Organisational Theory

Organisational theory refers to the study of organisations and this includes the study on the way these organisations function, the roles they adopt and how the correlation and interaction between people and their work are put together so as to define their relations with the organisation. Thus, organisational theory allows organisations to increase their efficiency in the workforce through the reduction of unnecessary organisational problems. The two theoretical perspectives that have been chosen in order to analyse and understand organizations are: Modernist Perspective and Post- Modernist Perspective. The modernist perspective believes that the world is achieved through rational and logical means. One of the main feature of modernism is that through rationality and logical means, organisations can understand or discover the complete truth ( Bozdogan, 2001 ). Thus, by knowing the truth, these organisations can aim to achieve their organisational goals.
The ontological assumptions underpinning the modernist perspective questions whether there is an objective reality or it is just a convenient ‘truth’ . It questions whether organisations can carry out their rights and if they are responsible for their actions. Ontology has two aspects namely, the objectivist and subjectivist. The subjectivist assumes that the social world exists only if one is able to give logical and practical reasonings ( Natoli & Hutcheon , 1993 ). The reality of the subjectivist is dependent on the knowledge of the ‘world’. However, the objectivist believes otherwise. Both of these subjective and objective assumptions in the ontology will enable one to understand how organisation works along with its counterparts such as employees and technology. Epistemology allows organisations to acquire knowledge through proper testing of our logic against the reality assumed by the world. Epistemology consists of positive epistemology and interpretive epistemology. Positive epistemology