Organisation Theory Samenvatting
Introduction
OT Intro, Module 1:
What are the major societal developments affecting contemporary
organizations?
1. Social inequality
- Inequality serves to motivate entrepreneurial action
- Reducing inequality (too much) decreases economic efficiency
- Trickle-down economics reduces inequality quasi-naturally
- Inequality reduces trust (in others and in institutions)
- Inequality increases social unrest
- Inequality reduces political consensus within a society
- Inequality is self-reinforcing
2. Grand challenges
- Grand challenges are “massive social and environmental issues
that [...] have potential or actual negative effects on large
numbers of people, communities, and the planet as a whole”
(Voegtlin et al. 2019: 1).
e.g. ending poverty and hunger, establishing good health and education,
reducing gender and racial inequalities, fostering clean water and energy, and
taking climate actions (The UnitedNations, 2015)
- For Profit organizations are increasingly held accountable
Tripple-Bottom line reporting, CSR programs, Climate-smart organizing,
Diversity programs, etc.
3. Hypercompetition
- Hypercompetition “is an environment characterized by intense
and rapid competitive moves, in which competitors must move
quickly to build advantages and erode the advantages of their
rivals. This speeds up the
dynamic strategic interactions among competitors” (D’Aveni,
2013, p. 217f.)
- By implication, it becomes increasingly more important for
organizations to be able to adapt quickly, to be agile, while it
becomes less relevant to have a
well thought-out plan.
4. Millennials & Zoomers Rising
- Millennials (born 1980-1995) & Zoomers (born 1995-2010) are the
two most
relevant generations of employees and consumers today. They
have characteristic needs and wants;
tech-savy, work-life balance is important, longing for safety & purpose,
many job changes, assertive
- They are in short supply (ageing population)
, - Contemporary organizations need to be prepared to win the war
for talent
purpose-ful jobs, cater to highly diverse WLB-needs, provide
opportunities for
development, etc.
OT Intro, Module 2:
How does digital technology change organizations?
1. Platform-based business models
- Digital technologies can often help to reduce transaction costs,
thereby allowing for platform-based business models.
- To be successful with a platform-based business model
organizations need to
become more open and accessible, drive a more collaborative
vision, and
create an attractive ecosystem
2. Open innovation
- Digital technology has dramatically reduced the costs and
complexity of
developing new (digital) products and services and, as a
consequence, has
increased the pressure to remain innovative for all companies.
- One solution is for organizations to (make use of digital technology
to) open
up their innovation process to new groups, in the hopes of
accelerating their
innovation process.
3. The Gig Economy
- Digital technology enables broad recourse to spot contracts between
platform
owners and service providers
- The new, much looser relationship between platform owners and
their workers – or service providers – makes organizational
boundaries more diffuse and, consequently, requires new HR and
management practices
How does digital technology change management practices?
1. The rise of self-management
- Digital technology makes it possible to keep everyone informed and
allows people to connect and collaborate in the virtual space.
, - By facilitating coordination, IT tools make it possible to implement
self-managed forms of organizing in larger companies.
2. BPM
- BPM methods use digital tools and feed on digital data on the work
accomplished in the organization in order to discover, model,
analyze,
measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes
- Successful BPM implementations have shown to lead to large
increases in the efficiency of core processes in the organization, e.g.
by identifying and
resolving bottlenecks.
OT Intro, Module 3:
Globalization: the accelerating integration of economies, cultures, and
populations worldwide, driven by cross-border trade in goods, services,
technology, and capital.
Economic globalization: the increase of trade around the world,
especially by large companies producing and trading goods in many
different countries.
‘The process of economic integration of countries, through the increasing
flow of goods, services, capital and labour.’
Global production:
- Spatial fragmentation: the process that divides a once-continuous
area, such as a landscape, habitat, or urban environment, into
smaller, disconnected, and often isolated patches or zones. Driven
by human activity like urban sprawl or infrastructure development, it
breaks spatial, functional, and social continuity, leading to increased
inequality, segregation, and ecological disruption.
- Organizational fragmentation: the breakdown of a cohesive
business into isolated, disconnected parts, where departments or
teams stop working in tandem. It is characterized by scattered
information, misaligned goals, and, in modern contexts, a heavy
reliance on external outsourcing and remote work. This
segmentation leads to inefficiencies, reduced morale, and hindered
strategic execution.
Consequences of globalizations:
Introduction
OT Intro, Module 1:
What are the major societal developments affecting contemporary
organizations?
1. Social inequality
- Inequality serves to motivate entrepreneurial action
- Reducing inequality (too much) decreases economic efficiency
- Trickle-down economics reduces inequality quasi-naturally
- Inequality reduces trust (in others and in institutions)
- Inequality increases social unrest
- Inequality reduces political consensus within a society
- Inequality is self-reinforcing
2. Grand challenges
- Grand challenges are “massive social and environmental issues
that [...] have potential or actual negative effects on large
numbers of people, communities, and the planet as a whole”
(Voegtlin et al. 2019: 1).
e.g. ending poverty and hunger, establishing good health and education,
reducing gender and racial inequalities, fostering clean water and energy, and
taking climate actions (The UnitedNations, 2015)
- For Profit organizations are increasingly held accountable
Tripple-Bottom line reporting, CSR programs, Climate-smart organizing,
Diversity programs, etc.
3. Hypercompetition
- Hypercompetition “is an environment characterized by intense
and rapid competitive moves, in which competitors must move
quickly to build advantages and erode the advantages of their
rivals. This speeds up the
dynamic strategic interactions among competitors” (D’Aveni,
2013, p. 217f.)
- By implication, it becomes increasingly more important for
organizations to be able to adapt quickly, to be agile, while it
becomes less relevant to have a
well thought-out plan.
4. Millennials & Zoomers Rising
- Millennials (born 1980-1995) & Zoomers (born 1995-2010) are the
two most
relevant generations of employees and consumers today. They
have characteristic needs and wants;
tech-savy, work-life balance is important, longing for safety & purpose,
many job changes, assertive
- They are in short supply (ageing population)
, - Contemporary organizations need to be prepared to win the war
for talent
purpose-ful jobs, cater to highly diverse WLB-needs, provide
opportunities for
development, etc.
OT Intro, Module 2:
How does digital technology change organizations?
1. Platform-based business models
- Digital technologies can often help to reduce transaction costs,
thereby allowing for platform-based business models.
- To be successful with a platform-based business model
organizations need to
become more open and accessible, drive a more collaborative
vision, and
create an attractive ecosystem
2. Open innovation
- Digital technology has dramatically reduced the costs and
complexity of
developing new (digital) products and services and, as a
consequence, has
increased the pressure to remain innovative for all companies.
- One solution is for organizations to (make use of digital technology
to) open
up their innovation process to new groups, in the hopes of
accelerating their
innovation process.
3. The Gig Economy
- Digital technology enables broad recourse to spot contracts between
platform
owners and service providers
- The new, much looser relationship between platform owners and
their workers – or service providers – makes organizational
boundaries more diffuse and, consequently, requires new HR and
management practices
How does digital technology change management practices?
1. The rise of self-management
- Digital technology makes it possible to keep everyone informed and
allows people to connect and collaborate in the virtual space.
, - By facilitating coordination, IT tools make it possible to implement
self-managed forms of organizing in larger companies.
2. BPM
- BPM methods use digital tools and feed on digital data on the work
accomplished in the organization in order to discover, model,
analyze,
measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes
- Successful BPM implementations have shown to lead to large
increases in the efficiency of core processes in the organization, e.g.
by identifying and
resolving bottlenecks.
OT Intro, Module 3:
Globalization: the accelerating integration of economies, cultures, and
populations worldwide, driven by cross-border trade in goods, services,
technology, and capital.
Economic globalization: the increase of trade around the world,
especially by large companies producing and trading goods in many
different countries.
‘The process of economic integration of countries, through the increasing
flow of goods, services, capital and labour.’
Global production:
- Spatial fragmentation: the process that divides a once-continuous
area, such as a landscape, habitat, or urban environment, into
smaller, disconnected, and often isolated patches or zones. Driven
by human activity like urban sprawl or infrastructure development, it
breaks spatial, functional, and social continuity, leading to increased
inequality, segregation, and ecological disruption.
- Organizational fragmentation: the breakdown of a cohesive
business into isolated, disconnected parts, where departments or
teams stop working in tandem. It is characterized by scattered
information, misaligned goals, and, in modern contexts, a heavy
reliance on external outsourcing and remote work. This
segmentation leads to inefficiencies, reduced morale, and hindered
strategic execution.
Consequences of globalizations:
