Making Sense of Organisations – Individual Module
Assignment 2018/2019
Assignment Brief and Purpose
“No! Under scientific management, orders went one way and one way only: from the top down, never back up the other way”.
(Taylor 3 months before his death. in Kanigel (1997) The One Best Way: Frederick Winslow Taylor and the Enigma of Efficiency. London: Little Brown. p567).
This quotation suggests that Classical management theorists viewed management, among other things, as an exact science, and that they had revealed the ‘correct’ way of managing, since then, many have been critical of such a notion.
This assignment requires you to address the following question in the form of an essay;
To what extent can the management of organisations be treated as a ‘science’?
Given that organisations are an inescapable part or all our lives it becomes important that we develop an understanding of what they are and how they work (or do not work). The lecture programme has emphasized the idea that organisations are not a single entity and that making sense of them requires us to examine them through a variety of theoretical perspectives as well as our own perceptual lens. This postmodern understanding argues that organisations are socially constructed phenomena, so questions like; ‘what the organisation is’, ‘why it is there’ and ‘how it works (or doesn’t)’ and ‘why’, should be addressed from these different, but interrelated theoretical constructs.
The various perspectives offered during the lectures can all be employed to help you make sense of organisations. These may include the following but you are not confined to these;
Historical
Sociological
Rational technical
Political
Psychological
Cultural (organisational and national)
Symbolic
An additional implication of the postmodern understanding is that the person making sense, (you), must acknowledge their own influence on the sense making process, that is, you are also involved in socially constructing the organisation even as an analyst, and are not examining it from a distance. This will involve you in a consideration of your own background and life experience. You are encouraged to offer insights of your own, and given that we are understanding organisations as any community of people, large or small and with whatever purpose, you should use your own experience. This may include any organisations of which you have experience, for example; part time or full time work, schools and other educational establishments, leisure time organisations, political organisations.
Finally, you are also required to use examples from contemporary organisations to support and illustrate your points. These might come from your reading of contemporary events, from news sources or television documentaries.
Summary
To summarise, you are required to write an essay which explores the notion of organisation using a variety of theoretical perspectives and supported by examples from your own experience as well as from your reading of academic work and from contemporary organisations. This will require you to use the lecture material, books and articles, contemporary news sources. The emphasis is on writing a persuasive essay which builds a case for a particular point of view and which is drawn together in the conclusion. Your account should be analytical and critically informed, and not simply a description of an organisation.
You must use the Harvard referencing system and reference all authors and dates referred to in the text.
Length: 3000 words
Making Sense of Organisations
Assignment Plan already submitted and approved
To what extent can the management of organisations be treated as a ‘science’?
Introduction
• Definition of organisation management.
Organisation management is the art of leading a group of people to work together towards achieving specific goals.
• Theoretical perspectives
There are various theoretical perspectives (talk about them)
Compare two or three and contrast
• Scientific management – Taylorism – benefits and drawbacks
• Modernism versus Post-modernism
Explain, compare and contrast
Main body
• Critically analyse Issues identified in the perspectives previously discussed
• Personal experience with reference to the issues identified. (Volunteering work and 1 week internship in the Accounting department of an organisation selling vehicle spare parts)
Evaluation and Conclusion
Evaluation to answer the question of the assignment and conclusion
