Contingency Theory

90: Organizations in Action – James Thompson

June 14, 2022 Jarryd Daymond 0:05:01
We will examine James D. Thompson’s "Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory" from 1967 that established a new direction in organization studies. Beginning with a recapitulation of the theoretical work of the time, Thompson expanded the dominant rational model of organizing with the emerging ideas about human behaviour, complexity, and the relation between organizations and their environments. The result was a proposed theory of administration that remains relevant to this day.

60: Contingency Theory — Joan Woodward

January 14, 2020 Tom Galvin
Joan Woodward was a pioneer in organization theory, and in this episode we explore her seminal work Industrial Organization: Theory and Practice, originally published in 1965. The book presents the results of an extensive longitudinal study of the technologies, processes, and systems used by over one hundred industrial firms concentrated in southeast England over a ten year period.

16: Contingency Theory – Lawrence and Lorsch

August 30, 2016 Dmitrijs Kravcenko 0:10:02
We discuss Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch's book “Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration” and a series of papers which advance an open systems perspective on organizations. The contingency school postulates that there is not one best way to structure work or an organization. An optimum course of action depends – is contingent – on the external and local conditions in which an organization is inserted.

14: Simply Managing, by Henry Mintzberg

August 2, 2016 Dmitrijs Kravcenko 0:11:18
The book we analyzed in this episode, Simply Managing (2013), is an updated study of managers conducted by Henry Mintzberg based on observing 29 managers at all levels of organizations across a range of industries and organizational structures: business, government, healthcare, and pluralistic organizations such as museums and non-governmental organizations.

5: The Law of the Situation – Mary Parker Follett

January 26, 2016 Dmitrijs Kravcenko 0:21:27
This episode is a review of one of Mary Parker Follett’s great lectures, "The Giving of Orders," contained in a collection of Follett’s lectures and writings that was assembled by Lyndall Urwick at the end of her life in an effort to preserve her ideas for others. Follett believed that exploring “the science of the situation” involved both management and workers studying the situation together.