Assignment:
1. To what extent can management control organizational culture?
Suggested readings
Ackroyd, Stephen & Peter Crowdy (1990): ‘Can culture be managed? Working with "raw" material: The case of the English slaughtermen.' Personell Review, Vol. 19, No. 5, pp 3-13.
Bratton (2015) Chapter 17: Culture. In Bratton, J. Work and Organizational Behaviour. 3rd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Meek, L. (1988) Organizational culture: Origins and weaknesses. Organization Studies. 9(4): 453-473.
Smircich. L. (1983) Concepts of culture and organizational analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(3): 339-358.
2. Describe two psychological motivation theories. To what extent can they explain people's behaviour in organizations?
Suggested readings:
Bratton (2015) Chapter 6: Motivation. In Bratton, J. Work and Organizational Behaviour. 3rd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dye, K., Mills, A.J. and Weatherbee, T., (2005) Maslow: man interrupted: reading management theory in context. Management Decision 43(10): 1375-1395.
Goldthorpe, J.H., Lockwood, D., Bechhofer, F. and Platt, J. (1968) The affluent worker: Industrial Attitudes and Behaviour, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Herzberg, F. (2003) one more time: How do you motivate employees? Harvard Business Review 81(1): 87-96.
3. How important are leaders in influencing organizational performance? Discuss by making reference to traditional and contemporary leadership theories.
Suggested readings:
Bratton (2015) Chapter 12: Leadership. In Bratton, J. Work and Organizational Behaviour (3rd edition) Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Carroll, B., Levy, L. and Richmond, D. (2008) Leadership as practice: challenging the competency paradigm, Leadership, 4(4), pp. 363-79.
Grint, K. (2005) Leadership: Limits and possibilities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
King, D. and Lawley, S. (2013) Chapter 12: Leadership. Organizational Behaviour. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sarti (2014) Leadership style do engage employees: Evidence from human services organizations in Italy, Journal of workplace learning, 26(3/4), pp.202-16.
4. Does team-work empower workers or does it lead to intensified managerial control?
Suggested readings:
Baldry, C., Bain, P. and Taylor, P. (1998) "Bright satanic offices": intensification, control and team Taylorism. Pp. 163-83. In P. Thompson and C. Warhurst (eds), Workplaces of the future, Basingtoke: Macmillan.
Barker, J.R. (1993) Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 408-437.
Bratton (2015) Chapter 10: Groups and Teams. In Bratton, J. Work and Organizational Behaviour. 3rd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Thompson, P. and Wallace, T. (1996) Redesigning production through team working. International Journal of Operation and Production Management, 16(2), pp.103-18.
Smith, V. (1997) ‘New forms of work organization'. Annual Review of Sociology, 23: 315-39.
Yeatts, D.E. and Hyten, C. (1998) High-performing self-managed work teams, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.