Talking About Organizations Podcast

Conclusion of Episode 7 but only half-way point in the Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard. In the second part of this episode we take a closer look at the antecedents of organized labour, as proposed in the book. If you want to learn how individuals become phases of cooperation or what are the conditions for healthy organizational functioning, among other fascinating things, listen to this part of our conversation.

On The Functions of The Executive (1938) by Chester Barnard. Join us for this two-episode (four-part) conversation about one of the most influential management and organization texts of... well, ever!In Part 1 of Episode 7 we talk about Parts I and II of the book, concerning Barnard's theory of what humans are and how they (we) are motivated; as well as fundamental principles of cooperation and coordination. Have you ever thought of yourself as a 'phase of cooperation' while at work? No? Well, tune in to learn why Barnard did and why it makes a degree of sense to do so!

A summary of our discussion in Episode 6 with some bonus examples and an outline of the reading. During the main episode we discussed topics such as: rules, what is bureaucracy for, and who is bureaucracy for, among many other (smaller) ones.Listen to this summary if you would like a quick abstract of the episode, if you are interested in teaching/learning about Weberian bureaucracy, or simply to refresh you knowledge of this timeless classic.

They dig into how rules get interpreted and why ambiguous directives like 'smile' cause problems. The conversation covers hierarchy and enforcement, safety-critical rule prioritization using nuclear examples, and when workarounds should be reported. They also explore bureaucracy’s spread into modern projects, its protections for workers, and tensions between formal rules and personal identity.

A lively dive into Max Weber's model of bureaucracy: its rules, hierarchy, and impersonal career officials. They unpack bureaucracy as rationalisation, its machine-like treatment of people, and how expertise gets concentrated. The conversation probes bureaucracy's limits — lack of innovation, coordination across departments, and tensions with adaptability and technology.

In Part 2, we conclude our discussion of the Giving of Orders by Mary Parker Follett. Most significantly we finally arrived at an understanding of what a situation is and how it manifests itself in Follett's understanding of management. We also went in more depth on such topics as normative control, organizational and individual learning, and historical and theoretical context within which this work is situated. This has been a very enjoyable reading and a thought-provoking discussion and we urge you to join us and learn about one of the founding thinkers of management and her alternative take on how to achieve efficiency.

How to issue orders? When is it right to do so? Are you going to hurt the feelings of your employees? Does it matter? These and many other questions are at the centre of 'The Giving of Orders' (1926) by Mary Parker Follett. This seminal work written at the height of Scientific Management dares to compete with the establishment and, in doing so, contributes so much to our current understanding of business and organization. Easy to read and simple to follow, this text is a lecture given by Mary Parker Follett at a scientific management conference where she outlined a part of her scholarship - all in all, an excellent overview of something as central to management as the giving of orders.

In the final part of our discussion on organizational routines we continue examining how routines relate to the internal/external organization, what are the external stimuli and how valid is it to postulate them as catalysts for the routines, and why the more contemporary term 'routines' can be a misleading way to refer to the 'performance programmes' that the authors wrote about. Join us for this super-informative discussion as Katharina tells us everything we wanted to know about routines but were afraid to ask (well, not really - we did ask!).

In Episode 4 we are discussing the origins of organizational routines with the help of our special guest Dr Katharina Dittrich. Organizational routines are ways to reduce complexity and distribute learning throughout the organization. The idea is simple - once a problem occurred often enough and a solution has been found, the solving of this problem can become routinised so that employees no longer have to 'reinvent the wheel'. Corporate procedures such as hiring and firing and order processing are some of the examples.Join us for part 1 of this fascinating discussion as Dmitrijs inadvertently finds himself playing a role of devil's advocate as Katharina delivers a stunning amount of knowledge about routines.

Our first special guest, Dr Katharina Dittrich explains what organizational routines are, where they came from and why and talks about how the readings she helped us pick for Episode 4 - Behavioral Theory of the Firm (1963) by Cyert and March, and Organization (1958) by March and Simon - relate to one another. To learn more about Episode 4 and why (as well as how) it is different, check out Carnegie Mellon School Series: An Introduction from last week!