

May 20, 2010

If organizations are going to be successful at attracting good members and good clients or customers, they have go beyond showing how they are different from other, similar organizations. They have to take that extra step, and demonstrate why these differences are meaningful. “Meaningful difference” “Meaningful difference” is an important concept in both organizational theory [...]

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Corporations as Persons: Steven Colbert explains this bad idea

January 22, 2010

[Jan 21: In light of yesterday's Supreme Court Decision, I'm re-posting this serious & pop-culture critique of the anti-democratic argument that Corporations Are People. Scott Klinger writing over at Alternet, sets out what it would/should mean for corporations really to be treated as "persons" and thus have the same responsibilities as people too. Me, I'd [...]

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Networks and the Myth that Flatter Organizations are Better

January 15, 2010

Are flatter organizations really “better”? If they are better, how? Hey, I already wrote a dissertation, so I’m not going to take on that question in its entirety. And, I’m not going to do the proper academic thing of being super-specific and qualifying my points. You got complaints? Email me and I’ll send you the [...]

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Networks and The Myth of Flattening Organizations

January 14, 2010

I was excited to hear from a few social media/Enterprise 2.0 advocates after my post last week asking When will social business become social change business? Special thanks to Jon Husband of Wirearchy, who not only confirmed that he has a revolutionary agenda behind his networked models of organizing but who also sent me some [...]

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Mockulation ®: Regulating Wall Street Using the Psychology of Public Mockery

December 31, 2009

What does it take to rein in the outrageous compensation of CEOs? The absurd bonuses of Investment Bankers? The “bail us out so we can award ourselves bonuses”-behavior characterizing Wall Street this year? Do we need more transparency? More shareholder oversight? More whistle-blowing? More government regulation? How about just a little bit more public mockery? [...]

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Socialism, Capitalism, 5 Points of Ignorance, and Progressive Organizational Movements

April 14, 2009

I just got done commenting on the blog of my colleague and blogging buddy Michael Roberto, a strategy professor at Bryant University. Michael blogged today about his concern that Americans (and by extension, students in the Business Schools where many of us teach) have lost faith in Capitalism. Michael’s answer to this problem, in so [...]

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Rant: Minimally Sufficient Research Can Maximine Insights

March 15, 2009

I confess a nagging frustration with certain trends in my academic discipline, Organizational Theory. While good research on organizations and organizational behavior fascinates and delights my nerdy self, boring and poorly executed research makes me lay my head on my desk in despair. Sometimes I even consider resigning from the editorial boards I was so [...]

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