My summary of the Coursera 2012 Organisational Analysis Course covering 10 different theories of organisational analysis and their application

1. Coursera's
2012 Organisational
Analysis Course
www.coursera.org
Summary

2. Introduction and personal reflection
These are brief notes taken and modified from the course material provided through Coursera by
Professor McFarland on Organizational Analysis.
It was my first experience of Coursera and a "MOOC" and I found the course and its content a
stimulating and challenging experience (particularly the essays required of the advanced path). At the
start it seemed slow and at times a little clunky in delivery and polish (blame too many years of sharp,
professional, consulting presentations raising my expectations), but overall a rewarding experience.
I found that my patience and perspective as a student have changed - I'm much more likely to
challenge and question what I'm told and read now then I was as a young man. This is probably a
good thing.
I've produced these slides as an aide memoir for myself, but others may find them useful too.
If you are interested, I strongly recommend you look up the course and participate in the next round.
Doing is a much better way to learn than just observing!
There were many references to academic and other published works provided in the course, I would
be happy to provide lists of the recommended reading material if anyone is interested.
John Phillips, March 2013

3. A 10 week, Massive Online Open
Course (MOOC), through Coursera
Led By: Professor McFarland from Stanford University
Participants: Over 100,000 signed up. Global participation. Nick and John from CharterMason
When: Last quarter 2012
Course Objective
● Provide participants with an understanding of the different types of organisational analysis
theories and techniques and how the insights they provide can be used by analysts and
management.
Course Content
● Organizations and their behavior
● A wide array of cases
● A variety of organizational features to consider
● A variety of theories by which to consider how those features work together
● Given management prescriptions, or lenses, that saw the world in certain ways, as being driven
by certain facets

4. The course had two paths: basic and
advanced
1. Basic track – demonstrates basic literacy in organizational analysis (involved 2-3 hour time
commitment per week)
a. View about 2 hours of video segments each week and complete the online quiz questions
b. Participate in the forum
c. Take the final exam
2. Advanced track – demonstrates capacity for analysis and application (involved ~10-12 hour time
commitment per week)
a. Complete basic requirements above
b. Read course texts
c. Take peer evaluation training
d. Write papers (2 x 1500 word essays)
e. Evaluate peers’ papers
Both offered a certificate of completion on meeting the course requirements.

5. Studied lots of cases covering
politics, business and academia...
1. Magnet school reform (Metz)
2. Cuban Missile Crisis (Allison)
3. Chicago public school reforms (Bryk, Shipps)
4. Hurricane Katrina
5. Milwaukee parental choice plan (Quinn, Witte)
6. Lobbyists (Hula)
7. School desegregation efforts (Weiner)
8. Legislative efforts – No Child Left Behind (Kingdon)
9. Academic senates (Birnbaum)
10. Xerox machine workers (Suchman)
11. World of Warcraft (Seeley-Brown)
12. Learning community reforms (Louise and Kruse, Leithwood, Lieberman)
13. Tech (Kunda)
14. Ozco (Martin and Meyerson)

6. ... in total over 25 cases were studied
during the course
15. University of Chicago – Northwestern merger effort (Barnes)
16. Attempted Union Strike – Silicon Systems (Krackhardt)
17. Classroom and school networks (McFarland)
18. National park service (Eggers and Goldsmith)
19. Charter school networks (Smith & Wohlstetter)
20. Schools and High Schools (Metz and Meyer-Rowan)
21. Intelligent design and teaching of evolution debate (NY Times)
22. Presidential platforms (Bai)
23. Massive Open Online Courses
24. U.S. microbrewery (Carroll)
25. Wine industry (Swaminathan)
26. Charter School movement (Renzulli)

7. One key image depicted 5
organizational elements
From Leavitt’s Diamond: A Model of Organization (adapted by
Richard W. Scott)

8. We reviewed 10 organisational
analysis theories
1. Rational choice models
2. Bureaucratic models / organizational process
3. Coalition theory
4. Organizational anarchy / garbage can theory
5. Organizational learning
6. Organizational culture
7. Resource dependence theory
8. Network forms of organization
9. Neo-institutional theory
10. Organizational ecology
For each of these we have a brief summary...

9. Rational Actor
When does it apply?
● Exists when there is a unified or centralized actor with consistent preferences, lots of
information, and clear goals (and time calculate).
Summary or Basic Argument
● Unitary actor or team that confronts a problem, assesses objectives (goals), identifies options,
the consequences of said options, and then chooses option that minimizes costs.
● Variant: Bounded rationality and satisficing. Recognize imperfect info, ambiguity, and select first
satisfactory option (good enough).
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = Maximization ("satisficing") of means to ends.
Management Strategies
● Know alternatives and their consequences for the shared goal, and select wisely. Improve
information and analysis. Management by consequences.

10. Organizational Process
When does it apply?
● Exists when organization is divided into clear positions and routines and when the problem can
be modularized.
Summary or Basic Argument
● Dividing up problem, coordinating / activating organizational actors who have special capacities /
standard operating procedure’s (SOP’s) for parts of the problem, conducting sequential attention
to objectives (localized searches until problems resolved). Action guided by available routines.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = cueing of SOP’s appropriate to problem and actions are path dependent (SOP)
Management Strategies
● Know SOP’s, what problems they go with (matching), and who cues them. Improve rules and
matching with problems. Management by rules.

11. Coalitions
When does it apply?
● Exists when there are multiple actors with inconsistent preferences and identities, and none of
whom can go it alone without assistance of others.
Summary or Basic Argument
● Focus on the players occupying various positions; their parochial interests (their conceptions of
problems and solutions); their resources (expertise, money, people) and stakes in game; and
enact bargaining processes between them so as to establish agreements / coalitions.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = result of political bargaining.
Management Strategies
● Bargain with players (log-roll, horse-trade, hinder opposition’s coalition formation, etc). Learn
others’ interests / weaknesses so you know how to manipulate and win. Direct management of
relations via bargaining.

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● Exists when there are independent streams of problems, solutions and participants that collide in
choice arenas (meetings where decisions are made).
Summary or Basic Argument
● Focus on choice arenas (when choice opportunities / windows arise); the distinct and decoupled
streams of problems, solutions, and participants; access to the arena (whether structural or
timed); and the process of connecting problems-solutions and participants.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action / decision = result of streams’ collision in choice arena and deadlines
Management Strategies
● Time when your solution is raised to maximize energy (to coincide with right participants and
cycle of problems); abandon entangled initiatives; know how to overload the system for policies
you oppose; and generate choice opportunities that work to your interests (access/timing).
Indirectly manage choice arenas.

13. Organizational Learning
When does it apply?
● Exists when there are feedback loops, adaptations, memories, and support of actor-expertise /
adaptations of rules to local reality (practice / “doing” focus).
Summary or Basic Argument
● Acknowledges routines, but focuses on practices and the effort to continually adapt, remember,
and improve upon their returns to outcomes via internal communities of practice and external
outreach through networks of practice – i.e., organization demonstrates intelligence.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = results from inspection of practice and assessment of its returns to the organization, all
through local collaboration and external network searches.
Management Strategies
● Find ways to create lateral ties among workers so “knowledge” is passed / transferred more
readily / quickly (if possible, quickly), create means to organizational memory of what works.
Create applied, social learning experiences with means to retaining and transferring expertise.
Want communication, collective improvisation, practice and knowledge sharing to arise.

14. Organizational Culture
When does it apply?
● When the cognitive and normative aspects of social structure are of concern and guide
organizational outcomes (informal relations & intrinsic motives matter).
Summary or Basic Argument
● Actors seek expression and fulfillment of identity, and organizational culture is the medium for it.
Through ritual expression, members either align with or against the organization’s mission and
identity.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = result of deep structure or culture that is generated in the organization, but which is
mediated by the member’s relation to it.
Management Strategies
● Manage themes (beliefs & norms), their expression via practices (interpersonal rituals), and their
manifestation in artifacts (reports, mission statements, etc) so as to confer an ideology and lead
others to identify with it. Give room for autonomy and self-expression so distancing isn’t
necessary, and encourage members to generate a culture of their own.

15. Resource Dependency Theory
When does it apply?
● Exists when there is a firm interested in increasing autonomy and certainty in their environment.
(environmental dependence concerns)
Summary or Basic Argument
● Organizations manage their resource dependence relations with firms in the environment so as
to generate autonomy and certainty.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = Scan environment for resource opportunities and threats, attempt to strike favorable
bargains so as to minimize dependence and maximize autonomy / certainty (external
adaptations).
Management Strategies
● Buffer – protect the technical core from environmental threats (coding, stockpiling, leveling,
forecasting and adjusting scale). Bridge – create relations with other firms in the environment
(partial absorption via cooptation [interlocks, joint ventures, strategic alliances, associations];
total absorption via merger [vertical, horizontal, and diversification]).

16. Network Form of Organization
When does it apply?
● When the network of inter-organizational relations matters; when delivery of a service entails
managing networks of collaboration, contracting and outsourcing.
Summary or Basic Argument
● Organizations focus on network relations, positions, and larger context in developing strategy.
Multiple types of networks are feasible and guide exchanges.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = identify complementary strengths, form alliances, establish collaborative/reciprocal
norms, create open-ended mutual benefits where possible, and outsource secondary tasks (to
focus on core) – all for survival and creation of positive network environment that delivers
service.
Management Strategies
● Design network to deliver service (select partners carefully); establish informal, active
communication channels; coordinate member activities (group processing skills – align members
culturally, remove competition, create open information, form joint governance, and focus on
discrete functions / coordination of actual tasks); reinforce norms of collaboration and reciprocity.

17. Neo-Institutional Theory
When does it apply?
● Exists when the level of analysis is an institutional field and the focus is on conformity to cultural
scripts and/or norms in the environment. Firm structures are based on the external culture.
Summary or Basic Argument
● Organizations in a field conform to cultural norms to insure survival and to reduce ambiguity.
Legitimacy is a key “resource”, and it can come at the expense of organizational efficiency.
Professionals and the nation-state carry the modern cultural recipes and give them authority in
translations to the organizational context.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = Organizations in a field conforming to normative and regulative environments; the
process can be strategic and planned or cognitive and taken-for-granted.
Management Strategies
● Buffer through symbolic coding (systematizing and classifying) and decoupling organizational
elements (loose coupling); Bridge through institutional Isomorphism (external pressures via
rationalized myths) and acquisition of legitimacy. Use coercive, mimetic, and normative means
to become isomorphic.

18. Organizational Ecology
When does it apply?
● Exists when the level of analysis is an organizational population and the primary concern is with
inter-firm competition and environmental selection.
Summary or Basic Argument
● The environment constantly changes. Populations of organizations form niches of isomorphic
fitting organizations that establish temporary environmental equilibrium. Firms vary and
compete, and then some are environmentally selected and reproduced until the niche reaches
carrying capacity.
Dominant Pattern of Inference
● Action = Organizations in a population compete to fit an organizational niche (set of other orgs
engaged in same form of activity and relations of interdependence) and become isomorphic with
others in it. Non-fit firms are culled; new firms that are selected and retained produce change.
Management Strategies
● Adaptation is hard, so the main effort is to be competitively isomorphic in organizational niches.
Organizations succeed by establishing fit with a niche – what population you are in, what the
composition is, what change is occurring, and then whether it makes sense to adopt a generalist
or specialist orientation.

19. Each theory has a different scope
and gives a different perspective
The theories vary
● Idealised - (more) realistic
● Narrow - broad focus (decision-context)
● Adaptive - deterministic
● Internal - external
● Deep structure - surface action
So pick the one that fits best (gives a more or less complete explanation of how
and why the organisation behaves), and if possible choose more than one to
ensure that you can cover different perspectives.

20. Multiple theories can be applied in
different combination approaches
How might we apply different theories at different times/places/levels?
Narratives of combination:
● Staged (plan → implement)
● Embedded (macro [micro])
● Differentiated (culture/sense - resource/efficiency)
● Industry based
○ Finance
○ Knowledge
○ Politics
○ Bureaucracy

21. End of Slides