Walter R. Nord

The Transformation of Work

of learning by doing, of alternative structures and hybrid forms, and of the ways to promote innovativeness and change. Most of the outpouring of books on competitiveness reflects this literature, which is virtually absent here. But I sense that Best nevertheless has the upper hand. His argument is clean and clear, the illustrations are compelling, and the clutter of New Age terms and concepts is minimal. He pushed off from the distant Schumpeter and Penrose, but, strong swimmer that he is, he came a long way without much further help. The rest of us may need organizational theory more than he appears to have needed it.

Beyond the teaching machine: The neglected area of operant conditioning in the theory and practice of management

Abstract This paper maintains that the work of B. F. Skinner has not been recognized in the administrative and management literature to the extent that it deserves. The work of Skinner is highly consistent with that of many widely accepted students of management, except that Skinners work deals specifically with scheduling reinforcements, does not require acceptance of the metaphysics of many of the “humanistic” psychologists, and is based on considerable empirical evidence. The power of positive reinforcement, the unanticipated consequences of punishment, and the value of partial reinforcement are stressed. Finally, the operant view is applied to some managerial problems. It seems clear that the conditioning approach can meaningfully integrate much of the behavioral science literature and serve organizations in the areas of personnel development, job design, compensation and alternative rewards, and organizational design.

The Bloodless Coup: The Infiltration of Organization Science by Uncertainty and Values

Recently, the organization sciences have been subjected to severe disputes about fundamental premises. To a degree, these battles appear to have involved disagreements about ontology and epistemology. This article analyzes two of these conflicts, the so-called Paradigm War in Britain and a related set of controversies in North America, using an agnostic interest-oriented framework. The analysis revealed a new perspective on the debates and the current direction of the field. Among other things, this new perspective suggested that previous interpretations of the debates have overstated the role of ontological and epistemological causes and understated the role of differences in interests. Moreover, recent development can be seen as accepting high degrees of metaphysical uncertainty and recognizing that interests or values have been and continue to be major factors in shaping what constitutes knowledge in the field.

Perceived Leader Behavior as a Function of Personality Characteristics of Supervisors and Subordinates

Subordinate perceptions of supervisory initiation of structure and consideration were studied as a function of locus of control and Machiavellianism. Personality was found to be a major factor in p...

The Study of Organizations through a Resource—Exchange Paradigm

Although not without its critics (e.g., Gouldner, 1970; Weick, 1974; Zaleznik, 1967), the open-systems model has been a major integrative perspective used by many contemporary students of organizations. The systems view is meaningful for many purposes, and indeed will be incorporated into what follows; however, the approach is often an empty one. Although providing an overview of entities which operate as systems, it often fails to provide a set of concepts which focus attention on specific processes which characterize any one set of systems.

Rectangularity and Tightness: a Normal Form Characterization of Perfect Information Extensive Game Forms

We give an alternative proof of a theorem by Gurvich: A game form G is equivalent to a free extensive game form with perfect information if and only if G is rectangular and tight. It follows that any rectangular and tight game form is Nash solvable. We also present some basic properties of rectangular game forms.

Establishing and Sustaining State-of-the-Art Diabetes Patient Education Programs: Research and Recommendations

Frequently, diabetes educators in hospitals report meeting severe organizational barriers when attempting to implement advances in diabetes patient education (DPE ). This paper reports on how eight successful diabetes patient education programs coped with potential barriers. The results are based on interviews of professionals who played central roles in introducing and sustaining the programs. Many of the identified problems centered around two issues — acquiring needed resources and communicating about the program to a variety of key groups.

Core Group Theory and the emancipation agenda

Kleiner advances Core Group Theory (CGT) as a framework for pursuing an emancipative agenda in the context of a society heavily influenced by modern organizations. Analysis of Kleiners ideas through the lens of critical management studies (CMS) reveals that, despite its merits, CGT may overlook a number of social processes that may be central to an effective, emancipative theory. This analysis also demonstrates how some elements of CGT may be useful additions to CMS.

Making organizations humane and productive : a handbook for practitioners

Contributions by leading scholars and management practitioners demonstrate how to foster organizations that are both productive and humane. Part I surveys major managerial processes, distilling key concepts and research in a readily usuable form. Part II considers concerns of Women, minorities, the handicapped, aging, alcohol and other substance abuse, unions and union leadership, and other current problems, demonstrating their potential for productivity through humaneness. Part III focuses extensively on the processes involved in making the management of organizations humane and productive.

Coping with "It's All Common Sense"

Judging by our personal experiences and conversations with colleagues, at some point(s) in most every introductory course in organizational behavior, class members challenge the instructor to demonstrate that what is being taught is more than common sense. Although there are undoubtedly a number of useful ways to deal with this challenge including recognizing that there may be an uncomfortably strong positive correlation between common sense and what we teach