Adrianna Kezar's Organizational Theory

The article Organizational Theory by Adrianna Kezar (2011) looks at one of the most important frameworks for student affairs professional’s organizational theory, which is essential in understanding their roles within the student affairs realm. One thing that stood out to me was how Kezar (2011) didn’t just simply outline four of the major organizational theories but provided a theory to practice example. Kezar (2011) decided to use the initiative of building learning communities on campus because it is a task that many campuses today are trying to accomplish. I also found the section on the dark side of organizations to be very interesting because I feel in order to be successful with change you need to not hide the less attractive aspects of organizations. Kezar (2011) mentioned how Morgan (1997) pointed out that organizations don’t have things such as oppression as their goals but instead “these are the unintended consequences of trying to meet such objectives as increased profits or surviving in hard times” (p.238). But successful leaders on campuses across the U.S. will use skills outlined in the four frames to start a dialogue about solutions to these problems that are often swept under the rug. Something that I really connected with in tis reading was when Kezar (2011) was describing the
This practical examination of conflict resolution was very helpful for myself in processing everything I just learned in the chapter. The questions for consideration were very helpful in guiding the process but I wish the authors provided possible solutions to the conflict at hand. Although they did state that “details on resolution on this issue can be found in Roper, 2004” (roper & Matheis, 2011, p. 446) I still wish that they provided at least a quick summary of the resolutions to avoid the time it would take to locate the literature and find the specific