Maikel Waardenburg

97: Social Change and Organization – Invictus (2009 movie)

January 24, 2023 Maikel Waardenburg 00:04:15
The 2009 film Invictus tells the story of how the first post-Apartheid President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, used sports as a unifying force to overcome lingering and bitter racial divides in the nation. The movie and the real-life events that inspired it are powerful. We will look at it through an organizational lens and discuss insights related to leadership, team building, change and other management topics.

90: Organizations in Action – James Thompson

June 14, 2022 Maikel Waardenburg 00:05:01
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.

89: Administrative Behavior in Public Sector — Herbert Kaufman

May 17, 2022 Maikel Waardenburg 00:05:29
This month’s episode examines a classic study in public administration, Herbert Kaufman’s “The Forest Ranger: A Study in Administrative Behavior,” published in 1960. The U.S. Forest Service was a widely distributed organization with its many Rangers individually assigned to manage large tracts of public land. It would have been easy for the Forest Service to lose control and fragment, but it did not. Kaufman’s study showed how and why the various techniques used by the Forest Service kept the Rangers integrated under a common vision.

84: Professionalizing Business — Louis Brandeis

December 7, 2021 Maikel Waardenburg 00:10:02
We discuss the life and works of Louis Brandeis who originated the term ‘scientific management’ that aimed at conserving effort and making work life more predictable, reducing worker stress and increasing satisfaction. He also advocated for a more altruistic and professionalized form of business leadership that served both the needs of customers or clients and those of the workers under their supervision. A collection of his lectures entitled Business – A Profession expounds on these ideas, and he includes a number of case studies and illustrations to show both the human and financial potential of his professed forms of management where profit would not be the only measure of a business’ success.

75: Institutionalization – Philip Selznick

April 13, 2021 Maikel Waardenburg
Philip Selznick seeded the origins of institutional theory in organization studies. He brought attention to the symbolic aspects of administration, such as when organizational tools and processes assume an importance beyond their concrete technical value—what he labelled institutionalization. In this episode, we discuss one of his classic works from 1949, TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization that contributed to his theory of organization through an examination of the Tennessee Valley Authority -- was formed to foster recovery from the Great Depression.

72: Organizational Diagnosis — Marvin Weisbord

January 12, 2021 Maikel Waardenburg
Business literature is now loaded with models and frameworks designed to help organizations identify, analyze, and fix their problems. But it wasn't always this way, and in fact a half century ago there were few general-purpose models available that were well-suited for the task. Enter Marvin Weisbord who in the 1970s developed and promoted a simple framework and associated suite of tools designed for anyone to investigate what was going wrong. In this episode, we discuss one of his articles -- "Organizational Diagnosis: Six Places to Look for Trouble With or Without a Theory," published in 1976 in the journal Group and Organization Management -- that introduced his Six-Box Model of organizational diagnosis.

69: Our 5th Anniversary Special!

October 13, 2020 Maikel Waardenburg
Celebrate five years of the Talking About Organizations Podcast with us!!!

Happy 5th Anniversary!!!

On October 13, 2015 — The Talking About Organizations Podcast descended upon the unsuspecting world of academia with the release of Episode 1: Scientific Management – F.W. Taylor’s One Best Way, covering the much misunderstood and severely misrepresented work of Frederick Winslow Taylor. Our original quartet of podcasters Dmitrijs, Ralph, Pedro, and Miranda (aka 3 late-stage PhD students and Ralph) took a leap of faith to get behind something they truly believed in – that the field of management and organizational studies was in trouble because of systemic neglect of its own history and foundations, and that a semi-serious podcast might be a way to help fix that. Still, the question remained – would this project last beyond the first few releases, would it have lasting value, or would they succumb to excessive workload and finally heed the word of their more serious colleagues about not wasting time on silly things and publishing papers instead, if they ever wanted to get a job in academia? 

And here we are five years later — with many new cast members and sixty-nine episodes under our belt — and still going strong! Reaching beyond the traditional canon of classics with the works of Fayol, Maslow, Weber, and so many others; we have included more recent “classics” such as Hochschild, Kerr, and Forester; commentaries on movies, plays, and documentaries from Twelve Angry Men to American Factory; and various conference specials from the Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Capabilities conference and the Academy of Management‘s annual meeting. Our podcast reaches thousands of listeners each month and is included in the curriculum of at least (confirmed) thirty-eight business schools and universities around the world! 

And so, on October 13, 2020 (in a year when any sort of festivity is a welcome diversion), we are celebrating our fifth anniversary with a series of releases spread out over the next two weeks. Details on each of the releases are below. Come join us and share a virtual beverage of your choice as we ring in five years of Talking About Organizations!

Note: Pictured from L to R: Pedro, Catherine, Maikel, Dmitrijs, Tom, Leonardo, Miranda, Ralph

Part 1 (released October 13th). “Behind the Curtain: How We Do the Podcast”

In these release, we offer listeners an insider perspective on the making of our episodes. Dmitrijs, Pedro, Ralph, and Tom discuss how we choose an episode topic, schedule it, record it and conduct post-production, and release it through the web and RSS feeds. We also talk about the broader Talking About Organizations Network and what we enjoy most about doing the podcast.

 

Part 2 (released October 13th). “Questions from our Listeners”

About a month before the anniversary, we solicited questions from our listeners about things they wanted to know or suggestions for the podcast. Out of the large number of excellent questions received; Dmitrijs, Miranda, Maikel, Jarryd, and Tom broke it down to five that we tackled and discussed in our own Talking About Organizations way. The questions are:

  1. I was thinking about the politics of publishing in peer-review nowadays. What does a naive junior scholar need to know to get their work published – down to the nitty-gritty? Would that be something?
  2. We would like to hear more about <pick one: sociomateriality studies / strategy as practice / charisma in leadership in small and medium sized firms, etc.> What are the gaps that we need to plug?
  3. In 1993 Jeffrey Pfeffer wrote a highly cited article in AMR called Barriers to the Advancement of Organizational Science: Paradigm Development as Dependent Variable. In it he argues that the field of organisational science (i.e., management and organisational studies) displays a high degree of dissensus compared with other social science disciplines such as economics and political science.  “The question for organizational science is whether the field can strike an appropriate balance between theoretical tyranny and an anything goes attitude, which seems to be more characteristic of the present state.” My question, to draw upon the technology product terms, is this is a bug of our discipline or a feature?
  4. I think the podcast could provide some further understanding for the issues we are facing right now and how org theory can help tackle them: virtual work / remote work, the end of the office, conspiracy theories, heavy disruption, mental exhaustion and burn out, high uncertainty, etc. I believe existing theories have a lot to say about those contemporary issues. I think you should also consider covering new papers or books rather than very established ones or streams of literature. e.g. the pieces that get awards if they explore new perspectives or literatures? Not things we have seen a large number of times! (we also included a related question submitted to us at the last minute about mini-meetings and remote work)
  5. How can the podcast explore grand challenges or wicked problems? There is not always a single seminal work that encompasses such problems, which are pervasive in our modern environment.

 

Part 3 (released October 21st). “Perspectives of our Guests”

In this final release of our 5th year celebration, we welcome the perspectives of several past guests, hosts, and observers of past recordings — with additional commentary from cast members Pedro, Miranda, Catherine, Leonardo, and Tom. Our guests discussed the experiences (and fun) of participating in the podcast, the podcast’s current role and potential future directions, and the state of scholarship in organization studies. We thank our guests for taking time out of their busy schedules to talk with us!

  • Ella Hafermalz — Former co-host of the program who participated in ten episodes — 28 (Organizations as Rhetoric), 31 (Process Studies), 35 (Emotional Labor), 41 (Images of Organization), 49 (Engineered Culture & Normative Control), 50 (50th Episode celebration), 51 (Tyranny of Light), 53 (Charlie Chaplain’s Modern Times), 57 (Reward Systems), and 66 (Workplace Isolation, as returning Special Guest)
  • Deborah Brewis — Guest of Episode 17 on Rosabeth Moss Kanter and tokenism; Deborah was instrumental in establishing our thematic collection with the Management Learning Journal.
  • Simone Phipps & Leon Prieto — Guests of Episode 56 on Charles Clinton Spaulding and African-American contributions to management scholarship.
  • Maja Korica — Guest of Episode 52 on Rosemary Stewart and management in practice.
  • Marc Ventresca — Guest of Episode 46, covering a professional development workshop (PDW) on classics of organization theory and management science at the Academy of Management annual meeting in 2018
  • Fabricio Neves & Polyana Silva — Two of our loyal listeners who even joined the virtual audience for recordings of Episode 64 (Disasters and Crisis Management) and Episode 66 (Workplace Isolation)

 

 

64: Disasters and Crisis Management – Powley and Weick

May 12, 2020 Maikel Waardenburg

Karl Weick

Crises and disasters are regular occurrences in organizational life, putting leaders into the spotlight and organizations under tremendous pressure to respond appropriately — whether it is to preserve life or salvage reputations. With the COVID-19 pandemic ongoing, we wanted to discuss some important texts on organizational crises and their management, and in this episode we present two. The first text is a classic case study — Karl Weick’s famous paper from 1990 titled “The vulnerable system: An analysis of the Tenerife air disaster,” published in the Journal of Management. The Tenerife air disaster (also referred to as ‘airport disaster’) occurred at Gran Canaria Airport in 1977 when fog and poor communications between the tower and the pilots of two Boeing 747s resulted in a collision that destroyed both planes and resulted in the death of 583 people. Weick’s retrospective analysis shows how several factors set conditions that “encouraged the occurrence and rapid diffusion of multiple small errors.” 

The second article helps answer the question, “How does an organization rebound from crisis?” We explore an article from Edward Powley on activating organizational resilience — “Reclaiming resilience and safety: Resilience activation in the critical period of crisis,” published in Human Relations in 2009. The article describes three different social mechanisms that are put into action according to Powley — liminal suspension, compassionate witnessing, and relational redundancy. Respectively, these mechanisms cause the organization to temporarily restructure itself to respond to the crisis, leverage interpersonal relationships within the organization more intensely, and leverage social connections across boundaries to reach out and help others outside the organization.  Together these readings can help us understand what it takes to analyze an emerging crisis situation and mobilize to confront it. 

Part 1: What happens to an organization under crisis?
Part 2: How can organizations become more proactive and prepare better for crisis?
 
Read With Us:

Powley, E. H. (2009). Reclaiming resilience and safety: Resilience activation in the critical period of crisis. Human relations, 62(9), 1289-1326.

Weick, K. E. (1990). The vulnerable system: An analysis of the Tenerife air disaster. Journal of management, 16(3), 571-593.

62: Consumerism & Meaning at Work — WALL-E

March 17, 2020 Maikel Waardenburg
Andrew Stanton – Director of “WALL-E”

As we demonstrated in previous episodes about “Twelve Angry Men” and “Modern Times,” movies can be effective tools for discussing concepts, ideas, and experiences about organizations and management. Add to this the ‘instant’ classic film WALL-E, released in 2008 by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by Andrew Stanton. WALL-E is the story of a robot who at one time was part of a massive clean-up effort on Earth while all the humans left to live on cruise ships in space. But the effort failed centuries earlier, and now WALL-E continued his duties all alone — accompanied only by a cockroach. When a probe returns to Earth searching for renewed signs of life, WALL-E follows the probe back to the lead cruise ship and learns how much the humans have devolved over the centuries. The story is about awakening, about recognizing how one is bounded and shut off from a wider world. The film was hailed as one of the best of the 2000s.

In this episode, we talk about the setting and the story for clues about organizational behavior and management. (Spoiler alert!) Through flashback images and other evidence, we learn of the backstory about how one corporation called “BuyNLarge” — came to dominate both public and private sectors of society, providing everything for the humans, and doing so in an indulgent fashion. Eventually, the humans kept buying and consuming until the garbage overtook everything. But on the cruise ship (Axiom), the vision of BuyNLarge is realized as the humans do indeed live in a paradise where they can buy and consume just about anything they want. Meanwhile, BuyNLarge’s CEO Shelby Forthright is portrayed only minimally, yet is a central figure in the film. His decision making centuries earlier set in motion the chain of events that led to the Axiom remaining in space far longer than originally planned. Organizational behavior, leadership, change, culture, automation and artificial intelligence — we discuss these topics and more! Listen in as Tom, Pedro, Maikel, and Ralph have a fun conversation discussing this wonderful film!

Part 1. Talking About Organizational Behavior and Leadership Through Film

 

Part 2. What We Can Learn from Dystopian Fiction?

 

Watch With Us:

WALL-E (film). (2008). Director: Andrew Stanton. Pixar Animation Studios.

Related Episodes of the Talking About Organizations Podcast:

Episode 1: Principles of Scientific Management – F.W. Taylor’s One Best Way 

Episode 3: Theory of Human Motivation – Abraham Maslow

Episode 6: Bureaucracy – Max Weber

Episode 13: Banana Time – Donald Roy

Episode 20: High Reliability in Practice – USN Rear Admiral Tom Mercer

To Know More:

Anteby, Michel. (2003) “The Moralities’ of Poaching: Manufacturing Personal Artifacts on the Factory Floor.” Ethnography, 4(2): 217-239.

Faraj, Samer, Stella Pachidi, and Karla Sayegh. (2018). “Working and organizing in the age of the learning algorithm.” Information and Organization, 28(1): 62-70.

Mintzberg, Henry. (1980). “Structure in 5’s: A Synthesis of the Research on Organization Design.” Management science 26(3): 322-341.

List of Movies Relevant for Management — https://twitter.com/search?q=%23LeoMovieList&src=typd&f=live

Featured Image Credit:  Lenin Estrada via Pexels.com, Creative Commons License 0

57: Reward Systems – Steven Kerr

October 21, 2019 Maikel Waardenburg
Steven Kerr

Why do organizations espouse one thing but do another? This is essentially what Steven Kerr asks in his popular 1975 article in the Academy of Management Journal, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, While Hoping for B,” on reward systems. Using examples ranging from politics and war to business and public sector settings, Kerr found a common pattern: that the organization’s goals are too often not supported by the things they actually reward and encourage. The context and relationships among actors may differ, but the result is too commonplace to ignore.

In Part 1 of this episode, we break down Kerr’s examples (which in some cases were peculiar to 1975) and consider how generalizable they really are. We also address key differences in the 1995 update, published in the Academy of Management Executive. Then in Part 2, we examine criticisms of the article, particularly Richard Boettger and Charles Greer’s rejoinder “On the Wisdom of Rewarding A While Hoping for B,” published in Organization Science in 1994.

Podcasting in this episode: Tom, Ella, Maikel, and Frithjof

Part 1. The Many Ways Reward Systems Can Go Wrong

 

Part 2. Is Fixing the Reward System Really Necessary?
Read With Us:

Kerr, S. (1975). On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Journal, 18(4), 769-783.

Kerr, S. (1995). AN ACADEMY CLASSIC: On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B. Academy of Management Perspectives, 9(1), 7-14.

To Learn More:

Boettger, R. D., & Greer, C. R. (1994). On the wisdom of rewarding A while hoping for B. Organization Science, 5(4), 569-582.