Week 1 Reading Issues Jaffe (1)

1
Week 1 Reading Issues Jaffe (1)

• Everywhere we look, organizations play some role
  in shaping social structures and influencing
  social change Jaffee, p. xv
• What does Jaffe mean by social structures?
• Can you illustrate Jaffes argument?
• Can you identify limitations/problems with
  Jaffes argument or his formulation of these
  claims?

2
Week 1 Reading Issues Jaffe (2)

• If humans were passive objects, rather than
  active subjects, they would readily conform to
  organizational dictates. Because humans are
  neither passive or objects, an endless series of
  organization theories and management strategies
  have been developed to explain and mobilise the
  human factor. The history and evolution of
  organization theory is heavily shaped by this
  tension
• How are the concepts of identity and insecurity
  relevant for exploring this tension?
• Is it to helpful or potentially misleading to
  refer to the human factor?

3
Week 1 Reading Issues Jaffe (3)

• A single widely accepted definition of
  organization is difficult to establish because of
  the complex nature of the object of study and the
  multiple perspectives that inform organizational
  analysis
• How much does complexity account for this
  difficulty. Isnt it just a matter of identifying
  the definition/theory that best captures the
  complexity?
• Why cant differences between competing
  perpectives simply be resolved by subjecting them
  to a rigorous empirical test?

4
Week 1 Reading Issues Knights and Willmott

• Information exemplified by the blockbusting,
  comprehensive textbook is readily retrieved and
  regurgitated before being appraised by teachers,
  who use the contents of the textbook as a
  benchmark when they evaluate the completeness of
  the students knowledge. In contrast,
  understanding is developed in the course of
  making meaningful connections between pieces of
  information and interpreting their relevance to a
  particular human endeavour (p. 11)
• Can you illustrate this point of view?
• How is understanding/learning rather than
  information acquisition best enabled and
  supported in your experience?