Ralph Soule

22: Human-Machine Reconfigurations – Lucy Suchman

January 17, 2017 Ralph Soule
We discuss Lucy Suchman’s book “Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Action” that studied the interaction of humans with a state-of-art photocopier designed to be more user friendly and more helpful in solving user problems. Yet videos showed that people found it complicated and difficult. Suchman shows that these interaction problems are greatly due to the underpinning assumptions about users’ behavior, more specifically, due to the idea that humans’ actions are based on the following of plans, which she refutes.Read More

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

December 17, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:15:54
Based around a classic work by Weick and Roberts (1993) on Collective Mind in Organizations - where the authors observed and analyzed the way people on the deck of an aircraft carrier function in a collective manner - this episode brings you a discussion of how concepts of High Reliability (see also Episode 11) flesh out in real life!Read More

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19: Carnegie Mellon Series #2 – Exploration and Exploitation of Knowledge

November 8, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:11:35
In this episode, we read James March's widely cited article, “Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning,” published in 1991 in the journal Organization Science. In the paper, March considered the relationships between exploration of new ways of doing things and the exploitation of accepted, standard practices for organizational learning.Read More

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18: Gig Economy, Labor Relations and Algorithmic Management

October 18, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:20:07
We discuss an article by Sarah O'Connor exploring the impact of gig economy and algorithmic management on the employees - what their experience is like, how their work is structured, and whether being a gig economy employee is everything it panned out to be. Gig economy, as well as its benefits and limitations, has been subject to much debate in social policy and labour relations. Read More

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17: Tokenism – Rosabeth Moss Kanter

September 20, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:19:36
In this episode, we read Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s paper “Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women” (1977) which features as a chapter in her classic book, "Men and Women of the Corporation." In this article, Kanter explores how interactions within a group or an organization are affected by the different numbers of people from distinct social types. In particular, she focuses on groups with skewed gender ratios: a high proportion of men and a small number of women – the tokens. The study is based on observations and interviews with sales team which had recently started to incorporate women in its workforce and shows how structural factors stifled their potential.Read More

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16: Contingency Theory – Lawrence and Lorsch

August 30, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:10:02
We discuss Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch's book “Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration” and a series of papers which advance an open systems perspective on organizations. The contingency school postulates that there is not one best way to structure work or an organization. An optimum course of action depends – is contingent – on the external and local conditions in which an organization is inserted. Read More

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14: Simply Managing, by Henry Mintzberg

August 2, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:11:18
The book we analyzed in this episode, Simply Managing (2013), is an updated study of managers conducted by Henry Mintzberg based on observing 29 managers at all levels of organizations across a range of industries and organizational structures: business, government, healthcare, and pluralistic organizations such as museums and non-governmental organizations.Read More

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Book Review of Henry Mintzberg’s “Simply Managing” (2013)

July 13, 2016 Ralph Soule
In this Note, Ralph reviews the Henry Mintzberg's work "Simply Managing," published in 2013. We covered the book and interviewed Mintzberg in Episode 14.Read More

13: Banana Time – Donald Roy

July 5, 2016 Ralph Soule 0:09:57
One of the most famous ethnographic works, Banana Time: Job Satisfaction and Informal Interaction describes Donald F. Roy's experience of working as a drill press operator (as in the picture on this page) for two months. Set against the backdrop of Taylor-inspired Scientific Management, the paper provides a thick description of the setting, the tools of work and, most importantly, behaviour and dynamics of the group of workers whom Roy was assigned to work with.Read More

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12: On the Value of Conferences — Emma Bell and Paul Duguid LIVE

June 7, 2016 Ralph Soule
Dmitrijs and Ralph are joined by Professors Paul Duguid and Emma Bell to talk about the value and form of conferences in promoting, disseminating and facilitating knowledge. The four of us shared some personal conference-attending experiences, considered the current format and emergent alternatives, and pondered on the nature of knowledge as such. Read More

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