Organization Theory

Part A: Theorising the organisation
‘The pervasiveness of power is the most central aspect of organizational life…. for this reason it is important to understand the limits of power and authority, resistance and obedience’ (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2008: 294).

The world of organizations play a significant part in the society we live in today, they undertake fundamental roles & influences in our government and wealth creation & distribution. There are varying views on how organizations operate as a whole, and how the power and authority wielded by these corporations have a significant impact and influence on the world we live today. In this essay, we will attempt to present two contrasting perspectives of different theorists on how they view the use of power and authority by organizations to control and achieve obedience.

We will first explore the modernists theories and how organizations fit in our culture today, and then define postmodernists theories and how capitalism is exploiting our world today.

Much of the modernism and its approach to organization theory have been inspired by the General Systems Theory. Envisioned by Ludwig von Bertalanffy, he theorized a generalization of all science phenomena encompassing natural, social sciences & knowledge would be clarified and integrated. Modernists rationalize and develop integrated theories based on scientific principles and methods. (Hatch, Mary J., 1997) Within the context of modernist organization theory, this would mean that an organization would be an integrated system of interests, where the environment would be its super systems, and the departments its subsystems. Employees and individuals would be further embedded in the subsystem of a department, with the ripple effects of the entire whole system being scientifically entwined.
Modernism focuses on the individual as the force behind society, as well as our perception of science as constituting truth. Modernism is characterized... [continues]

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