02644 - Theory of Organisation

Learning outcomes

Course Description:

This course provides an introduction to the main theoretical approaches in the field of organization theory. Through a combination of lectures and seminars, students will explore the foundational concepts, schools of thought, and key authors that have shaped the study of organizations. Special emphasis is placed on understanding how organizations operate within broader economic, political, and institutional contexts.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand and explain the main theoretical and analytical tools for studying organizational phenomena.

• Analyze organizational structures, processes, and cultures using classical and contemporary theories.

• Apply theoretical knowledge to real-world organizational cases, evaluating the impact of contextual variables such as economic, political, and institutional factors.

Course contents

The course adopts a teaching method—based on the logic of the "flipped classroom"—which is divided into two distinct sections.

One section consists of traditional lectures (40 hours) and aims to introduce students to the acquisition of basic conceptual and theoretical tools. This first part of the course focuses on the following themes and authors: definition of the concept of organization; Taylorism and scientific management; Human Relations School; Barnard; Weber; Merton; Gouldner; Crozier; Selznick; organizational structures; organizational culture; accidents and deviance in organizations.

Another section, organized in a seminar format (10 hours), is aimed at applying and deepening the knowledge acquired. This second part of the course offers targeted learning based on seven case studies, which will be presented and discussed in class to stimulate student participation. The breakdown between lectures and seminars is specified in the following program. Students will be divided into TWO groups for the seminar section.

Students are expected to attend class—whether in-person or online—having already read the assigned materials, and in the case of seminars, they are required to actively participate, using the knowledge acquired through individual readings to engage in thematic discussions or case study analysis.

1st MODULE – THEORETICAL  2nd MODULE – SEMINAR FORMAT

Module 1 – Theoretical Foundations
Topics include:

• What is an organization?

• Scientific Management and Taylorism

• Human Relations School

• C. Barnard and cooperative systems

• The Toyota model and lean production

• Max Weber and bureaucracy

• R. Merton and unintended consequences

• Post-Weberian perspectives: Gouldner, Crozier, Selznick

• Socio-technical systems and contingency theories

• Organizational culture and symbolic approaches

Module 2 – Seminar-Based Case Studies

The readings indicated for each seminar must be completed before the session date and studied using the guiding questions and prompts provided by the instructor in advance.

Topics include:

• The McDonald's Case through the film The Founder
  (Readings: Introduction, G. Ritzer, La McDonaldizzazione della produzione, Castelvecchi, Rome, 2017)

• Digital Taylorism: The Amazon Case

• Accidents in Organizations – A Socio-Technical Approach: The Costa Concordia Case
  (Catino, 2012, Il caso Concordia: alcune riflessioni su un incidente)

• Accidents in Organizations and Organizational Culture: The NASA Case

• Accidents in Organizations and Organizational Culture: The DieselGate Case

The second written test, concluding the seminar portion, will focus exclusively on the discussion and analysis of the case studies examined during the seminars. Students will be required to articulate reflections discussed in class, referring to three of the cases studied.

Class participation will be assessed using the following criteria: the instructor will record the number and quality of oral contributions for each participating student across both groups. Participation will be graded on a scale from 0 to 2 points, which will be added to the final grade from the two written exams.

Readings/Bibliography

Main Handbook:

Bonazzi, G. (2008), Storia del pensiero organizzativo, Milano Franco Angeli.

I SEGUENTI CAPITOLI: Introduzione + Capitoli 1 (L'OSL ovvero il taylorismo), 2 (Dopo Taylor. Nascita e fortuna delle Relazioni Umane), 3 (Chester Barnard), Capitolo 7 (Nel post-fordismo: specializzazione flessibile, produzione snella e fabbrica modulare); 8 (Max Weber: la burocrazia come apparato del potere legale), 9 (Dopo Weber. Le conseguenze inattese della burocrazia nell'analisi di R. Merton), 10 (Alvin Gouldner), 11 (Philip Selznick), 12 (Michel Crozier); 17 (Le teorie delle Contingenze); 18 (Cultura, significato e risorse).

Le altre letture obbligatorie saranno rese disponibili dai docenti su Virtuale.unibo.it.

Letture aggiuntive e obbligatorie 1° modulo

1. Ferrante, M e Zan, S. (1994), Che cos'è un'organizzazione? in Il fenomeno organizzativo, Roma, Carocci. Capitolo primo.

Letture obbligatorie 2° modulo

Saranno caricate su Virtuale prima dell'inizio del corso

Office hours

See the website of Cristina Dallara