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The central objective of this course is to introduce
students to perspectives on studying management
and organisational phenomena. It aims to develop
a critical appreciation of the historical evolution
and the current state of management and organisation
studies. The former part of the course is devoted to
charting the domain and concerns of organisational
analysis and deals with issues like organisations and their
environments, goals and effectiveness, power and control,
their and work, and forms and structuring of organisations.
The course then proceeds to a review and discussion of
major perspectives and research programmes in organisational
analysis. The student is thus given an opportunity to
develop an understanding of the central features of
different perspectives as well as appreciating the nature
of ongoing controversy and debate among competing
viewpoints. The review of earlier traditions like scientific
management, human relations and contingency theory are
followed by critical perspectives of the time, namely
Marxist and action frames of reference. More recent
research traditions to be reviewed include resource
dependence, institutionalist, and ecological perspectives
as well as those that stem from neo-isntitutionalist
economics and economic sociology. The course
finally considers more recent alternative traditions like
interpretive, critical realist, and postmodern approaches.
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