Organization Theory: Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern Perspectives

380 Pages·1997·3.477 MB·English

by  Mary Jo Hatch

Organization Theory
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Organization
Theory
Modern, Symbolic,
and Postmodern
Perspectives
THIRD EDITION
Mary Jo Hatch
with
Ann L. Cunliffe
1
1
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
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© Mary Jo Hatch 2013
The moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published 1997
Second Edition published 2006
Impression: 1
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
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ISBN 978-0-19-964037-9
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With love, this book is dedicated to my daughter,
Jennifer Cron
About the authors

Mary Jo Hatch is the C. Coleman McGehee Eminent Scholars Research Professor of
Banking and Commerce, Emerita, at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia.
She is also an Adjunct Professor at the Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, Visiting
Professor at the Gothenburg University School of Business, Economics and Law in Sweden,
and an International Research Fellow of the Centre for Corporate Reputation, Oxford
University in the UK. An American organization theorist, Hatch has taught management and
organization theory, and published research on organizations and organizing, in both the
United States and Europe over the past twenty years. Her formal education took place at the
University of Colorado, where she studied architecture as an undergraduate; Indiana
University, where she studied English literature and creative writing and later earned an MBA
in fi nance; and Stanford University, where she earned her PhD in organizational behavior
with an emphasis on organization theory. In addition to her position at the University of
Virginia, Hatch held teaching posts at San Diego State University and UCLA in California, the
Copenhagen School of Business in Denmark, and Cranfi eld School of Management in the
UK. She is an active participant in the American Academy of Management, where she is a
past offi cer of the Organization and Management Theory Division. You will fi nd her published
articles in Administrative Science Quarterly , California Management Review , Harvard Business
Review , Academy of Management Review , Ephemera , European Journal of Marketing , Human
Relations , International Journal of Cross Cultural Management , Journal of Brand Management ,
Journal of Business Ethics , Journal of Management Education , J ournal of Management Inquiry ,
Journal of Psychological Issues in Organizational Culture , Marketing Theory , Organization ,
Organizational Dynamics , Organization Science , Organization Studies , and Strategic
Organization . Other books by Hatch include: Organizations: A Very Short Introduction (2011,
Oxford University Press); T aking Brand Initiative: How Corporations Can Align Strategy, Culture
and Identity through Corporate Branding (with Majken Schultz, 2008, Jossey-Bass); The Three
Faces of Leadership: Manager, Artist, Priest (with Monika Kostera and Andrzej Kózmin´ski,
2005, Blackwell); The Expressive Organization: Linking Identity, Reputation and the Corporate
Brand (with Majken Schultz and Mogens Holten Larsen, 2000, Oxford University Press); and
Organizational Identity: A Reader (with Majken Schultz, 2004, Oxford University Press). She is
the former European Editor of J ournal of Management Inquiry and holds or has held editorial
board positions at Academy of Management Review , Human Relations , Organization Studies ,
Organizational Aesthetics , Scandinavian Journal of Management , J ournal of Management
Inquiry , International Journal of Cross-Cultural Research , C orporate Reputation Review ,
Management Learning , and J ournal of Brand Management . In 2011 she received the
Distinguished Educator Award from the Academy of Management’s Organization and
Management Theory (OMT) Division.
Ann L. Cunliffe is currently Professor of Organization Studies at the University of Leeds in
the UK. She has held positions at the University of New Mexico, California State University,
and the University of New Hampshire. She obtained her Master of Philosophy degree and
ABOUT THE AUTHORS vii
PhD from Lancaster University Management School. Recent publications in the fi eld of
leadership, sensemaking, refl exivity, and qualitative research methods are found in H uman
Relations, Organizational Research Methods , and M anagement Learning . She was awarded
the 2002 Breaking the Frame Award from the J ournal of Management Inquiry for the article
that best exemplifi es a challenge to existing thought. Ann is currently co-Editor-in-Chief of
Management Learning, Consulting Editor for the I nternational Journal of Qualitative Research
in Organizations and Management , and a member of eight international journal editorial
boards. She also organizes the biennial conference Q ualitative Research in Organization and
Management.
Preface to fi rst edition
Any narrative depends upon the perspective and location of its author. My perspective is as
an American organization theorist, trained and employed in business schools, who has
taught management and organization theory, and published research on organizations, in
both the US and Europe during the 1980s and 1990s. My formal education took place at the
University of Colorado, where I studied architecture as an undergraduate; Indiana University,
where I studied English literature and creative writing as an undergraduate, and later earned
an MBA in fi nance; and Stanford University, where I earned my PhD in organizational
behavior with an emphasis on organization theory. My learning then continued in the
context of my teaching posts—at San Diego State University and UCLA in the US, the
Copenhagen Business School in Denmark, and now at the Cranfi eld School of Management
in England—as well as through memberships in professional associations, including the
American Academy of Management, the British Academy of Management, the Standing
Conference on Organizational Symbolism (SCOS), and the European Group for Organization
Studies (EGOS).
These days I live in a rural English village, in a thatched cottage built in the late sixteenth
century, with beautiful countryside views. I spend my time doing research, reading, writing,
traveling to conferences, giving lectures and seminars at a wide variety of universities, and
doing a little oil painting. My research interests involve: organizational culture; identity and
image; symbolic understanding in and of organizations; managerial humor as an indicator of
organizational paradox, ambiguity, and contradiction; and aesthetic (especially narrative and
metaphoric) aspects of organizing. I consider myself to be a symbolic-interpretive researcher
whose methodology shifts between interpretive ethnography and discourse analysis. It is
upon all of these experiences that I draw in presenting organization theory. Unavoidable
biases with regard to organization theory and its history are created by these particular expe-
riences, and thus the book you are holding is infl uenced in ways that are diffi cult for me to
specify. Other accounts of organization theory are available and will provide other versions
of its story.
I came to write this book because, as a symbolic-interpretive researcher teaching organi-
zation theory, I was frustrated by the limited choices of textbooks for my classes. There
seemed to be only two alternatives: either a modernist exposition on the content of organi-
zation theory with an expressly control-centered, rationalistic orientation; or a radical alter-
native that focused on criticizing the modernist approach and displayed little or no sympathy
for the substantial contributions modernist organization theory has made. I wanted a book
that paid due respect to the modernist perspective, but that went beyond mere recitation of
the fi ndings of modernist research to explore the contributions of ethnographic studies that
often challenge modernist notions, and that would give voice not only to the criticisms
raised against organization theory as a tool of managerialism, but also to alternatives emerg-
ing from interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. I found that if I wanted such a book,
I was either going to have to wait for someone else to get around to it, or I was going to have
to write it myself. Being impatient, I chose the latter course.
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION ix
Impatience, however, does not write books. It has taken me ten years to accomplish the
task I fi rst imagined in the mid-1980s. The process through which it materialized has been a
labor of enthusiasm for the fi eld of organization theory, and of determination to fi nd a way to
present material that is commonly believed to be diffi cult, dry, and boring in the extreme. To
translate my vague image into this book required that I delve into my own subjective experi-
ence, to draw out the reasons for my enthusiasm and to develop the means of communicat-
ing them to others. These tasks I undertook in the classroom, and it is my students who
deserve the lion’s share of credit for this product—it is they who have been my teachers.
Each chapter of the book was developed through an iterative and interactive process of
presenting ideas to my classes, followed by discussions in which I listened and responded to
what the students chose to focus on, which generally involved application of the ideas to
some aspect of their personal, professional, or anticipated managerial lives. In this way, I was
able to observe how students handled the material I presented to them, what they found
most interesting in it, and what they thought they might use it for. Along the way I discovered
that the best way to present material in anticipation of discussion was to refl ect upon what I
found interesting in the topic, to press myself to learn something new about it just before
going into class (which caused me to be in an active learning mode), and to share through
open refl ection what I found inspiring and what I was even now learning about it. The stu-
dents responded well to this approach and appreciated the effort I took, because, as they
told me, the enthusiasm I demonstrated for the material was contagious.
As I developed my learning-based style of teaching, I found that the students mimicked
me in our discussions. A few would begin to focus on what was pertinent or attractive to
them, would have insight based on their own experience in combination with the new mate-
rial, and their unsuppressed enthusiasm diffused to other students who became engaged
with the material until eventually (toward the end of our term of study together), most in the
room had had the experience of fi nding organization theory interesting and useful—at least
once in their lives. The effect overall was that, as we spent time together in these endeavors,
the students became more and more active in their own education, taking an increasing
share of the responsibility for their learning onto their own shoulders. This, of course, was
not universally true, as in any classroom there were the perennial plodders, but by and large
I was pleased that by focusing on the interesting, by following our collective intuition in the
exploration of organization theory, we together carved out what I believe is a fair representa-
tion of the knowledge organization theory offers. While it is true that I polished the product
through many rounds of review with both students and colleagues (who are experts in the
subjects the book develops), on the whole the book was produced in dialogue with my stu-
dents, and its contents refl ect what they have been willing to take on board and use in their
efforts to become educated future managers. The book is, in a way, a description of what we
did together in the classroom.
A key element in my teaching/learning style is to allow students to explore in the direc-
tions their own curiosity takes them. The infl uence I exercise is then directed at developing
their natural curiosity into genuine interest and mature engagement with the subject matter.
Getting this process started is half the battle, and I see this book as a collection of stimula-
tions for discussions of various aspects of organizing that have proven of lasting interest to
the wide variety of students with whom I have shared the learning experience. This material
has been developed over my years of teaching undergraduates, post-graduates (MBA and